Hi, Our organization hosts a specialized Linux distribution.
As is typical with Linux distributions, the set of files that make up our Linux distro contains a very complex web of self-referential hard links. Several other sites use our Linux distro and maintain either partial or full internal mirror copies of it. The standard method used by Linux mirror sites to pull/replicate a subset of a Linux distribution (or a complete Linux distribution) from a master repository is to use rsync with options that produce the following behavior: the first time a unique file is encountered, it's content is replicated; however, when subsequent hard links to the file are detected, only the hardlinks are replicated. The primary copy of our Linux distro is stored on our BlueArc Titan NAS (NFS server). Relative to the mirror-sites, our rsync server "sits in front of" the NAS. Internally the BlueArc Titan has a unique object id for files; however, the inode ID presented to clients by the BlueArc Titan is not unique, rsync (with -H option) is erroneously identifying unique files as a hard-links to different files. Causing mirror repositories to be essentially corrupt and not usable. It is my understanding that the NFS v3 spec. does not require NFS servers to present unique inode ids to clients. I believe that the reasoning is that: large scale NAS appliances internally need to use very wide object ids; but, externally need to present (when asked) inode ids that any client an deal with. Are there options to rsync that will allow me to reliably replicate my hard-link rich Linux distro from my NAS. Thanks Andy -- 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