I completed one successful backup a fortnight or so ago. Now, I try again and receive the following error:

* tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
* backup_files(): Command 'tar cfz /tmp/backup-htdocs-vrbGjR index.html .htaccess CHANGELOG.txt INSTALL.mysql.txt INSTALL.pgsql.txt INSTALL.txt LICENSE.txt MAINTAINERS.txt UPGRADE.txt cron.php favicon.ico index.php install.php php.ini robots.txt update.php xmlrpc.php files images includes misc modules profiles scripts sites themes firestats backup garland_favicon.ico backup/drupal-backup-db-20070516205333-849500526.sql.gz 2>&1' returned value: 2

I've tried several times, deleting and starting over, but same result. The first backup was 3mb, this one cuts out at 1/4mb.

Any ideas, what is going wrong?

________________________

(related issue?

Also... I try to ftp the backup, across to a apache localhost on my pc and it refuses to copy. I have 755 permission on the folder and... strangely, the small 1/4mb file, would copy across.

I just mention this in case you can help!!)
________________________

thanks for assistance

Comments

dmuth’s picture

dmuth commented
Assigned: Unassigned » dmuth

Hmm, clearly gzip or tar is failing. The question is why.

Could you take a look in the admin logs from when you tried making the backups? If there is anything else that is relavent, it will be found in there. Thanks.

-- Doug

mrgoltra’s picture

mrgoltra commented

I am having the same problem. No error messages 2 days ago.

mrgoltra’s picture

mrgoltra commented

I know what is causing this. I deleted my previous backup and ran backup again. Success. Once you run backup again it fails.

jbc’s picture

jbc commented

Yes, deleting the file solves this, but would be nicer not to have to...

I think its happening because the drupal-backup-2007xxxx.tar.gz file that is created for download includes a copy of the /backup folder (in my setup) to contain the drupal-backup-db-2007xxxx.tar.gz {database} file.

I wonder if this causes some sort of circular logic if the old file is in this backup folder...??

jbc’s picture

jbc commented

yes... if no folder is specified for the backup and the root folder is utilised, the backup utility works fine, as intended.

dman’s picture

dman commented

tar is fussy, and not very clear on its errors.
Glad you found the cause.
I had the same error message when trying to tar on a fat32 disk. It chouldn't chmod/touch correctly to keep modified-dates in synch or something - so it refused to do anything at all... Meh. I got around it, but no thanks to the message

dmuth’s picture

dmuth commented

Yes, deleting the file solves this, but would be nicer not to have to...

I think its happening because the drupal-backup-2007xxxx.tar.gz file that is created for download includes a copy of the /backup folder (in my setup) to contain the drupal-backup-db-2007xxxx.tar.gz {database} file.

I wonder if this causes some sort of circular logic if the old file is in this backup folder...??

That's really weird. I have not seen any behavior like that on my testing system.

When I create the backup, it should exclude existing backups, but because there are so many different versions of tar out there, I had to do some convoluted things in the logic. I would not be surprised if there was either 1) a bug in my code, or 2) it behaved oddly on some systems.

Sorry I couldn't do more to help you... I'll review this bug periodically in case any new info comes up.

-- Doug

dmuth’s picture

dmuth commented

jbc,

What can you tell me about the system you have the module running on? Is it a Windows, UNIX, BSD, or Linux system? Is it your own machine, or purchased hosting form a company? I just came up with an idea of what may be happening, and I think it may relate to the fact that this problem only seems to be happening when backups are being done in a certain folder.

Thanks!

-- Doug

jbc’s picture

jbc commented

hi, doug

its a unix system, running on a shared hosting service

interested to see what you come up with.

why_pengo’s picture

why_pengo commented

See post #7 here http://drupal.org/node/135434
mite be related

-jon

ulrich’s picture

ulrich commented

When running a new backup any old backup file gets assigned the permission 000 on my server. Could tar generate an error when it tries the acces on old backup file without a read permission.

My 2 cents
Ulrich

mrgoltra’s picture

mrgoltra commented

follow up to #3

now not a single successful backup even with deleting previous backup.

i am getting this error

backup_files(): backup_get_files(): backup_get_files(): Unable to open directory: ''

Directory chmod is 777

-mark

dmuth’s picture

dmuth commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Hi folks,

As mentioned in a similar bug, it would appear that the issue had to do with "2>&1" being in the tar command. I have made that option in the latest version of backup, with the default being disabled.

More information on the latest release of backup can be found at http://drupal.org/node/151077

-- Doug