How to exclude items with type 'pipe', on Linux?

[LinuxOnTheDesktop]

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

My backup script reports:

NOTICE: .zoom/data/com.zoom.ipc.assistantapp__res: Can't transfer non file/directory
NOTICE: .zoom/data/com.zoom.ipc.assistantapp__req: Can't transfer non file/directory

The items show as type 'pipe' in my graphical file manager. In a terminal:

$ ls -all
[. . .]
prw-------  1 [. .]  0 Dec 26 00:05 com.zoom.ipc.assistantapp__req
prw-------  1 [. .]  0 Dec 25 18:01 com.zoom.ipc.assistantapp__res

Is there a way, please, of telling rclone to exclude this type of item? Ah, I see that there is 'metadata filtering' (Rclone Filtering) . .

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone v1.61.1
- os/version: linuxmint 21.1 (64 bit)
- os/kernel: 5.19.17-051917-generic (x86_64)
- os/type: linux
- os/arch: amd64
- go/version: go1.19.4
- go/linking: static
- go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

b2

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

rclone sync /home/<my userName> enc-b2:/x1/current/home/<my userName> --buffer-size=128M --delete-during
+--filter-from=NJ/Backup/BackupSetup/rclone/lists/home_filter-from --ignore-errors --max-size=35M --track-renames --track-renames-strategy modtime,leaf
+--backup-dir=enc-b2:/x1/old/m01d05/home/<my userName> --bwlimit=34M --log-file /tmp/rclone_monthly_NVu -P --stats=0 --stats-one-line --fast-list
+--local-no-check-updated --one-file-system --skip-links --b2-hard-delete

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

Not relevant.

[Animosity022]

I'd imagine you'd probably have to update your filter from and prefill that with files to excludes based on their type.

find /someplace -type p 

Would list all the files of type pipe and you could exclude them that way.

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

@LinuxOnTheDesktop

My backup script reports:

NOTICE: .zoom/data/com.zoom.ipc.assistantapp__res: Can't transfer non file/directory
NOTICE: .zoom/data/com.zoom.ipc.assistantapp__req: Can't transfer non file/directory

These don't cause an error in the sync, just a log message. Untidy but the sync is still good

@LinuxOnTheDesktop

Is there a way, please, of telling rclone to exclude this type of item? Ah, I see that there is 'metadata filtering' (Rclone Filtering) . .

I think this log message comes before the filtering so you can't exclude it with a metadata filter yet, but nice idea.

Rclone should allow these files through when using -M syncs most likely then you could backup and restore device nodes etc. Not sure you can ever backup a pipe or a socket though?

What does rsync do about this?

[LinuxOnTheDesktop]

@ncw

Thank you, and @animosity, for the replies.

I ill understand the following, partly because the first sentence (being ungrammatical) is hard to parse.

Rclone should allow these files through when using -M syncs most likely then you could backup and restore device nodes etc. Not sure you can ever backup a pipe or a socket though?

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

@LinuxOnTheDesktop

I ill understand the following, partly because the first sentence (being ungrammatical) is hard to parse.

Rclone should allow these files through when using -M syncs most likely then you could backup and restore device nodes etc. Not sure you can ever backup a pipe or a socket though?

Sorry! Although English is my first language, I don't seem to be able to speak it any more Here is my second attempt:

Rclone should allow devices, pipes and sockets to appear in listings (rather than give the error above) when using -M. This would mean syncs could transfer them and re-create them in the destination. I'm unsure whether you can sensibly back up pipes and sockets though.

[LinuxOnTheDesktop]

Thanks, Nick. Now I understand.

Here's the thing though. I suppose that I could use -M to backup the 'pipes' but I think that I'd rather leave them alone whilst suppressing the 'notices' that rclone generates when (having been run without -M) it encounters such items. I take it that at present there is a way to do that, but not a fine-grained one - that sledgehammer-y way being to lower rclone's log-level.

[ncw (Nick Craig-Wood)]

Yes - log-level is the sledgehammer way.

I copied this behaviour from rsync which moans about stuff it can't transfer and expects you exclude it.

Maybe there should be a more fine grained way of saying "I don't care about pipes".

Or maybe I should just lower the log level on the offending line?

[LinuxOnTheDesktop]

I copied this behaviour from rsync which moans about stuff it can't transfer and expects you exclude it.

Except:

I think this log message comes before the filtering so you can't exclude it with a metadata filter yet, but nice idea.

I think that implementing the 'nice idea', and thereby being more rsync-y, would be the way to go. Still, I'd take either of your other options (viz.: a way of telling rclone to be quiet about, specifically, pipes.; and not reporting transferred pipes at log-level 'notice').