rdff-backup / python linux fat32

[Peter Hansen]

Tim Gahnstrom wrote:

> rdiff-backup is aperently written in Python and when I run it in a 
> special way I get some funy Python errors. Does anyone know if linux 
...
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.3/gzip.py", line 94, in __init__
>     fileobj = self.myfileobj = __builtin__.open(filename, mode or 'rb')
> IOError: invalid mode: wb

That line "should" execute, AFAICS.  Try this, after changing the
directory to the drive that is failing:

-bash-2.05b$ python
Python 2.3.3 (#1, May  7 2004, 10:31:40)
[GCC 3.3.3 20040412 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.3-7)] on linux2
 >>> import gzip
 >>> gzip.GzipFile('test.file', 'w')

If it reports the same error, then the problem is just in Python
or your USB (or FAT32) drive.

If it doesn't report the same error, it seems likely that rdiff-backup
has substituted the builtin open() function with its own, for reasons
unknown...  At least, that's the only thought that occurs to me.

-Peter