rsync backups on Mac OS X - mknod errors + icon disappears...

[Johan Glimming]

Hi

I am a rsync (on Mac OS X, RsyncX version with extended HFS+/-eahfs 
forks) beginner (I merely use it for backing up my desktop machine to a 
bootable
external firewire volume, so that I can resume work in case of a 
harddrive disaster)
and I got these messages:

mknod 
"/Volumes/backup/Applications/Plone2/Sites/Default/var/zopectlsock" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/imap/socket/lmtp" failed: Invalid 
argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/run/syslog" failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/bounce" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/bsmtp" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/cyrus" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/defer" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/error" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/ifmail" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/lmtp" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/local" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/maildrop" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/old-cyrus" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/proxymap" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/relay" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/rewrite" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/smtp" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/uucp" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/private/virtual" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/public/cleanup" 
failed: Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/public/flush" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/public/qmgr" failed: 
Invalid argument
mknod "/Volumes/backup/private/var/spool/postfix/public/showq" failed: 
Invalid argument
rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at 
main.c(639)

from this little script that I hacked together:

SOURCE=/
TARGET=/Volumes/backup
RSYNC=/usr/local/bin/rsync
DIR=/opt/Common/rsync-scripts
sudo bless -folder $TARGET/System/Library/CoreServices
sudo $RSYNC $* -v --stats -r -R -l -a --delete -p --cvs-exclude 
--exclude-from=$DIR/exclude-list.rsync 
--include-from=$DIR/include-list.rsync --files-from=$DIR/master.rsync 
$SOURCE $TARGET --eahfs -b --update > $TARGET/backup.log

The exclude-list file contains:

# Exclude extra directory on $TARGET for deletion
extra/*

# Default excludes
backup.log
dev/*
afs/*
private/tmp/*
Network/*
Volumes/*
automount/*
private/var/run/*

and  the oter two files include-list and master.rsync are similar 
(master.rsync merely containing /).

Should I be worried? Or better, can somebody tell me how to avoid the 
above (fatal?) error during rsync
while making exact copy of my Mac OS X volume.

Finally, I like to have a nice icon for my external harddrive. The 
above script wipes the icon everytime I make
a backup. Is this due to resource forks or just some icon file that I 
can exclude explicitly?

Thanks,
Johan

PS. In case I don't follow the thread on the list, please carbon copy 
to my personal mailbox. Cheers.