How to fix bup make AssertionError: assert not date.startswith(b'$Format')
Problem:
While trying to build bup
using make
you see the following error message:
set -e; bup_ver=$(./bup version); \
echo "s,%BUP_VERSION%,$bup_ver,g" > Documentation/substvars.tmp; \
echo "s,%BUP_DATE%,$bup_ver,g" >> Documentation/substvars.tmp
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 196, in _run_module_as_main
return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "/home/uli/dev/deb-buildscripts/bup/lib/bup/main.py", line 181, in <module>
cmd_module = import_module('bup.cmd.'
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1050, in _gcd_import
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1027, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 688, in _load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 883, in exec_module
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 241, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "/home/uli/dev/deb-buildscripts/bup/lib/bup/cmd/version.py", line 5, in <module>
from bup import options, version
File "/home/uli/dev/deb-buildscripts/bup/lib/bup/version.py", line 20, in <module>
assert not date.startswith(b'$Format')
AssertionError
make: *** [GNUmakefile:252: Documentation/substvars] Fehler 1
Solution
This error occurs because bup
can’t determine the correct version & date for bup
. This happens because you deleted the .git
directory which bup
needs in order to determine its version.
You can create a clone of bup with the .git
directory intact by just cloning, for example, the specific version you want to build:
git clone -b 0.33 --depth 1 https://github.com/bup/bup
and then run
./configure
make -j4
as usual