K-Family

Q: Time machine backups no longer include hidden system folder like /usr and /sbin

My Time Machine backups Aug - Oct seem complete.  When I look at them I see all the expected folders and files.  Starting in November key system folders disappeared: /sbin, /usr, /bin, etc.  However, the non-hidden one are there: /Applications, /Library, etc.  Later in November certain things show up again like /usr/share/man/whatis and /usr/share/man/ri, but nothing else under /usr/share.  I've looked for all possible places where folders might be excluded and have found nothing.

 

I'm using Mavericks on a MacBook Pro with a Time Capsule.  All software and firmware are completely up to date.  I can't explain the behavior.  If I take one example I can see /usr in the Nov 5 backup and it is fully populated.  It is gone in the Nov 12 backup.  In the Nov 19 backup it is back but only with /usr/share/man/whatis.  There are no errors in my logs although my logs don't go back that far, so if something happened the week of Nov 5 I don't know.

 

Anyone with any guesses?

 

K-Family

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 15, 2013 10:20 PM

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Q: Time machine backups no longer include hidden system folder like /usr and /sbin

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 19, 2013 10:08 PM in response to K-Family
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    Dec 19, 2013 10:08 PM in response to K-Family

    Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

    com_apple_backup_excludeItem=com.apple.backupd

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

    In the Finder, press the key combination command-F to open a search window, or select

    File â–¹ Find

    from the menu bar. In the search window, select

    Search: This Mac

    from the row of tokens below the toolbar. Below that is a popup menu initially showing Kind. From that menu, select  Other...

    A sheet will drop down. In that sheet, select Raw Query and click OK or press return.

    Now there will be a text box to the right of popup menu. Click in that box and paste (command-V).

    The search window will show all files and folders on mounted volumes that Time Machine excludes from backup, not including the ones excluded in the preference pane. If there is anything in the window that you think shouldn't be excluded, post for further instructions.

  • by K-Family,

    K-Family K-Family Dec 20, 2013 5:17 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 5:17 PM in response to Linc Davis

    That showed 'Cache', 'Database', 'iPod Photo Cache', and 'iTunes Library.xml'.  Those all look legit, although I'm not that sure about the iTunes library XML.  It doesn't explain why I'm not picking up /usr/share in my backups.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 20, 2013 5:53 PM in response to K-Family
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    Dec 20, 2013 5:53 PM in response to K-Family

    Turn Time Machine OFF in its preference pane temporarily. Launch Disk Utility and run Repair Disk on the backup volume (not the startup volume.) The operation may take several hours. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. Turn TM back ON and test.

     

    If you don't have another backup, I strongly recommend that you start one on a different storage device. You need more than one backup to be safe anyway.

  • by K-Family,

    K-Family K-Family Dec 21, 2013 11:40 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2013 11:40 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I erased my time capsuele disk and basically restarted.  After the backup completed I did a tmutil compare.  The results weren't very promising:

     

    + 36.6K                         /sbin/SystemStarter

    + 35.2K                         /sbin/autodiskmount

    + 33.5K                         /sbin/disklabel

    + 33.9K                         /sbin/dmesg

    + 57.0K                         /sbin/dynamic_pager

    + 196.0K                        /sbin/emond

    + 40.2K                         /sbin/fibreconfig

    + 19.3K                         /sbin/fsck

    + 128.5K                        /sbin/fsck_cs

    + 66B                           /sbin/fsck_exfat

    + 62B                           /sbin/fsck_hfs

    + 66B                           /sbin/fsck_msdos

    + 62B                           /sbin/fsck_udf

    + 14.2K                         /sbin/fstyp

    + 14.3K                         /sbin/fstyp_hfs

    + 14.2K                         /sbin/fstyp_msdos

    + 14.2K                         /sbin/fstyp_ntfs

    + 14.3K                         /sbin/fstyp_udf

    + 35.2K                         /sbin/halt

    + 61.7K                         /sbin/ifconfig

    + 32.9K                         /sbin/ip6fw

    + 53.7K                         /sbin/ipfw

    + 56.7K                         /sbin/kextload

    + 56.5K                         /sbin/kextunload

    + 185.6K                        /sbin/launchd

    + 24.0K                         /sbin/md5

    + 14.0K                         /sbin/mknod

    + 19.5K                         /sbin/mount

    + 59B                           /sbin/mount_acfs

    + 19.2K                         /sbin/mount_afp

    + 69B                           /sbin/mount_cd9660

    + 69B                           /sbin/mount_cddafs

    + 14.0K                         /sbin/mount_devfs

    + 67B                           /sbin/mount_exfat

    + 14.3K                         /sbin/mount_fdesc

    + 44B                           /sbin/mount_ftp

    + 63B                           /sbin/mount_hfs

    + 67B                           /sbin/mount_msdos

    + 41.1K                         /sbin/mount_nfs

    + 65B                           /sbin/mount_ntfs

    + 47.2K                         /sbin/mount_smbfs

    + 63B                           /sbin/mount_udf

    + 14.0K                         /sbin/mount_webdav

    + 67.1K                         /sbin/mpioutil

    + 67B                           /sbin/newfs_exfat

    + 63B                           /sbin/newfs_hfs

    + 67B                           /sbin/newfs_msdos

    + 63B                           /sbin/newfs_udf

    + 98.5K                         /sbin/nfsd

    + 14.0K                         /sbin/nfsiod

    + 33.7K                         /sbin/nologin

    + 199.8K                        /sbin/pfctl

    + 32.2K                         /sbin/ping

    + 41.5K                         /sbin/ping6

    + 24.0K                         /sbin/quotacheck

    + 35.2K                         /sbin/reboot

    + 28.8K                         /sbin/route

    + 28.1K                         /sbin/rtsol

    + 57.5K                         /sbin/shutdown

    + 19.9K                         /sbin/umount

    ! 11B     (xattrs)              /tmp

    !         (xattrs)              /usr

    + 3.6M                          /usr/X11

    + 3B                            /usr/X11R6

    + 106.6M                        /usr/bin

    + 68.0M                         /usr/lib

    + 46.0M                         /usr/libexec

    + 0B                            /usr/local

    + 35.2M                         /usr/sbin

    + 444.1M                        /usr/share

    + 23.3M                         /usr/standalone

    ! 11B     (xattrs)              /var

     

     

    -------------------------------------

    Added:         380.0G

    Removed:       181B

    Changed:       8.0M

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 22, 2013 2:05 PM in response to K-Family
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    Dec 22, 2013 2:05 PM in response to K-Family

    I sure wish this story would stabilize and stop changing. Are all those items, or any of them, missing from the latest snapshot?

  • by K-Family,

    K-Family K-Family Dec 23, 2013 5:04 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 23, 2013 5:04 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I wish Time Machine's behavior would stabalize and stop changing.  That first full backup I did after the reset started 2013-12-21-202124 and finished after 3 hours or so.  The first compare I did was at 23:37 and it should a number of directories and files that weren't backed-up including the /sbin files in my previous post.  I've done two more compares after your reply.  The first was against the first snapshot that ran after the full backup.  That snapshot ran 2012-12-22-003055.  It also showed a large number of directories and files that weren't backed-up including the same /sbin files.  I then did a compare today against my latest snapshot which is 2013-12-23-143459 and it does NOT have missing directories and files.  I can't explain the behavior and it seems to contradict what I've ready about how Time Machine should behave.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 23, 2013 7:02 PM in response to K-Family
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    Dec 23, 2013 7:02 PM in response to K-Family

    Please give one specific example of a file that should be backed up but is definitely missing from the latest snapshot. Don't rely on tmutil output. It could be wrong. Look for the file in the snapshot.

  • by K-Family,

    K-Family K-Family Dec 24, 2013 9:01 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2013 9:01 AM in response to Linc Davis

    I mounted the sparse bundle and did a listing for sbin/fsck - which timutil compare said was missing.  It was there.  I ran tmutil compare again and now the output says everything is there.  I did an ls on 2013-12-22-003055 and sbin/fsck was there even thought tmutil compare output for that snapshot said it isn't.

     

    Why is tmutil compare inaccurate?  I thought that was the tool you were supposed to use.  Do I have to relay on using diff against the mounted bundle to make sure the backups are complete?

     

    Thanks

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 24, 2013 9:23 AM in response to K-Family
    Level 10 (208,022 points)
    Applications
    Dec 24, 2013 9:23 AM in response to K-Family

    It can be confused by multilinked files, or by files with a modification date earlier than the one in the snapshot.

  • by K-Family,

    K-Family K-Family Dec 24, 2013 7:02 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2013 7:02 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Ok - Can I use diff to check the backups?  Will that be accurate?  Other than than question I guess this thread is over.  Erasing the time capsule and starting over seems to have resovled the original problem.  I don't know if I'll ever find out what caused it in the first place.  I'll continue to monitor the snapshots for a few days and see if anything else crops up.

  • by K-Family,

    K-Family K-Family Jan 5, 2014 5:14 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2014 5:14 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I've been monitoring the snapshots.  I did a diff -rq today against my latest snapshot and my hard drive.  I didn't see any unexpected files missing from the snapshot.

     

    I don't know what caused my problem initially but the reset/reformat of my time capsule seems to have solved the issue.  I'm going to consider this thread closed.

     

    Thank you for your assistance.

  • by joeschmo1969,

    joeschmo1969 joeschmo1969 Jul 11, 2014 10:34 PM in response to K-Family
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 11, 2014 10:34 PM in response to K-Family

    I'm using a Seagate external drive, and seeing the same issue. Nothing is in the exclusion list, except for the backup drive. I don't see anything in /usr/local, or /usr.

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