source-relative vs base-dir, vs relative vs literal.

[erenfro]

So, I have a configuration I've been trying out, instead of backing up full system files, since I'm using BtrFS, might just filter that down to just simple btrfs subvolumes and backup subvolid=5, instead. To do this I mount /.btrfs as the subvolid=5 and use a configuration much like this:

version = "1"

[global]
  # ionice is available on Linux only
  ionice = false
  ionice-class = 2
  ionice-level = 6
  # priority is using priority class on windows, and "nice" on unixes
  priority = "low"
  # run 'snapshots' when no command is specified when invoking resticprofile
  default-command = "snapshots"
  # initialize a repository if none exist at location
  initialize = false
  # resticprofile won't start a profile if there's less than 100MB of RAM available
  min-memory = 100

# a group is a profile that will call all profiles one by one
[groups]
  # when starting a backup on profile "full-backup",
  # it will run the "system" backup profile
  full-backup = [ "system" ]

# Default profile when not specified on the command line (-n or --name)
# There's no default inheritance from the 'default' profile,
# you can use the 'inherit' flag if needed
[default]
  # you can use a relative path, it will be relative to the configuration file
  repository = "rest:http://[email protected]:8765/midgaard-system/"
  #insecure-tls = true
  password-file = "key"
  initialize = false
  # will run these scripts before and after each command (including 'backup')
  #run-before = "mount /backup"
  #run-after = "umount /backup"
  # if a restic command fails, the run-after won't be running
  # add this parameter to run the script in case of a failure
  #run-after-fail = "umount /backup"

  # add environment variables
  [default.env]
    TMPDIR = "/tmp"

# New profile named 'home'
[system]
  base-dir = "/etc/resticprofile"
  inherit = "default"
  initialize = false
  # LOCAL lockfile so you cannot run the same profile more than once at a time
  # (it's totally independent of the restic locks on the repository)
  #lock = "/tmp/resticprofile-home.lock"

  # 'backup' command of profile 'home'
  [system.backup]
    #base-dir = ""
    # files with no path are relative to the configuration file
    exclude-file = [
        "root-excludes",
        "excludes"
    ]
    #files-from = [ "root-includes" ]
    exclude-if-present = [ ".nobackup" ]
    exclude-caches = true
    one-file-system = false
    tag = [ "system" ]
    source-base = "/.btrfs"
    source-relative = true
    source = [ 
        "."
    ]
    # ignore restic warnings when files cannot be read
    no-error-on-warning = true
    # run every day at midnight
    schedule = "04:00"
    schedule-permission = "system"
    schedule-lock-wait = "2h"
    # System Scripts
    run-before = [
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/os before",
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/mount-btrfs before"
    ]
    # Copy to Borgbase:
    run-after = [
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/os after" ]
    #  "resticprofile system.copy"
    #]
    # On Failure:
    run-fail = [
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/mount-btrfs fail",
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/os fail"
    ]
    # Clean up:
    run-finally = [
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/mount-btrfs final",
      "/etc/resticprofile/scripts/os final"
    ]

    lock = "/tmp/resticprofile-system.backup.lock"
  # retention policy for profile home
  # retention is a special section that run the "forget" command
  # before or after a backup
  [system.retention]
    before-backup = false
    after-backup = true
    keep-hourly = 2
    keep-daily = 14
    keep-weekly = 26
    keep-monthly = 12
    keep-within = "3h"
    keep-tag = [ "forever" ]
    prune = false
    # tag can be a boolean ('true' meaning to copy tag set from 'backup')
    # or a custom set of tags.
    # Default is 'false', meaning that tags are NOT used.
    tag = true
    # host can be a boolean ('true' meaning current hostname)
    # or a string to specify a different hostname
    host = true

  [system.prune]
    schedule = "Sun 05:00"
    schedule-permission = "system"
    schedule-lock-wait = "2h"

  [system.copy]
    after-backup = true
    initialize = true
    initialize-copy-chunker-params = true
    repository = "rest:https://[email protected]"
    password-file = "key"
    lock = "/tmp/resticprofile-system.copy.lock"

[borgbase]
  #inherit = "home"
  inherit = "default"
  initialize = false
  repository = "rest:https://[email protected]"

However, the problem is, the password-file in both default and borgbase.copy along with the system.backup exclude.file entries, are coming up file-not found, unless I expressly tell it the full path to /etc/resticprofile/ directly. This only seems to happen when I set source-base and source-relative as I do, in this newer method of doing so, and I'm trying to figure out the method to do this "correctly" or determine if this is a bug.

Thanks,
Eric

[creativeprojects]

Hi,

In theory:

• source-base and source-relative only impacts the backup source files
• base-dir impacts all the other files referenced in the configuration

Now I was trying to make sure it works in your case, but I think you might be right: restic cannot find the exclude files after chdir to the /.btrfs directory. Either I'm missing something or it's a bug 🤔

[erenfro]

Heh heh.> I thought so, cause this took me by surprised when backups started failing. And I started doing this method because I was starting to use things like rsnapshot to take a base snapshot of the system, and also, btrfs snapshots to to get the actual active filesystem, in it's pure state, which makes more sense from a backup perspective to take a backup from. And then, I hit this problem both times.