backup-offsite: stop printing seeding instructions after seeding is done - #385
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The final debug task printed the same message on every run: "the first copy has NOT run", "the unit sets TimeoutStartSec=infinity", "this uploads the whole repository and can take days", and "when it completes, re-run with -e offsite_timer_enabled=true". By 2026-08-11 all four were false. The seed had completed, the timeout was bounded to 4h, and the timer was enabled -- and the playbook said otherwise while successfully doing the right thing. Now two messages selected on offsite_timer_enabled. The not-yet-seeded one also carries the warning learned the hard way: stop backup-nas.timer before a re-seed, because restic copy locks the source repo and a multi-day copy starved the nightly backup for four consecutive nights in August 2026. The seeded one states the steady state and how to verify it. A playbook that prints stale instructions on every run teaches you to stop reading its output. That is the same mechanism as a timer reporting PASSED while copying nothing, an alert routed to an inbox nobody opens, and a suppression list excusing a metric that works -- all of which this lab has now had.
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The final debug task printed the same message on every run: "the first copy has
NOT run", "the unit sets TimeoutStartSec=infinity", "this uploads the whole
repository and can take days", and "when it completes, re-run with
-e offsite_timer_enabled=true".
By 2026-08-11 all four were false. The seed had completed, the timeout was
bounded to 4h, and the timer was enabled -- and the playbook said otherwise while
successfully doing the right thing.
Now two messages selected on offsite_timer_enabled. The not-yet-seeded one also
carries the warning learned the hard way: stop backup-nas.timer before a re-seed,
because restic copy locks the source repo and a multi-day copy starved the nightly
backup for four consecutive nights in August 2026. The seeded one states the
steady state and how to verify it.
A playbook that prints stale instructions on every run teaches you to stop reading
its output. That is the same mechanism as a timer reporting PASSED while copying
nothing, an alert routed to an inbox nobody opens, and a suppression list excusing
a metric that works -- all of which this lab has now had.