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Retropds.log files in root of drive, why?


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The root of my APFS drive has a lot of "retropds.log.N.log.M.gz" files, each either 0 or 41 bytes in length. When uncompressed it's a 0 byte file. I have about 60 of these plus 6 "retroclient.log.N.gz" files. Owner is root, btw.

(Where "N" is a single digit number, as is "M".)

I'm guessing these are lock semaphores, but does anyone know? Disturbs my sense of esthetics and propriety to have these land in the root of the drive. 

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I too have a bunch of these files on my MacBook Pro "client", and they're all dated Wednesday 3 July 2019 shortly after noon.  My Mac Pro "backup server" Activities log shows that about a half-hour before that I had done a Rebuild of my Media Set Blue, which I would start using the following Saturday—but whose portable HDD I had already brought home from my bank safe-deposit box (when I deposited the portable HDD for Media Set Red there after cabling the portable HDD for Media Set White) the preceding Friday.

I can't remember the reason I did the Rebuild, but when I previously ran the initial Recycle backup to Media Set Blue on Saturday 8 June I had gotten a -559 (network connection timeout) error after about an hour of backing up my MBP.  Because before that I had gotten a series of -519 errors on "Sat. Backup" Recycle script runs on preceding Saturdays, I think I took advantage of the 4 July holiday the next day to swap in my replacement Ethernet switches.  Of course I had immediately run a No Media Action backup of my MBP on 8 June, and then run 6 daily No Media Action backups of my MBP to Media Set Blue, but I think I was still stupidly worried that there was something wrong with the Media Set Blue HDD or its cable that had caused the -559 error. 

I think that's the reason I ran the Rebuild script in the late morning of 3 July.  And I probably started my MBP's Client after that just to check connectivity to the "backup server", which I guess in some way generated the log files.  The Client was Retrospect 16.1.0, running under macOS 10.12 High Sierra.

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I have a set of log files, 10 to be precise, on the same date and time about once a month, going back five months, and with the most recent ones begin dated September 3rd this year. Interesting numbering, so I'm including the whole list below. They're in date order, with the oldest first, most recent at the bottom. Since the numbers are highest for the oldest, I think they're renumbered every time a new set is created.

Not that this whole thing really bothers me, but it's making me curious.

retroclient.log.4.gz
retropds.log.0.log.4.gz
retropds.log.1.log.4.gz
retropds.log.2.log.4.gz
retropds.log.3.log.4.gz
retropds.log.4.log.4.gz
retropds.log.5.log.4.gz
retropds.log.6.log.4.gz
retropds.log.7.log.4.gz
retropds.log.8.log.4.gz
retropds.log.9.log.4.gz
retroclient.log.3.gz
retropds.log.0.log.3.gz
retropds.log.1.log.3.gz
retropds.log.2.log.3.gz
retropds.log.3.log.3.gz
retropds.log.4.log.3.gz
retropds.log.5.log.3.gz
retropds.log.6.log.3.gz
retropds.log.7.log.3.gz
retropds.log.8.log.3.gz
retropds.log.9.log.3.gz
retroclient.log.2.gz
retropds.log.0.log.2.gz
retropds.log.1.log.2.gz
retropds.log.2.log.2.gz
retropds.log.3.log.2.gz
retropds.log.4.log.2.gz
retropds.log.5.log.2.gz
retropds.log.6.log.2.gz
retropds.log.7.log.2.gz
retropds.log.8.log.2.gz
retropds.log.9.log.2.gz
retroclient.log.1.gz
retropds.log.0.log.1.gz
retropds.log.1.log.1.gz
retropds.log.2.log.1.gz
retropds.log.3.log.1.gz
retropds.log.4.log.1.gz
retropds.log.5.log.1.gz
retropds.log.6.log.1.gz
retropds.log.7.log.1.gz
retropds.log.8.log.1.gz
retropds.log.9.log.1.gz
retroclient.log.0.gz
retropds.log.0.log.0.gz
retropds.log.1.log.0.gz
retropds.log.2.log.0.gz
retropds.log.3.log.0.gz
retropds.log.4.log.0.gz
retropds.log.5.log.0.gz
retropds.log.6.log.0.gz
retropds.log.7.log.0.gz
retropds.log.8.log.0.gz
retropds.log.9.log.0.gz
retroclient.log
retropds.log.0.log
retropds.log.1.log
retropds.log.2.log
retropds.log.3.log
retropds.log.4.log
retropds.log.5.log
retropds.log.6.log
retropds.log.7.log
retropds.log.8.log
retropds.log.9.log

 

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Sample contents?

I've got similar -- probably an older client giving a slightly different naming scheme -- looking like tight clusters around a single event per file, and every line refers to problems with "...ExcludeList...". Same backup set all through, no rebuilds.

Nothing recent so I can't check logs properly -- but I have a "Private Backup Server" address in the client Preferences "Advanced" tab, and the logs feel like they correspond to server restarts or network downtimes. Maybe an error from a "phone home" function?

I'd guess that going to the client Preferences "Advanced" tab and setting logging to "Off" would quiet things down, if they're annoying you.

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