This doesn't always work, a point I might start another thread
about (unless people are happy it being in this thread!). In the
meantime I'll put it all in here... (excuse the length)
I'm new to rsync. My comments are based on trying thing many
options on a few test sets. Feel free to let me know if I'm off the
mark, esp. as this bug (as I see it) seems too obvious to me and
surely has already been considered (?).
Consider the case of a file of the same name on both the source
and the destination. If the types are different, rsync tries to
overwrite the destination file; not an approach I like, but at least
its documented (although a little buried). What's really bad, fatal
IMO, is that --backup doesn't do the expected thing in this situation:
rsync will try to clobber the destination file without making a backup
or letting you know about it. Not nice.
e.g. if you have a _file_ "tracker" on the source and a
_directory_ "tracker" on the destination, rsync will try
delete the directory regardless of what options you give it. I picked
this up as on my system (OSX 1.4.2), as it fails to remove the
directory as its not empty and lets you know about its failure to
remove it. --ignore-existing has no effect in this situation and
--backup doesn't.
Likewise, if the source has a directory "silly-dir" and
the destination has a file of the same name, rsync tries to clobber
the file. In this case, the overwriting happens silently and the old
file is gone with no warning that its over-written anything or a
backup being made.
What ought to happen, IMO, is for --backup to make a backup of
the original file or directory before attempting to copy the new
file/directory over regardless of the types of the files involved.
This smells like a simple logic order thing to me: the test for
needing a backup should be done prior to testing for differing file
types, etc. (I haven't time to look at the code--sorry, I have to get
on with finding an alternative solution.)
Assuming this is "for real", some suggestions/wishes to
the development team (if any of these are already present let me
know!):
1. More logging options. Include an option to report _all_
instances of over-writing a file regardless the event that causes the
over-writing.
2. --backup really must work regardless of the types of the files
involved. Or its not a backup IMO.
3. I'd recommend options for versioned backups. I know the ~
suffix has some history, but what happens if you need to backup a file
that already has a backup? (Aside from appending more tildes.) For
that, I'd prefer either the VMS-style thing of numbered backups (.1,
.2, etc) or preferably what I do in my own scripts--use dates
(.03Sep2005, .04Sep2005, etc). I'd add --numbered-backup-suffix and
--date-backup-suffix, with a --date-format to give the format of the
date string (use the date command's formats). I know --backup-dir= can
address this in a sense, but some may prefer a single hierarchy to
several. Allowing users to enter a date format allows for other
variants to be created, e.g.: -rsync-dup.23Oct05
Enough to keep you going? ;-)
For another topic: --force doesn't seem to work on making rsync
delete destination directories that have files, at least under OSX
10.4.2 without --delete et al.
Grant
Re: Preserving overwritten/deleted items
Wayne Davison
Sat, 24 Sep 2005 12:04:01 -0700
On Sat, Sep 24, 2005 at 12:15:27PM +0200, Christoph Biedl wrote:
> I'd like to keep a copy of these files/links/whatever. Is there a way to
> create a copy of them in another tree right before they are purged?
See the --backup option. It applies to more than just deleted items,
though, but also changed items.
..wayne..
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Grant Jacobs Ph.D. BioinfoTools
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or +64 27 601 5917 (mobile) Dunedin,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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