[SOLVED] faulty, but not corrupted .tar.bz2 when using tar from bash script

[muton]

I made my first backup script. It tars three directories.
/etc -> /media/Storage/backup/etc.tar.bz2
/root -> /media/Storage/backup/home/root.tar.bz2
/home/matthew -> /media/Storage/backup/home/matthew.tar.bz2

etc.tar.bz2 and root.tar.bz2 come out ok, but something happens with matthew.tar.bz2. when i run 'tar -xjf matthew.tar.bz2' my system hangs for a minute or so. switching terminals still works, but any new process won't run... tar doesn't report the file as possibly corrupted, only an unrecoverable error.

I get this from bzip2

bzip2: I/O or other error, bailing out. Possible reasons follow:
bzip2: Input/output error
         Input file = (stdin) Output file = (stdout)
tar: unexpected EOF
tar: unexpected EOF
tar: unrecoverable error

my script is below, is the problem in the script or is bzip2 compressing a file it shouldn't? i made the exclude list to contain any open files in use

update: if i comment out all lines except for variables, mounting, and "tar ... $HOMEDIR/matthew.tar.bz2 /home/matthew", the archive is fine

#!/bin/sh
THISPARTITION="no"
UNMOUNTATEND="yes"
FSTYPE="ext2"
PARTITION="/dev/hda4"
MOUNTPOINT="/media/Storage"
TARFLAGS="-pcjf"
BROADCASTTTYS="/dev/tty1 /dev/tty2 /dev/tty3 /dev/tty4"
matthewEXCLUDE="--exclude-from /root/.backup_exclude"
#
NOARCHIVE="no"
#
if [ $THISPARTITION != yes ]; then
	echo "* mounting $FSTYPE partition $PARTITION on $MOUNTPOINT"
	if [ -e $MOUNTPOINT/Library ]; then
		umount -t $FSTYPE $PARTITION
	fi
	sleep 1
	mount -t $FSTYPE $PARTITION $MOUNTPOINT
fi
for i in /dev/tty1 /dev/tty2 /dev/tty3 /dev/tty4 /dev/tty5; do 
	echo "backup started" > $i
done
if [ -e /dev/pts/0 ]; then
for i in /dev/pts/*; do
       	echo "backup started" > $i
done
fi
sleep 5
if [ $NOARCHIVE != yes ]; then
CONFDIR="/media/Storage/backup/etc"
HOMEDIR="/media/Storage/backup/home"
etcbz="$CONFDIR/etcbk.tar.bz2"

if [ -e $etcbz ];
then
    mv $etcbz $etcbz.old
    cp /home/matthew/.xinitrc /home/matthew/.xinitrc.bk
    echo "OLD FILE: moved $etcbz -> $etcbz.old"
    printf "tar now archiving /etc to $etcbz\n"
    tar $1 $TARFLAGS $etcbz /etc
    else
	# FOR NEW SYSTEM
	echo "tar creating $etcbz from your /etc directory"
	tar $1 $TARFLAGS $etcbz /etc
fi

roothomebz="$HOMEDIR/root.tar.bz2"
if [ -e $roothomebz ];
then
    mv $roothomebz $roothomebz.old 
    echo "OLDFILE: moved $roothomebz -> $roothomebz.old"
    printf "tar now archiving /root to $roothomebz\n"
    tar $1 $TARFLAGS $roothomebz /root
    else
	# FOR NEW SYSTEM
	echo "tar creating $roothomebz from your /root directory"
	tar $1 $TARFLAGS $roothomebz /root
fi
for i in $BROADCASTTTYS; do
	echo "/root backup done" > $i
done

matthewhomebz="$HOMEDIR/matthew.tar.bz2"
if [ -e $matthewhomebz ];
then
    mv $matthewhomebz $matthewhomebz.old 
    echo "OLDFILE: moved $matthewhomebz -> $matthewhomebz.old"
    printf "tar now archiving /home/matthew to $matthewhomebz\n"
    printf "excluding:\n"
    echo "$(cat /root/.backup_exclude)"
    tar $1 $matthewEXCLUDE $TARFLAGS $matthewhomebz /home/matthew
    else
	echo "tar creating $matthewhomebz from your /home/matthew directory"
	tar $1 $matthewEXCLUDE $TARFLAGS $matthewhomebz /home/matthew 
fi
for i in $BROADCASTTTYS; do
	echo "/home/matthew backup done" > $i
done
if [ -e /dev/pts/0 ]; then
for i in /dev/pts/*; do
	echo "/home/matthew backup done" > $i
done
fi
sleep 2
# end NOARCHIVE if
fi

if [ $UNMOUNTATEND = yes ]; then
	echo "* unmounting $PARTITION"
	umount -t $FSTYPE $PARTITION
else
	echo
fi
for i in $BROADCASTTTYS; do 
	echo "backup's done" > $i
done
if [ -e /dev/pts/0 ]; then 
for i in /dev/pts/*; do
	echo "backup's done" > $i
done
fi

[nmset]

One comment : why do you include $matthewEXCLUDE in the tar command when archiving /home/matthew ?

One suggestion : add a sync command before unmounting.

Don't know if it will solve your problem.

[muton]

i thought the problem may be open file in use, tar was reporting "file changed as we read it". so I used lsof and made a list to be used with --exclude-from that contained any files that were in use when i had all my programs running. $matthewEXCLUDE includes this list.

i tried using sync, still the same problem. thanks for the suggestion though.

[nmset]

But $matthewEXCLUDE points to /root/.backup_exclude and not to /home/matthew/.backup_exclude, and it is used while archiving /home/matthew.
This will not solve the problem though.

[muton]

yeah i moved it, I thought it may have been causing problems by being in /home/matthew. sorry about that

[muton]

when $1 was empty, it caused a double blank and tar does not like this coming before --exclude-from. I moved $1 to after $matthewEXCLUDE, fixed.