0 new files but still adding metadata chunks

Moshnic     Oct 8 11:42AM 2017 CLI

The documentation gives the following example for cases where no new files is added:

$ duplicacy backup -stats
Storage set to sftp://gchen@192.168.1.100/Duplicacy
Last backup at revision 260 found
Backup for /Users/gchen/duplicacy at revision 261 completed
Files: 42367 total, 2,204M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes
File chunks: 447 total, 2,238M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes, 0 bytes uploaded
Metadata chunks: 6 total, 11,753K bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes, 0 bytes uploaded
All chunks: 453 total, 2,249M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes, 0 bytes uploaded

No new metadata chunks are created and 0 bytes are uploaded. Yet in my repo (uploaded to B2), when no files are added, still new metadata chunks are created and the repo is ever growing:

E:\Data>duplicacy -log backup -stats -limit-rate 60 
2017-10-07 16:00:07.551 INFO STORAGE_SET Storage set to b2://personal-backup
2017-10-07 16:00:15.343 INFO BACKUP_START Last backup at revision 35 found
2017-10-07 16:00:15.343 INFO BACKUP_INDEXING Indexing E:\Data
2017-10-07 16:00:15.347 INFO SNAPSHOT_FILTER Loaded 19 include/exclude pattern(s)
2017-10-07 16:00:59.937 INFO BACKUP_END Backup for E:\Data at revision 36 completed
2017-10-07 16:00:59.937 INFO BACKUP_STATS Files: 16777 total, 41,755M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes
2017-10-07 16:00:59.937 INFO BACKUP_STATS File chunks: 8574 total, 41,835M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes, 0 bytes uploaded
2017-10-07 16:00:59.937 INFO BACKUP_STATS Metadata chunks: 4 total, 4,833K bytes; 2 new, 4,204K bytes, 1,728K bytes uploaded
2017-10-07 16:00:59.937 INFO BACKUP_STATS All chunks: 8578 total, 41,840M bytes; 2 new, 4,204K bytes, 1,728K bytes uploaded
2017-10-07 16:00:59.937 INFO BACKUP_STATS Total running time: 00:00:46

E:\Data>duplicacy -log backup -stats -limit-rate 60 
2017-10-08 17:14:34.130 INFO STORAGE_SET Storage set to b2://personal-backup
2017-10-08 17:14:41.692 INFO BACKUP_START Last backup at revision 36 found
2017-10-08 17:14:41.692 INFO BACKUP_INDEXING Indexing E:\Data
2017-10-08 17:14:41.698 INFO SNAPSHOT_FILTER Loaded 19 include/exclude pattern(s)
2017-10-08 17:15:24.701 INFO BACKUP_END Backup for E:\Data at revision 37 completed
2017-10-08 17:15:24.701 INFO BACKUP_STATS Files: 16777 total, 41,755M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes
2017-10-08 17:15:24.701 INFO BACKUP_STATS File chunks: 8574 total, 41,835M bytes; 0 new, 0 bytes, 0 bytes uploaded
2017-10-08 17:15:24.701 INFO BACKUP_STATS Metadata chunks: 3 total, 4,833K bytes; 1 new, 4,204K bytes, 1,727K bytes uploaded
2017-10-08 17:15:24.731 INFO BACKUP_STATS All chunks: 8577 total, 41,840M bytes; 1 new, 4,204K bytes, 1,727K bytes uploaded
2017-10-08 17:15:24.731 INFO BACKUP_STATS Total running time: 00:00:45

Any idea why?


gchen    Oct 8 3:23PM 2017

I guess there could be some 0 byte files whose timestamp changed. You can find out what files changed by the following:

duplicacy cat -r 36 > meta1
duplicacy cat -r 37 > meta2
diff meta1 meta2