Backup Strategy Not Working

[Robert Heller]

At Sat, 01 Aug 2015 08:35:05 +0100 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On 01/08/15 01:03, Karl Auer wrote:
> > On Fri, 2015-07-31 at 16:08 -0400, Robert Heller wrote:
> >> If you can run the cron job from a terminal and are able to open the file from
> >> Archive Manager
> >
> > The problem is the other way around. He creates the file from a cron
> > job, can open the file fine from the command line, but the file will not
> > open in archive manager.
> >
> > Regards, K.
> >
> Just to clarify.  If I create the archive using the command shown from 
> the command line, I can access the file using archive manager. It is 
> when the the command is run as a scheduled task that the archive appears 
> to be broken. Sorry if I didn't make that obvious.

This *strongly* suggests that there is a 'quoting hell' issue going on.  
Because of the way cron works, you might need to quote the spaces *twice*. 
(This is similar to what happens when you use spaces in file names and then 
use scp: you have to quote the spaces for the source shell and the remote 
shell.)

The easy solution is to NOT USE SPACES IN FILE NAMES.  If that is not possible 
for some reason, you can create a script file (whose name does not contain 
spaces!) and put your command there (spaces, warts, quoting, etc.).

> 
> The archive manager I have been using is Engrampa 1.8.1 (I use the MATE 
> desktop) although I have just installed Xarchiver to find out if the the 
> problem still occurs.
> 
> There is much to think about in your replies.  When I get round to 
> trying some of the suggestions I will let you know how I get on.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Graham
> 

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