rdiff-backup - backup folder smaller than the original / error when restoring files

Question

I'm testing rdiff-backup and I thought maybe someone could help me out. 1: Why is my backup smaller than the original folder? In my remote server I have 36G and in my backup server it's only 29G.

2: I was trying to restore some files but I got this error:

Exception '[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/brt/backups2/rdiff-backup.tmp.0'' raised of class '<type 'exceptions.OSError'>':
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 304, in error_check_Main
    try: Main(arglist)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 324, in Main
    take_action(rps)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 290, in take_action
    elif action == "restore-as-of": Restore(rps[0], rps[1], 1)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 554, in Restore
    dest_rp.conn.fs_abilities.restore_set_globals(dest_rp)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 450, in __call__
    return apply(self.connection.reval, (self.name,) + args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 370, in reval
    if isinstance(result, Exception): raise result

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/rdiff-backup", line 30, in <module>
    rdiff_backup.Main.error_check_Main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 304, in error_check_Main
    try: Main(arglist)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 324, in Main
    take_action(rps)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 290, in take_action
    elif action == "restore-as-of": Restore(rps[0], rps[1], 1)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 554, in Restore
    dest_rp.conn.fs_abilities.restore_set_globals(dest_rp)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 450, in __call__
    return apply(self.connection.reval, (self.name,) + args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 370, in reval
    if isinstance(result, Exception): raise result
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/brt/backups2/rdiff-backup.tmp.0'
Fatal Error: Lost connection to the remote system

What happened and how can I fix it?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Looks like permissions: OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/brt/backups2/rdiff-backup.tmp.0'

States that it was denied to this file/directory, thus resulting in lost connection.

Please check also if there is enough of free space