Also having this problem -only appeared after upgrading to moodle 3.6.x? Looking at files.xml in one of the many, it appears to be in reference to a label (an active label - not recycled). Not sure why this isn't just included in the course backup in autobackup?
I'm still seeing this problem. The "activity" files seem to be associated with course administrators who are trying to re-use activities from one course in another course. In one case the system has created over twenty "versions?" of the same activity and all of them are backed up during the automatic course backup. I found a reference in backup.class.php but I still don't know why the backups are being created.
/**
* Abstract class defining common stuff to be used by the backup stuff
*
* This class defines various constants and methods that will be used
* by different classes, all related with the backup process. Just provides
* the top hierarchy of the backup controller/worker stuff.
*
* TODO: Finish phpdocs
*/
abstract class backup implements checksumable {
// Backup type
const TYPE_1ACTIVITY = 'activity';
const TYPE_1SECTION = 'section';
const TYPE_1COURSE = 'course';
I haven't found anything in the Site Administration menus that allows me to control the "activity" backup. Whatever routine is creating them is ignoring the Automated Backup Setup parameters because it keeps making backup copies of "activities" that haven't been altered.
The references that I can find in the documentation indicate that "activities" can be backed up by the course admins but those should be kept in the user's private file area and not become part of the system automatic course backups. (Which is in a completely different directory)
Meanwhile I have begun running a command to limit the amount of space eaten up by these files.
find /home/moodle/autocoursebackups/ -ctime +21 -name "*activity*" -delete
My gut feeling is that this problem is similar to the one that I found last year where backing up a course was treated as a change to the course so that they were perpetually included in the auto backups https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-61578
Another victim of the law of unintended consequences.
/**
* Abstract class defining common stuff to be used by the backup stuff
*
* This class defines various constants and methods that will be used
* by different classes, all related with the backup process. Just provides
* the top hierarchy of the backup controller/worker stuff.
*
* TODO: Finish phpdocs
*/
abstract class backup implements checksumable {
// Backup type
const TYPE_1ACTIVITY = 'activity';
const TYPE_1SECTION = 'section';
const TYPE_1COURSE = 'course';
I haven't found anything in the Site Administration menus that allows me to control the "activity" backup. Whatever routine is creating them is ignoring the Automated Backup Setup parameters because it keeps making backup copies of "activities" that haven't been altered.
The references that I can find in the documentation indicate that "activities" can be backed up by the course admins but those should be kept in the user's private file area and not become part of the system automatic course backups. (Which is in a completely different directory)
Meanwhile I have begun running a command to limit the amount of space eaten up by these files.
find /home/moodle/autocoursebackups/ -ctime +21 -name "*activity*" -delete
My gut feeling is that this problem is similar to the one that I found last year where backing up a course was treated as a change to the course so that they were perpetually included in the auto backups https://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-61578
Another victim of the law of unintended consequences.
Is this problem still actual for Moodle sites running with 3.5.x? We have the same problem with these backups that are created in our automated backup directory. Every day more than thousand files are created.