Install rdiff-backup on centos 7

Question

I'm having trouble installing rdiff backup on Centos 7. Every google search is telling to get this https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/r/rdiff-backup-1.2.8-11.el7.x86_64.rpm one way or the other but it yields a 404. So I tried installing development tools and building it from source.

python --version
Python 2.7.5

python setup.py install
running install
running build
running build_py
creating build
creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7
creating build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/backup.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/robust.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/iterfile.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/user_group.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/lazy.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/increment.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/log.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/FilenameMapping.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/fs_abilities.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/regress.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/statistics.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/rpath.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/manage.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/metadata.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/TempFile.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/Rdiff.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/restore.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/static.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/Main.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/Time.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/hash.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/eas_acls.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/rorpiter.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/Hardlink.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/Globals.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/SetConnections.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/selection.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/Security.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/connection.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/__init__.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/librsync.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/win_acls.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/compare.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
copying rdiff_backup/longname.py -> build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/rdiff_backup
running build_ext
building 'rdiff_backup.C' extension
creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -m64 -mtune=generic -D_GNU_SOURCE -fPIC -fwrapv -DNDEBUG -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -m64 -mtune=generic -D_GNU_SOURCE -fPIC -fwrapv -fPIC -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c cmodule.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/cmodule.o
cmodule.c:24:20: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory
 #include <Python.h>
                    ^
compilation terminated.
error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

The build fails. No idea if it has something to do with 2009 or something else, but man this is annoying. This worked a few months ago on my old box.

Answer 1

At the very least, the link is wrong, but https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/Packages/r/rdiff-backup-1.2.8-13.el7.x86_64.rpm does exist.

But frankly, you usually don't need to install packages by bypassing the repository mechanisms (which means you wouldn't get updates for the package); in particular in this case, where the third-party repository is EPEL, which is about as established and trustworthy as it gets. In fact, the repository data needed to enable EPEL are even shipped as part of CentOS these days.

So what I would advise you to do is

sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install rdiff-backup

(unless you have an urgent need for a newer version of rdiff-backup than the one provided on EPEL – as with everything RH/CentOS, we like our versions on the stable to ancient range.)