Backup errors: "No such file or directory", "Too many levels of symbolic links", "File removed before we read it"

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20

Problem Symptoms:
Multiple error messages of the following types appear in the /exlibris/backup/logs directory for the user_data backup or other backups:

1. rm: cannot remove `/exlibris/aleph/a22_1/tmp/demo_libs': No such file or directory
2. tar: exlibris/aleph/u22_1/alephe/www_f_eng.... : Cannot stat: Too many levels of symbolic links
3. tar: exlibris/aleph/u22_1/alephe/apache/htdocs/exlibris/aleph/u22_1/alephe/www_f_eng/icon: File removed before we read it

tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
tar command failed {status=1}

Cause:
1 and 3 These are occurring when the script is attempting to read temporary non-essential files. There may be other jobs running simultaneously which are changing or deleting those files

2- Cannot stat: Too many levels of symbolic links.
This temp directory contains an endless symbolic loop. This is not a problem for the backup.

Resolution:
**The Aleph system should be shut down before performing backups in order to avoid these warnings.** (Note: this should not be necessary for the hot backup.)