Rsnapshot WARNING: Could not lchown() symlink "/path/to/file" Error and Solution

I got rsnapshot based backup server up and running for my network under Debian Linux 5.x. But, whenever I run a backup job using the following command:
rsnapshot -v -c /root/rsnapshot.server1.conf hourly
I get the following messages on screen:

WARNING: Could not lchown() symlink “/nas/.rsnapshot/hourly.1/server1.example.com/etc/alternatives/locate”
WARNING: Could not lchown() symlink “/nas/.rsnapshot/hourly.1/server1.example.com/etc/alternatives/nc.1.gz”
WARNING: Could not lchown() symlink “/nas/.rsnapshot/hourly.1/server1.example.com/etc/alternatives/jexec-binfmt”
WARNING: Could not lchown() symlink “/nas/.rsnapshot/hourly.1/server1.example.com/etc/alternatives/servertool”

How do I fix this problem?

You need to install the Lchown module which provides a perl interface to the lchown UNIX system call, on systems that support lchown. The lchown() call is used to change the ownership and group of symbolic links. To install the same, enter:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install liblchown-perl
Sample outputs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  xmms2-plugin-pulse xmms2-plugin-id3v2 xmms2-plugin-alsa xmms2-core xmms2-plugin-vorbis xmms2-plugin-mad xmms2-client-cli
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  liblchown-perl
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 9,574B of archives.
After this operation, 81.9kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe liblchown-perl 1.00-1 [9,574B]
Fetched 9,574B in 0s (10.9kB/s)       
Selecting previously deselected package liblchown-perl.
(Reading database ... 123150 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking liblchown-perl (from .../liblchown-perl_1.00-1_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up liblchown-perl (1.00-1) ...

For other UNIX like operating systems

Use your package manager or download it from cpan.org or install it using the cpan command / shell:
cpan -A Lchown cpan -i Lchown

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

Your support makes a big difference:

I have a small favor to ask. More people are reading the nixCraft. Many of you block advertising which is your right, and advertising revenues are not sufficient to cover my operating costs. So you can see why I need to ask for your help. The nixCraft takes a lot of my time and hard work to produce. If everyone who reads nixCraft, who likes it, helps fund it, my future would be more secure. You can donate as little as $1 to support nixCraft:

3 comment

For rpm based distros, you may wish to also include a reference to the perl-Lchown packages appropriate to their distro / architecture; trying to run cpan builds / installs on rpm systems can be problematic.

Try this:

sudo apt-get install make
sudo apt-get install g++
sudo perl -MCPAN -e ‘install qw(Lchown)’

Thanks very much for the tip: as always there’s more to learn with open source! I’ve had debian and Ubuntu servers for years but just finding out the merits of rsnapshot and etckeeper!

flyingboz says:
January 5, 2010 at 2:00 am
For rpm based distros, you may wish to also include a reference to the perl-Lchown packages appropriate to their distro / architecture; trying to run cpan builds / installs on rpm systems can be problematic.
H.Shukla says:
August 2, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Try this:
sudo apt-get install make
sudo apt-get install g++
sudo perl -MCPAN -e ‘install qw(Lchown)’
Jon Wilson says:
December 27, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Thanks very much for the tip: as always there’s more to learn with open source! I’ve had debian and Ubuntu servers for years but just finding out the merits of rsnapshot and etckeeper!

Have a question? Post it on our forum!