[mustache_kimono]

> As with rsync borg does not read files if their timestamp/length do not change since the last backup.

...but isn't that the problem described in the article? If that is the case, Borg would seem to the worst of all possible worlds, because now one can't count on its checksums?

[fpoling]

If one worries about bitrot, the backup tools are not good place to detect that. Using a filesystem with native checksums is the way to go.

If one worries about silent file modifications that alters content but keep timestamp and length, then this sounds like malware and, as such, the backup tools are not the right tool to deal with that.

[mustache_kimono]

> If one worries about bitrot, the backup tools are not good place to detect that. Using a filesystem with native checksums is the way to go.

Agreed. But I think that elides the point of the article which was "I worry about backing up all my data with my userspace tool."

As noted above, Borg and rsync seem to fail here, because it's wild how much the metadata can screw with you.

> If one worries about silent file modifications that alters content but keep timestamp and length, then this sounds like malware and, as such, the backup tools are not the right tool to deal with that.

Seen this happen all the time in non-malware situations, in what we might call broken software situations, where your packaging software or your update app tinker with mtimes.

I develop an app, httm, which prints the size, date and corresponding locations of available unique versions of files residing on snapshots. And -- this makes it quite effective at proving how often this can happen on Ubuntu/Debian:

    > httm -n --dedup-by=contents /usr/bin/ounce | wc -l
    3
    > httm -n --dedup-by=metadata /usr/bin/ounce | wc -l
    30

[zamadatix]

The latter type case is what the article is talking about though. At the same time, as the article also discusses, it's unlikely to have actually been caused by malware vs something like a poorly packaged update.

Backup tools should deal with file changes lacking corresponding metadata changes despite it being more convenient to say the system should just always work ideally. At the end of the day the goal of a backup tool is to backup the data, not to skip some of the data because it's faster.

[rob_c]

Amen!