Re: Upcoming release of rsync-bpc-3.4.1.0rc1.

On 1/19/26 11:35 AM, G.W. Haywood wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> As mentioned in another thread, I think the release of the 
> next
> version of rsync-bpc - version 3.4.1.0rc1 - is approaching.
>
> As its version number implies, this version is based on 
> the latest
> upstream rsync, version 3.4.1.  That version contains a 
> number of
> improvements plus a few fixes for vulnerabilites.  
> Vulnerabilities
> have been found in supporting packages such as zlib and 
> popt.  For
> whatever reasons, many packages (not just rsync and 
> BackupPC) bundled
> the code for these libraries in their own source 
> distributions. The
> problem with doing that, of course, is that the bundled 
> versions tend
> to get out of date which is what happened for rsync, 
> BackupPC-XS and
> rsync-bpc although the resulting issues were fortunately 
> not serious.
> It could easily have been otherwise.
>
> As for BackupPC-XS, the new version of rsync-bpc does away 
> with the
> bundled zlib and popt code, instead relying on the system 
> to provide
> these libraries.  If the distribution's security teams and 
> your update
> practice are up to snuff, then these paths to 
> vulnerability should be
> closed off for good.
>
> This has been quite a journey and I'm asking for 
> volunteers, to begin
> with, to sanity-check what I've done.
>
> The changes to the rsync-bpc code have been very extensive 
> (think in
> terms of a context diff with a line count well into five 
> digits) so I
> really do want to get people to put this thing under the 
> microscope.
> It will help enormously if you're a proficient 'C' coder 
> but it isn't
> an absolute requirement; just building and testing by 
> anyone will be
> more than welcome.  Running here, it's just done its first 
> incremental
> backup after four fulls for just one share on just one 
> machine. I'll
> be adding to that population in the coming days.  So far I 
> only built
> on one architecture (armhf).  Anything could happen on a 
> 64-bit box,
> the data structures in rsync are truly scary.
>
> There are still a couple of outstanding issues which I 
> want to look
> into, and I'll be glad of any comments from users:
>
> 1. While testing on a box with usually ~3G spare memory, I 
> noticed a
> tendency for one of the rsync-bpc processes to use it all 
> up and then
> crash.  After I'd removed most of my debugging (gigabyte+ 
> log files)
> this seemed to go away, but I'm reminded of Github issue 
> #547 and I
> think it needs a bit more investigation.  Also in the 
> coming days I
> plan to do that.  I know where to look and what to log, I 
> just don't
> yet know if having a bunch of 8 MByte file buffers in RAM 
> is an issue.
>
> 2. The latest version of rsync offers extra options for 
> checksumming,
> and that seemed to throw off the new rsync-bpc's use of 
> MD5 for file
> comparisons.  My very klundgy fix for that has been to add 
> the rsync
> '--checksum-choice=md5' option to $Conf{RsyncArgs} but I'd 
> much prefer
> to look at modifying the code to force the use of the 
> right checksums
> without requiring any changes to the configuration.  At 
> this stage I
> don't know what this might mean for people using e.g. 
> 'openrsync' on
> the Mac - I don't know if the Mac's rsync recognizes the 
> option - and
> I don't know if it will be an issue for people using very 
> old versions
> of 'genuine' rsync on other clients.  If there are Mac 
> users Out There
> reading, *please* help me with the testing if you can.  If 
> your rsync
> version _is_ very old, I promise not to tell.
>
> At this stage, rather than putting something on Github 
> which may quite
> possibly crash and burn, I'd prefer to email the source to 
> volunteers.
>
> Any takers?
>
I'd be happy to give it a shot. You have my email so send a 
"tar.gz" when ready.

-- 
Jim KR


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