[NTLUG:Discuss] Elementary problem

[Christopher Cox]

On 10/11/2012 11:17 AM, Preston Hagar wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Fred <fredstevens at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> I am trying to make a copy of my $HOME/.kde4 directory and have not
>> had any success so far. I get down into the mail directories and run
>> into one called "ham radio" and files like this one:
>>
>> "1161895726.20940.eWnrp:2,S" (Without the quotes, of course)
>>
>> Obviously cp -R and rsync both puke when they hit something like
>> that.
>>
>> So, how do I clone the .kde4 directory with all of its weirdness?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Fred
>
>
> What is the rsync command you are using?  I use rsync all the time to
> backup mail servers that are full of files like that:
>
> example: 1349971653.V821I39e9ccM969658.email:2,ST
>
> generally I am just doing a rsync -a (or rsync -av if I am
> watching/logging it) on the directory.  So in your case it would be
> something like
>
> rsync -av ~/.kde4 /mnt/backupdrive/
>
> where /mnt/backupdrive/ is the path to where you want to put the copy.
>   Try that out and post back any error messages.

If there is mandatory lock on the file, then things aren't going to go well.

You may have to quiesce a process locking the file in order to back it up... or 
write a filter to skip over the file.