Can't back up to Samba volume because of / in filename

[gisborne]

Retrospect 6.1.126 on MacBook, trying to back up to Samba volume.

 

Backup dies on a file with slashes in its name. Why on earth doesn't the software remove or convert these characters, at least as an option? Can't be hard to do.

 

Anyway, is there a simple way to get this working?

 

(Also, these forums promised elsewhere an Intel-native 6.1, but that ain't what I downloaded).

[CallMeDave]

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Backup dies on a file with slashes in its name

 

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What it it exactly that you are doing? While "die" is not a technical term, it is often used to suggest a program crashing or quitting. If Retrospect is giving you an error, what is the exact error?

 

Retrospect has no problem writing a file with a slash in its name to a File Backup Set stored on a CIFS share.

 

Retrospect can't _Duplicate_ such a file to a CIFS Destination volume, but the Finder can't copy such a file either. That's because Retrospect's Duplicate function uses the same Apple APIs as the Finder does.

 

> these forums promised elsewhere an Intel-native 6.1, but that ain't what I downloaded

 

Where?

 

No one from EMCInsignia has suggested that Retrospect 6.1 is a Universal Binary.

 

On the Internet, no one knows that I'm a dog!

 

Jennifer

(hat tip to first reader to identify the reference...)

[waltr]

hi dave,

 

all your advice here is good. i'd add that this comment:

 

Quote:

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these forums promised elsewhere an Intel-native 6.1

 

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is useless without a link.

 

dave, your reference is from Snoopy, except i don't get 'Jennifer'.

 

"Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement"

[rhwalker]

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On the Internet, no one knows that I'm a dog!

 

(hat tip to first reader to identify the reference...)

 

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I believe it's from a Peter Steiner cartoon in New Yorker magazine circa 1993, which shows a dog sitting at a computer talking to another dog with the caption "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

 

Walt, you are too young.

 

Russ

[CallMeDave]

But what about Jennifer?

 

 

 

 

David

[rhwalker]

New Yorker cartoon

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But what about Jennifer?

 

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Jennifer Desai is the estranged wife of Ravi Desai, the "dog" who fooled Slate (by spoofed emails) into thinking he was the head of BMW America, and got them to publish "his" diary.

 

Don't see what this has to do with backing up a Samba volume, unless you aren't really Dave.

 

Russ

[waltr]

hi russ,

 

Quote:

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Walt, you are too young.

 

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DOAH!

[CallMeDave]

Bzzzzzz. Sorry.

 

Hint:

 

Jennifer was associated with a company that was associated with devices used with Retrospect.

 

Think after Jasmine but before LaCie.

[gisborne]

The error I get in the log when it tries to backup is, after a whole bunch of successful activity:

 

Can't write file “tax 5/23/00 copy”, error -37 (invalid name), path: “<redacted>/Documents/tax 5/23/00 copy”.

Trouble writing folder desktop 1/30/05, error -37 (invalid name)

 

The link that led me to believe there is a Universal version of Retrospect is:

 

<http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=70613&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1>

 

Apologies for not including these previously, and thanks for the help.

[gisborne]

I guess I should add that I'm only guessing it's the / in the filename. But it seems the likely candidate.

[CallMeDave]

As I asked in my original reply to your post, what _exactly_ are you doing?

 

"trying to back up to Samba volume" Is not descriptive enough. Retrospect does not backup to volumes, Retrospect backups to Backup Sets. These Backup Sets are made up of Media Members and Catalogs.

 

Without using the correct terms, it's impossible for readers to know what's going wrong for you.

 

> Can't write file “tax 5/23/00 copy”, error -37 (invalid name), path: “<redacted>/

 

There might have been a clue in the portion of the path you redacted, but in the absense of additional information I'll have to stick by my original _guess_ that you are performing a Duplicate.

 

Try and copy “tax 5/23/00 copy” in the Finder to the same location as you're asking Retrospect to copy it, and see if you don't get a similar error from the operating system.

 

Dave

[gisborne]

CallMeDave: you are correct that I can't copy the file in the Finder. And that I am performing a Duplicate.

 

It still seems to me that Retrospect ought to offer options to skip files that won't copy, or to replace invalid characters, or both.

[CallMeDave]

Retrospect uses the same Apple provided application programming interfaces (APIs) that the Finder uses to Duplicate files. So unless Apple makes it possible, Retrospect won't be able to do it, either.

 

Unless you'd rather that Retrospect used non-Apple-supported/documented APIs to perform its tasks? I certainly would not...

 

Dave

[gisborne]

Hmmm.

 

Forgive me, but that doesn't seem right. This is a mature product, with a fairly well-defined problem space.

 

I can't imagine that wanting to do a file-by-file backup from a Mac to a SAMBA/Windows share could even be called "unusual".

 

So it seems to me that one or both of two obvious solutions ought to at least be *offered*:

 

1. Skip files that can't be copied, but copy all the ones that can; or

2. Map characters that are problematic in writing to a samba share to reasonable alternatives. In this case, map / to -

 

If you wanted to get fancy on me, which wouldn't be unreasonable in a product with a narrow problem space that had been around for -- what? fifteen years? -- you could let me define my own character mappings for a particular backup target.

 

I just want a working backup to a SAMBA server. As I say, that doesn't even seem unusual.

[CallMeDave]

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I just want a working backup to a SAMBA server. As I say, that doesn't even seem unusual.

 

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Not at all. Happily, Retrospect has no problem at all writing to a Backup Set stored on a CIFS volume.

 

Now, Retrospect does have a problem writing files directly to such a volume. But the problem that Retrospect has is the same problem that the underlying operating system has. In fact, the former is caused by the latter.

 

Solutions to this would require that either Apple modify/fix the APIs that it provides to developers, or for Retrospect to make drastic changes to the way it currently does Duplicates.

 

If you're willing to skip files with problem characters, you could easily write a Selector that would acomplish this.

[gisborne]

Thanks for that.

 

Whatever this "Selector" business is, I can't find it. In my backup script, I can choose from a fixed range of selectors in a popup menu. But I can't find a way to create a selector.

 

Also, still wondering about the Intel native version referred to at:

 

<http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=70613&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1>

[waltr]

hi gis,

 

when i look at your url, it does not state that there is a native intel version. can you quote the part you are reading this from? i read that the current version is supported on the Intel Mac--to me that means 'Rosetta'.

 

here is a link to the Macintosh 6.1 manual. Selectors are described starting on page 177, in the section entitled, "Using Selectors":

http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=1116&p=2

[gisborne]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, the documentation appears to describe a different product to the one I have. The instructions you refer to begin:

 

To display the selectors window, click the Special

tab in the Retrospect Directory, then click

Selectors. The selectors window lists all of the

predefined and user-defined selectors.

 

Sadly, I don't *have* a special tab in the Retrospect Directory. I have four tabs: Immediate, Automate, Tools and Configure. And none of these have a Selectors option.

 

I am using Retrospect Express 6.1.126, which I got by upgrading from what I had, using the Retrospect 6.1.126 installer.

 

The website doesn't appear to mention a different, "Express" version at all, and there is no separate "Express" installer. Do I not, in fact, have the same product, despite using the regular installer?

[waltr]

hi gisborne,

 

yes, this is correct. there are no editable selectors in the Express version. EMC does not sell the Express version (although they do host Express updates) but rather it is usually bundled with hardware of some type.

 

if you bought the full version, you should call EMC customer service and sort out why you have the Express version. the reader here can only guess.

[CallMeDave]

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>Retrospect 6.1.126 on MacBook, trying to back up to Samba volume.

 

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>I am using Retrospect Express 6.1.126

 

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Different products. Express is a more limited version of Retrospect, usually included as a bonus with hardware devices. It does not have the ability to create custom Selectors.

 

The downloadable updaters do not bump-up the level of your product license, they only update the version of the software that you have.

 

Dave

[gisborne]

So Retrospect Express just can't do a backup to a SAMBA volume, if you have files with / in their names. This seems an unfortunate omission.

 

Thanks for your help.

[CallMeDave]

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So Retrospect Express just can't do a backup to a SAMBA volume, if you have files with / in their names. This seems an unfortunate omission.

 

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Duplicates are not backups. Retrospect Express can't Duplicate files with a / in their (Finder) names to a CIFS volume. And neither can the Finder. And neither can ditto. and neither can cp.

 

I don't know about the other OS X file copying utilities out there (SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner, etc); perhaps one of them can accomplish the task you're looking for.

[rhwalker]

Seems to me that there were some AppleScripts or programs floating aroung back when migration was first done from OS 9 to OS X that would massage a filesystem and change problematic characters in the file names. You might want to investigate that alternative (massage the file names on the source).

 

Russ

[zsoul]

I'm getting the same error.

 

this is an example, there are about 300 more like this:

Can't read file "Append A PubStat 9?98", error -37 (invalid name), path "C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\word files\policy\publications\Append A PubStat 9?98".

 

the file in question here is actually called Append A PubStat 9/98

 

I'm trying to backup a XP Professional machine using Retrospect 6.1 Server on an XServe. All files with / in the filename are being skipped. I'm guessing that this is because of the OS X API issue that Dave talked about earlier in this thread, and that I will have to go back to using our crotchety Windows server to backup Windows clients.

 

If there's some other way around this, I'd love to know.

[rhwalker]

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If there's some other way around this, I'd love to know.

 

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Rename the files.