# How to get rid of "Can't transfer non file/directory" warning for socket in /etc

**URL:** <https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-cant-transfer-non-file-directory-warning-for-socket-in-etc/23992>\
**Category:** Help and Support\
**Created:** [May 3, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-cant-transfer-non-file-directory-warning-for-socket-in-etc/23992 "2021-05-03T22:31:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![catharsis](https://forum.rclone.org/user_avatar/forum.rclone.org/catharsis/32/9357_2.png) [@catharsis](https://forum.rclone.org/u/catharsis)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-cant-transfer-non-file-directory-warning-for-socket-in-etc/23992/1 "2021-05-03T22:31:05Z")

</div>

I have a file in /etc/ that seems to be a symlink to a socket and throws a warning message when backing up. I am trying to exclude it to get rid of the warning message but haven't had any success.

The file:

```auto
# ls -l /etc/alternatives/php-fpm.sock
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Apr 30 21:32 /etc/alternatives/php-fpm.sock -> /run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock

```

Backup process:

```auto
# rclone --exclude-from ~/exclude.txt --backup-dir=hostname:archive/etc/`date -I` -vL sync /etc hostname:backup/etc
2021/05/03 17:21:39 NOTICE: alternatives/php-fpm.sock: Can't transfer non file/directory
2021/05/03 17:21:53 INFO : pcloud root 'backup/etc': Waiting for checks to finish
2021/05/03 17:21:53 INFO : pcloud root 'backup/etc': Waiting for transfers to finish
2021/05/03 17:21:53 INFO : Waiting for deletions to finish
2021/05/03 17:21:53 INFO :
Transferred: 0 / 0 Bytes, -, 0 Bytes/s, ETA -
Errors: 0
Checks: 2104 / 2104, 100%
Transferred: 0 / 0, -
Elapsed time: 0s

```

Contents of exclude file:

```auto
# cat ~/exclude.txt
cache/
_sfpg_data/
*~
php-fpm.sock
mtab
php7.4-fpm.sock

```

```auto
# rclone --version
rclone v1.50.2
- os/arch: linux/amd64
- go version: go1.13.6
# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

```

Config file:

```auto
# cat ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
[hostname]
type = pcloud
token = {"access_token":"xxxxxxxxxxxxxx","token_type":"bearer","expiry":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![asdffdsa](https://forum.rclone.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@asdffdsa](https://forum.rclone.org/u/asdffdsa)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-cant-transfer-non-file-directory-warning-for-socket-in-etc/23992/2 "2021-05-03T22:49:16Z")

</div>

hello and welcome to the forum,

i would assume that since `php-fpm.sock` is not a file or directory, rclone cannot apply a filter to it.  
might try  
`--skip-links Don't warn about skipped symlinks.`

that is a very old version of rclone, get the latest version [here](https://rclone.org/downloads/#script-download-and-install)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ncw](https://forum.rclone.org/user_avatar/forum.rclone.org/ncw/32/18_2.png) [@ncw](https://forum.rclone.org/u/ncw)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 8:26am UTC](https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-cant-transfer-non-file-directory-warning-for-socket-in-etc/23992/3 "2021-05-04T08:26:44Z")

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> [@catharsis](#):
>
> I have a file in /etc/ that seems to be a symlink to a socket and throws a warning message when backing up. I am trying to exclude it to get rid of the warning message but haven't had any success.

Unfortunately the excludes work at a higher level to the directory listing which we will fix at some point!

So I don't think you can get rid of this warning message at the moment ☹

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://forum.rclone.org/uploads/default/original/2X/3/39ad3235f6ffec76ccd0c81616bd55697b4c300d.png) [@system](https://forum.rclone.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 4:27am UTC](https://forum.rclone.org/t/how-to-get-rid-of-cant-transfer-non-file-directory-warning-for-socket-in-etc/23992/4 "2021-07-04T04:27:18Z")

</div>

Closed on July 4, 2021, 4:27am UTC

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