I try to backup my mail directory to a USB disc with

% obnam --log=obnam.log --repository=/media/HD-PCU2/ backup ~/Mail
00h00m00s 1 files; 0 B (0 B/s) setting upERROR: Operation not permitted

The USB disc is mounted with the following options

/dev/sdb1 on /media/HD-PCU2 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000, shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush)

The obnam.log contains

2012-08-16 14:18:19 INFO Backup starts
2012-08-16 14:18:19 INFO Checkpoints every 1073741824 bytes
2012-08-16 14:18:19 DEBUG Exclude pattern: obnam.log
2012-08-16 14:18:19 DEBUG opening repository (create=True)
2012-08-16 14:18:19 INFO VFS: __init__: baseurl=/media/HD-PCU2/
2012-08-16 14:18:19 CRITICAL Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cliapp/app.py", line 169, in _run
    self.process_args(args)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/app.py", line 174, in process_args
    cliapp.Application.process_args(self, args)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/cliapp/app.py", line 418, in process_args
    method(args[1:])
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/plugins/backup_plugin.py", line 253, in
    self.add_client(client_name)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/plugins/backup_plugin.py", line 311, in
    self.repo.lock_root()
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/repo.py", line 266, in lock_root
    self.lockmgr.lock(['.'])
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/lockmgr.py", line 81, in lock
    self._lock_one(dirname)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/lockmgr.py", line 65, in _lock_one
    self._fs.lock(lock_name, self.data)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/repo.py", line 70, in lock
    self.fs.lock(filename, data)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/vfs_local.py", line 106, in lock
    self.write_file(lockname, data)
  File "/home/friedrich/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/obnamlib/vfs_local.py", line 274, in write_file
    os.link(tempname, path)
OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted

Do you have an idea what's the problem with the USB disc? A backup into my home directry works fine.

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Obnam currently does not work with FAT filesystems, since it needs the filesystem to support hardlinks. --liw

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This is now fixed in bzr. --liw done