Anyone tried to use restic to backup a Cygwin install?

Eliot Moss moss@cs.umass.edu
Fri Dec 31 16:24:33 GMT 2021


Dear Cygwiners - Has anyone else out there tried to use a Windows build of
restic to backup a volume that includes a Cygwin installation?  I get a lot of
errors like this one:

error: open \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy7\cygwin64\bin\2to3: The file cannot be 
accessed by the system.

That file is some kind of symlink to /etc/alternatives/2to3.  Of course, using
that path, a Windows program won't find the target, but it should be able to
just backup the link contents.

Using Windows Explorer, I tried to open the file with Notepad, and I get the
same message.

I have winsymlinks:native set in my CYGWIN env variable, though I can't say
whether that setting ws used to create this particular link and its friends.

In CMD, DIR /AL /S on C:\cygwin64\bin lists these links as <JUNCTION>.
Windows Explorer Properties does not show Link Properties.

My question boils down to this, I believe, in terms of how to resolve this:

- Should I change the links in Cygwin?  If so, to what kind?  (Note: something
   similar happens with a bunch of links in my WSL install of Ubuntu, and I
   probably can't just change the junctions there.)

- Should I report this as an issue to the restic people, about the handling of
   junctions?  (Actually, I will file an issue anyway, but wonder if anyone has
   advice / info to offer.)

Regards, and Happy New Year, everyone!   Eliot Moss


More information about the Cygwin mailing list