Re: [ALUG] Why do these pipes report as empty files to 'file'?

Chris G wrote:

Using NFS it sets up what would *seem* to be some pipes in /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs, however some of these seem to have rather odd characteristics and they confuse rdiff-backup Those files are not normal disk directories/files/pipes; they are provided by a separate filesystem which is used by nfs internally. So, don't backup/restore that directory.

A quick way to check for that is to use "df" on the file: root@yoda:/# df /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs/nfs/clnt27/info Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on rpc_pipefs 0 0 0 - /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs You might use rdiff-backup's "--exclude-other-filesystems" to avoid surprises like this. -- Martijn