Error messages and debugging options were significantly improved in Box Backup 0.11. If you are running 0.10, and having problems with your backups, please try building and running the new version (you do not have to install it or replace your old version) to help you to debug the problem.

This option was newly added in Box Backup 0.11 to help with debugging failures to access or back up files. It lives in the bbackupd.conf configuration file (usually in /etc/box/bbackupd.conf). To enable it, add the following to that file:

LogAllFileAccess = yes

Once this option is enabled, bbackupd will generate a log message for every single file and directory in each location (except for files inside excluded directories). The log message describes the reason why a decision was made to back up each file, or not.

Some log messages are written at the DEBUG verbosity level, which is not displayed or logged by default. To enable these additional messages, run bbackupd with the -V (maximum verbosity) option.

Log messages are written to your system logger, and if you run bbackupd with the -D option (or from the Windows console cmd.exe), to the console as well. Your system logger may not be configured to log messages at DEBUG level by default. You may need to reconfigure it to log these messages. For example, with syslogd, add the following line to /etc/syslogd.conf:

local6.* /var/log/box.log

and then restart syslogd and check /var/log/box.log to ensure that lines starting with DEBUG: are being logged there.

If viewing the logs on the console with -D, you can add the -T option to add timestamps to each log message.

The following log messages will be written as the backup proceeds:

• Scanning directory:

  when each directory is opened, looking for files to back up inside that directory, and subdirectories to descend into. If you don't see this message for a particular, no files inside the directory are being backed up at all.

• Failed to access directory:

  when file permissions or a filesystem, disk or network error prevented Box Backup from getting the attributes of the directory via a stat() system call.

• Failed to access file: when file permissions or a filesystem, disk or network error prevented Box Backup from getting information about a file.

• Failed to list directory:

  when file permissions or a filesystem, disk or network error prevented Box Backup from listing files in the directory.

• Ignored directory:

  is an NTFS junction/reparse point; create a new location if you want to back it up indicates that Box Backup refused to descend into a mounted filesystem.

• Ignored directory:

  is a mount point; create a new location if you want to back it up indicates that Box Backup refused to descend into a mounted filesystem.

• Skipping excluded file: indicates that the specified file matched an ExcludeFile or ExcludeFilesRegex directive in the configuration.

• Skipping excluded directory:

  indicates that the specified directory matched an ExcludeDir or ExcludeDirsRegex directive in the configuration. No files inside that directory will be considered for backup. That means that you cannot Exclude a directory and AlwaysInclude a file or directory inside it. Instead, you must Exclude all files inside the directory except the one(s) that you want to back up or descend into.

• Ignoring file of unknown type: indicates that Box Backup did not back up the file because it is not a regular file or directory or symbolic link. Box Backup does not back up Unix sockets, named pipes, block or character devices or other special files.

• Error reading file: indicates that the operating system reported an error while reading the file, which probably indicates a file system, disk or network error. You may wish to check that you can read the file yourself, and run filesystem checks and bad blocks checks on the underlying disk.

• Some files have modification times excessively in the future. Check clock synchronisation. Example file (only one shown): indicates that Box Backup found a file with a modification time in the future, which prevents it from properly tracking changes to the file. The file will be backed up automatically, but the efficiency of the client-server network protocol will be reduced as the file will be backed up every time.

• Skipped file: server is full: indicates that you have exceeded your disk quota on the Box Backup store server, and no more files can be backed up. Please contact your server administrator.

• Failed to upload file: : Access denied indicates that the operating system denied access to the file data of the specified file. Check the operating system permissions on the file, and the user that Box Backup runs as (e.g. Local System on Windows when running as a service).

• Failed to upload file: : caught exception indicates that an internal error or network problem prevented Box Backup from fully uploading the file.

• Failed to upload file: : server error indicates that the server refused to accept the uploaded file. This may indicate a problem with the server. Please contact the server operator. The error messages CannotLockStoreForWriting and SessionReadOnly may indicate that another Box Backup process is trying to use the same account on the store, and is currently logged in. BadLogin may mean that your account has been disabled or has expired.

• Uploading complete file: indicates that the file either does not exist on the server, is too small to bother uploading a patch, has changed too much to bother uploading a patch, or took too long to create a patch (so that the MaximumDiffingTime expired). The entire file data will be uploaded again. If the file is large, this may take a very long time, such as hours or days.

• Uploading patch to file: indicates that a patch was successfully generated and only the changes to the file will be uploaded.

• Uploaded file: indicates that the file upload (complete or patch) finished successfully.

• Synchronised file: indicates that either the file had not changed since the last backup, or was successfully updated. The server now has a copy of the latest version of the file.

In addition, the following messages are logged at DEBUG level and will be logged and displayed whenever you run bbackupd with the -V option. These messages show the reasons why the file was or was not chosen to be backed up by bbackupd:

• : will upload (not on server) indicates that the file exists locally but not on the server, for example it was created since the last backup run, and will be backed up for the first time.

• : will upload (modified since last sync) indicates that the file has been modified since it was last backed up, and will be backed up again.

• : will upload (continually modified) indicates that the file never reached the MinimumFileAge as it was continually being modified, and now reached the MaxUploadWait age, so it will be uploaded even though it is being continually modified (and therefore the backup might be corrupt).

• : will upload (mod time changed) indicates that the file was previously backed up, and its modification date has changed, even though it does not appear to have been modified since the last backup run, and it will be backed up again.

• : will upload (mod time in the future) indicates that the file's modification time is in the future, and therefore it will be backed up as a precaution, but ignoring the MinimumFileAge and MaxUploadWait. The file may still be in use and the uploaded copy may be corrupt.

• : will not upload (no reason to upload, mod time is versus sync period to indicates that the file's modification time is not within the backup window, for example it was last modified before the previous backup run (and should have been backed up already) or appears to have been modified in the future or within the last MinimumFileAge seconds, and it will not be backed up this time.