Please help -> tar warning: file changed as we read it

[nihxy]

I just can't get the backup to go through without errors.
The following error always appears and tar exits with exit code 1:
tar: /home/pi: file changed as we read it
I have tried stopping all possible services, but the problem persists. I also don't see what file it is exactly that is causing the problem.
I would be very unhappy to use the TAR_IGNORE_ERRORS="1" option :/

The following services are still running during the backup:

avahi-daemon.service bluetooth.service colord.service containerd.service dbus.service dhcpcd.service [email protected] hciuart.service ModemManager.service polkit.service [email protected] rng-tools-debian.service rsyslog.service rtkit-daemon.service smartmontools.service ssh.service systemd-journald.service systemd-logind.service systemd-timesyncd.service systemd-udevd.service triggerhappy.service [email protected] wpa_supplicant.service

[framps]

Looks like some file was deleted, added or updated in /home/pi.

You can turn on the verbose flag. This will create a huge list of all files processed. I hope you will get the message and will be able to see which file was just saved and creates the issue.

Option --systemStatus which lists open files before and after the backup in the debug log may help. Maybe you will be able to identify the file.

[framps]

Please execute following command in one window to watch for any file changes in /home/pi:

inotifywait -m -e delete -e create -e move -e modify -e attrib /home/pi

Then start raspiBackup in another window.

Crossing fingers 🤞 you then get some information which file(s) changed during the update 😉

[nihxy]

Okay, running tar directly worked without any issue...
So I guess raspiBackup is modifying a file? 🧐

I will run your suggested command tomorrow and report back :)

[framps]

Okay, running tar directly worked without any issue... So I guess raspiBackup is modifying a file?

There are a lot of users of raspiBackup out there who use tar. You're the first who faces this kind of issue. Maybe the tar backup succeeded because raspibackup is not started via cron?

I will run your suggested command tomorrow and report back :)

Great. This will help to find the root cause. You may have to add option -r in the command to check for updates in subdirectories if you don't get any updates.

[nihxy]

Really strange.
This time the backup went through and the inotifywait tool also did not report any files (except for the .zshhistory file).
Maybe it's this file which causes the error (although I'm pretty sure I did not fire any commands after the backup started resulting in the file being modified). I will exclude it nevertheless.

But thanks again for your quick help :)

[framps]

inotifywait detects all updates in the directory and with option -r also in all subdirectories.

Hope you now will be able to identify the file(s) which cause the tar issue. Actually I had already raspiBackup users with the same issue. Fortunately all of the sudden I remembered inotifywait as a tool which will help here. I will update my website with this tip.