[rdiff-backup-users] rdiff-backup-regress script query - need to be 'nobody' or 'root'

[Ron Leach]

List, good morning,

Having messed up the latest backup increment of our quite-large 
filesystem and, having long been a very happy user of Dominic's 
rdiff-backup-regress script, I thought I'd better regress the 
messed-up increment.

On running the regress script as user 'ron', the script advised that I 
needed to be user 'nobody' or 'root'.  But, after su-ing to root, the 
script warned me:

address@hidden:/home/ron# ./rdiff-backup-regress.sh -n 1 
/mnt/backserver/Backups

rdiff-backup-regress.sh v1.0 [25 Aug 2016] by Dominic (-h for help)
=======================

You are user 'root', not 'nobody', which may result in changed 
ownership of some files.
Are you sure you wish to continue (y/-)? n
Exiting, no changes made
address@hidden:/home/ron#

I've not had this warning before.  Many of the files in this backup 
are used by MS Windows clients, and managed by samba; I think this may 
be where the 'nobody' user is coming from.  The files are also served 
over NFS to linux clients, perhaps they are marked as 'nobody'.

I think I ought not mess up the file ownerships, so I wanted to take 
heed of the script's warning.  I don't know how to become user 
'nobody' - I don't think there is a 'nobody' password.

Before I dig a deeper hole, has someone else bumped into this when 
using rdiff-backup-regress script and (if so) what did they find was 
the best way forward?  I probably do need to regress this increment, 
really.

Grateful for any comment,

regards, Ron