[ale] Backup software incompatible versions

[DJ-Pfulio]

Happy day.

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release:        20.04
Codename:       focal

$ rdiff-backup -V
rdiff-backup 1.2.8

Only a slight hiccup related to the -fPIC flag for librsync1.
I pulled the code from the launchpad 18.04 links for rdiff-backup and
librsync.  
Installed the python-dev package.  
Ran ./configure, then manually tweaked the Makefile to add the -fPIC
flag 
next to all the -Wxxx options.  Can't recall if I passed the 
--prefix=/usr/local here or not. That's where everything was installed.
$ ./configure
     # edit the Makefile as stated above.
$ make all check   # 8 tests passed
$ sudo make install

Modified the /etc/ld.so.conf to point at /usr/local/lib too.

Moved onto the rdiff-backup code.  The README file had the python
instructions.  Needed the for 
$ python setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local

Running a fresh backup of the 20.04 desktop now. Since it is the first
backup, everything has to be mirrored, like an rsync.

INFO: Backup Start: Tue 19 May 2020 02:59:52 PM EDT
INFO: Backup End: Tue 19 May 2020 03:12:21 PM EDT

Happy day!

 On Tue, 19 May 2020 14:44:21 -0400
DJ-Pfulio via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> it seems like a failure from the rdiff-backup team to consider
> non-trivial situations. A dependent librsync1 seems to be missing to
> support the older python2-based version on newer releases, so the
> quick solution to just move the older rdiff-backup code to the new
> release isn't working.
> 
> Haven't looked into getting the librsync code and compiling myself.
> Hope it doesn't have many dependencies, though libssh would be
> expected.  
> Just built librsync-0.9.7. No issues.  Moving on to the next step.
> 
> At least my fresh 20.04 install has python2.7 pre-installed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 19 May 2020 09:38:33 -0400
> Derek Atkins via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
> 
> > Solomon Peachy <pizza at shaftnet.org> writes:
> >   
> > > On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 11:28:57AM -0400, Derek Atkins via Ale
> > > wrote:    
> > >> maintaining both versions!   F32 still has 1.2.8 so I can't (yet)
> > >> file a bug, but apparently CentOS/RHEL/EPEL has already been
> > >> updated!    
> > >
> > > Eh?  F32 shipped with 2.0.0, and just saw 2.0.3 come through
> > > updates.    
> > 
> > Hmm, maybe I missed that.  Oops.
> >   
> > > I believe F31 is also shipping 2.x now, and F30 has the COPR.    
> > 
> > OH GOOD.  That means I can go file a bug at RH against F31 that the
> > upgrade broke my backups!
> >   
> > >> Still, completely frustrating that the wire protocol is
> > >> incompatible.  :( Very poor software engineering choice,
> > >> IMHO.    
> > >
> > > I suspect the incompatibility was forced upon them by dependencies
> > > in the Python2->3 transition (eg py2 strings and py3 strings are
> > > not compatible), and working around that would have required a 
> > > disproportionate amount of work.    
> > 
> > IIRC they were able to work around the string issue; I think the
> > bigger issue is the pickle format changed in an incompatible way.
> > 
> >   
> > >  - Solomon    
> > 
> > -derek  
> 
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