So I'm not quite following your Windows rsync problem. Specifically, do you mean:
"I copied files A, B, and C, and there's still 3 files but each file is bigger" or "I copied files A, B, and C to a directory containing files that I thought were identical using the -b flag but now there's twice as many files because apparently rsync thinks none of them are identical" ? In the former case: Windows and Linux store files on disk differently; I would expect files to be slightly larger on Windows, but like 10%, not double. In the latter case: By default, rsync checks for last-mod-time and size and if those are identical, it treats the file as identical. This will almost never be the case across Linux and windows because they store files differently on disk, so rsync is going to think all the files are different, so if you're using -b it'll take backups of everything. Another things to consider: if a directory is named differently on Windows vs. Linux (i.e. different case on the directory name), rsync will not merge those directories. I suggest walking the directory tree to see where the size differences are, exactly; in Windows I use https://windirstat.net/ , there are various equivalents on Linux (including just using du). On Thu, Jun 09, 2022 at 09:42:27AM -0400, hputn3 wrote: > ---- On Thu, 09 Jun 2022 02:20:02 -0400 Robin Lee Powell > <mailto:robinleepow...@gmail.com> wrote ---- > > > > > It would help if you gave us an example of what you'd *want* to have > > > happen in different situations, but what about the -b option? This > > > will do nothing with identical files but keep both versions of > > > non-identical ones. > > > > > Sorry It seemed obvious to me. Myopia is a sometime hazard for me. > > > > > > I hoped by merging the slightly different directories that have grown up > partially independent but largely the same. > > > > I wanted to pick up what ever changes has occurred in the three different > directories over time, into one directory that has everything. > > > > > > > I have actually done what I was proposing and in the end the size of the > Merged Images directory has doubled. > > > > My original scheme: > > Seemed to work as expected between two Linux HOSTS: There was a size > increase of about 2-300MB > > > > But something screwy happens when rsyncing from windows to linux or unix. I > doubled the size and I'm certain any actual changes would have been fairly > small. However, I suppose if I had decided to move a major internal directory > inside Images or rename one or something... that might cause a serious > problem for rsync to surmount. > > > > On Wed, Jun 08, 2022 at 12:24:16AM +0000, hput via rsync wrote: > > > > > > > > [...] > > > How can I make rsync do the work for me? So I don't end up loosing files. > > > > > > > > > > > > > Robin wrote > > > but what about the -b option? This > > > will do nothing with identical files but keep both versions of > > > non-identical ones. > > > > After pulling out the man pages and looking at that, It might be just the > thing. > > I still have all original unmolested directories so I can try that and see > where it goes. > > > > But what about the thing with windows...causing a doubling of the size of > Images? > > It made me remember having rynced stuff from windows before, long ago, and > seeing some kind of nasty behavior > > I might have to hand merge that directory... and egad at 285G that sounds a > bit daunting. > > > > Thank you Robin for your thoughtful and helpful reply -- Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list. To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
