[Borgbackup] --numeric-owner

[Thomas Waldmann]

On 05/13/2016 08:59 AM, Steve Schow wrote:
> Should I be using —numeric-owner?

I guess for borg create you usually do not need it, it just omits 
storing the user and group name and just stores the uid / gid.

For borg extract, it depends on what you want. Keep numeric ids as in 
archive or map the archive user name / group name to the local ids?

> I as using a similar option previously when I was using rsync to
 > backup stuff, because I’m backing up remotely to a different system.

While the extract case is somehow similar, borg create does not have the 
problem that it just copies files 1:1 to a remote filesystem like rsync 
does (but stores them into an archive).

> The userid’s and usernames doesn’t always match up between the two systems.
 > So what happens when I backup something up from machine A to machine B
 > without this option?

Nothing. It just stores username, groupname, userid, groupid into the 
file metadata inside the archive.

> when I go to restore to the original machine A, will the stringified
 > username be converted back to the correct UID on that machine again
 > at that time?

Yes, the normal behaviour is to use username / group name.

If you use --numeric-ids, then it will just use the uid/gid as they are 
in the archive.

> When would be the use case to use —numeric-owner?

At extract time, if you have booted from a rescue system (e.g. CD or USB 
stick) that uses a different name -> id mapping than what you want to 
see in the restored files / dirs.


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