Re: Is there any reliable way to convert incremental to full backups

Thanks. As I mentioned in a similar reply I have had similar
experiences if the machine stays dead... but I replaced it with new
identical HW and would like to keep the same name :)

G.W. Haywood wrote at about 14:58:36 +0100 on Friday, August 22, 2025:
 > Hi there,
 > 41;366;0c
 > On Fri, 22 Aug 2025, Ronald Colcernian wrote:
 > > On Wed, Aug 20, 2025, Matthias--- via BackupPC-users wrote:
 > >>  On Wed, Aug 20, 2025, [email protected] wrote:
 > >>
 > >>> My device died and I am no longer to access the device or the data on
 > >>> the device.
 > >>>
 > >>> I would therefore like to save the last incremental as a "full" &
 > >>> "filled" backup so that I can mark it to "keep" it as the last valid
 > >>> backup.
 > >>>
 > >>> Is there any reliable way to convert the (last) incremental into a
 > >>> full backup?
 > >>>
 > >>> I imagine I could restore the backup to some free space on another
 > >>> device and then back it up again but that would require some hacking
 > >>> with device names, share names and path to make it "look" like a
 > >>> legitimate backup from the original device with consistent naming and
 > >>> paths.
 > >>
 > >> edit ../pc/<host>/backups and replace incr by full.
 > >> It will not change the content of your backup but you should be able to
 > >> avoid deletion of it.
 > >>
 > >> On the other hand - if you don't make new backups it will not be removed
 > >> anyway - as far as your
 > >> $Conf{IncrAgeMax} is not reached.
 > > 
 > > If the backups on that host are disabled, the incrementals will hang around
 > > forever.
 > >
 > > That has been my experience.
 > 
 > Here's an extract from my config.pl:
 > 
 > 8<------------------------------------------------------------
 > $Conf{IncrKeepCnt} = 6;
 > $Conf{IncrKeepCntMin} = 1;
 > $Conf{IncrAgeMax} = 30;
 > 8<------------------------------------------------------------
 > 
 > I have several machines which haven't been backed up for years as they
 > haven't been switched on in all that time, but which are still listed
 > in /etc/BackupPC/hosts.  Picking one of them more or less at random:
 > 
 > 8<------------------------------------------------------------
 >      This PC is used by backuppc.
 >      Last email sent to backuppc was at 2025-08-22 05:14, subject "BackupPC: no recent backups on tornado".
 >      Last status is state "idle" (no ping) as of 2025-08-22 14:00.
 >      Last error is "no ping response from tornado".
 >      Pings to tornado have failed 45258 consecutive times. 
 > ...
 > ...
 > 
 > Backup# Type   Filled   Level   Start Date        Duration/mins Age/days Server Backup Path 
 > 25 	incr 	yes 	1 	2020-02-20 22:05 	7.7 	2009.6 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/25
 > 24 	incr 	no 	1 	2020-02-19 22:06 	7.7 	2010.6 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/24
 > 22 	full 	yes 	0 	2020-02-17 22:05 	135.1 	2012.6 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/22
 > 16 	full 	yes 	0 	2020-02-10 02:57 	135.2 	2020.4 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/16
 > 13 	full 	yes 	0 	2019-12-06 20:08 	156.5 	2085.7 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/13
 > 6 	full 	yes 	0 	2019-11-29 20:09 	170.7 	2092.7 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/6
 > 0 	full 	yes 	0 	2019-11-22 13:12 	1058.6 	2100.0 	/var/lib/BackupPC/pc/tornado/0
 > 8<------------------------------------------------------------
 > 
 > Choosing the most recent backup because it was a filled incremental I
 > restored a fourteen-year-old notice from the UK tax office which was
 > last backed up in February 2020.  It restored just fine.
 > 
 > Jeff, I think that as long as the dead machine stays dead, you might
 > not actually need to do anything. :)
 > 
 > -- 
 > 
 > 73,
 > Ged.
 > 
 > 
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