File Backup Update (tar)

Simon Bennett
Simon Bennett · Dec 15, 2020

The following was emailed to all users using the Tar Backup system

We have made a change to the way we deal with errors with Tar Backups. You may have noticed an increase in the number of backups that notify completed with an error.

When we recreated the backup system and launched it in November (2020) , we went to a method of using the backup program's exit code to decide if an error happened. If the process exited with none 0, we would check to see if the file was created and notify completed with error.

This has worked to create expect with TAR that will throw an exit code 1 if a file changes during the backup process (e.g. a log file changed). These are not issues with backups, we all expect files to change, this is why we backup!

The fix:

  • From today the file backups will accept a TAR exit code equal to or less than one as a success

  • Our logs will still show the TAR warnings, but you will receive a success notification, on a 0 or 1 exit code

You can edit your notification settings here https://app.snapshooter.com/settings/notifications

While we think this is an improvement, I wanted to message everyone using the TAR backups to confirm the new behaviour; please reach out if you have questions or concerns.