possible to run without lock?

[dangbert]

I'm trying to use Borg 1.X with an S3 backend, which I'm attempting via

rclone mount s3:my-bucket /mnt/s3 and initalizing a borg repo in /mnt/s3.

However this doesn't play well with file locking:

borg init --encryption=keyfile /mnt/s3/example-repo

KeyError: ('redacted@XXXXXXXXXX', 653535, 0)                                                                         
Failed to release the lock /mnt/s3/example-repo/lock.exclusive (was/is locked, but not by me). 

...

  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/borg/locking.py", line 169, in release
    raise NotMyLock(self.path) 
borg.locking.NotMyLock: Failed to release the lock /mnt/s3/example-repo/lock.exclusive (was/is locked, but not by me).

Platform: Linux erasmus 6.1.172-vendor-rk35xx #1 SMP Wed Sep  9 13:42:51 UTC 2026 aarch64
Linux: Unknown Linux  
Borg: 1.2.4  Python: CPython 3.11.2 msgpack: 1.0.3 fuse: None [pyfuse3,llfuse]

Is it possible to disable locking while running borg? Or might there be any other workarounds?

[dangbert]

The init worked now with additional args for rclone mount

rclone mount s3:my-bucket /mnt/s3/ --vfs-cache-mode off \
 --attr-timeout 0s \
 --dir-cache-time 0s \
 --no-modtime

However now this fails:

$ borg list $REPO
Enter passphrase for key /home/dan/.config/borg/keys/mnt_s3_example_repo.3: 
Local Exception
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/borg/locking.py", line 142, in acquire
    os.replace(temp_path, self.path)
ConnectionAbortedError: [Errno 103] Software caused connection abort: '/mnt/s3/example-repo/lock.exclusive.3jbz4czw.tmp' -> '/mnt/s3/example-repo/lock.exclusive


# it actually crashed rclone
goroutine 306253906 [running]:
internal/runtime/maps.fatal({0x427e565?, 0x3c79460?})
        /home/dan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.26.0.linux-arm64/src/runtime/panic.go:1181 +0x20
internal/runtime/maps.(*Iter).Next(0x0?)
        /home/dan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.26.0.linux-arm64/src/internal/runtime/maps/table.go:819 +0x98
github.com/rclone/rclone/vfs.(*Dir).ForgetAll(0x1ca5aa2c0c0)
        /mnt/vault/public_repos/rclone/vfs/dir.go:221 +0xf0
github.com/rclone/rclone/vfs.(*Dir).cacheCleanup(0x1ca5aa2c0c0)
        /mnt/vault/public_repos/rclone/vfs/dir.go:91 +0x8c
created by time.goFunc
        /home/dan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.26.0.linux-arm64/src/time/sleep.go:215 +0x38
        

rclone --version
rclone v1.75.2

[dangbert]

okay so borg init $REPO --bypass-lock is possible but this is not supported for borg create

$ time borg create --bypass-lock --stats $REPO::my-snapshot ./my-data
Error: Not allowed to bypass locking mechanism for chosen command

and running it without --bypass-lock again crashed rclone:

fatal error: concurrent map iteration and map write

goroutine 246142025 [running]:
internal/runtime/maps.fatal({0x427e565?, 0x173e040?})
        /home/dan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.26.0.linux-arm64/src/runtime/panic.go:1181 +0x20
internal/runtime/maps.(*Iter).Next(0x7547a03a4de0?)
        /home/dan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.26.0.linux-arm64/src/internal/runtime/maps/table.go:819 +0x98
github.com/rclone/rclone/vfs.(*Dir).ForgetAll(0x75479f4dc6c0)
        /mnt/vault/public_repos/rclone/vfs/dir.go:221 +0xf0
github.com/rclone/rclone/vfs.(*Dir).cacheCleanup(0x75479f4dc6c0)
        /mnt/vault/public_repos/rclone/vfs/dir.go:91 +0x8c
created by time.goFunc
        /home/dan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.26.0.linux-arm64/src/time/sleep.go:215 +0x38

[dangbert]

I opened an issue here on rclone for the panic on their side rclone/rclone#10071

[ThomasWaldmann]

borg relies on the filesystem really behaving like a posix filesystem. Guess rclone mount is not 100% compatible.

Maybe a more conservative and better working approach for borg 1.x is to have a local or ssh: repo for borg and then have a rclone copy (of the idle repo) on S3.

borg2 is still beta but has builtin cloud support. S3/B2 natively and all sorts of cloud storage also via the rclone backend. Not for production yet.

[dangbert]

Thanks Thomas this is good info. I can maybe squeeze enough disk space to do this temporarily until Borg 2.X is stable. I'm indeed looking forward to the Cloud support 🤩

I will still fiddle around a bit for now and see if I can hack borg 1.x to circumvent the lock issues but it doesn't look meant to be