Home • Explore • Blog • CI
☰



man-pages
20th chunk of `rsync.man`
37e28e56ba4e823a6b04bd55d8413900ac39451fcc4d9b220000000100000fd8
 gets appended using the
              --backup‐dir and --suffix options.

              If you don’t specify --backup‐dir:

              1.     the --omit‐dir‐times option will be forced on

              2.     the use of --delete  (without  --delete‐excluded),  causes
                     rsync to add a "protect" filter‐rule for the backup suffix
                     to  the  end  of all your existing filters that looks like
                     this: -f "P *~".  This rule prevents previously  backed‐up
                     files from being deleted.

              Note  that  if  you  are supplying your own filter rules, you may
              need to manually insert your own exclude/protect  rule  somewhere
              higher up in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be
              effective (e.g. if your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclu‐
              sion of *, the auto‐added rule would never be reached).

       --backup‐dir=DIR
              This  implies  the  --backup option, and tells rsync to store all
              backups in the specified directory on the receiving  side.   This
              can  be used for incremental backups.  You can additionally spec‐
              ify a backup suffix using  the  --suffix  option  (otherwise  the
              files backed up in the specified directory will keep their origi‐
              nal filenames).

              Note  that  if  you specify a relative path, the backup directory
              will be relative to the destination directory,  so  you  probably
              want  to  specify  either  an absolute path or a path that starts
              with "../".  If an rsync daemon is the receiver, the  backup  dir
              cannot go outside the module’s path hierarchy, so take extra care
              not to delete it or copy into it.

       --suffix=SUFFIX
              This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used
              with  the  --backup (-b) option.  The default suffix is a ~ if no
              --backup‐dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.

       --update, -u
              This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on  the  destina‐
              tion and have a modified time that is newer than the source file.
              (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to
              the  source  file’s,  it will be updated if the sizes are differ‐
              ent.)

              Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks,  or
              other  special  files.  Also, a difference of file format between
              the sender and receiver is  always  considered  to  be  important
              enough  for an update, no matter what date is on the objects.  In
              other words, if the source has a directory where the  destination
              has  a  file,  the  transfer  would occur regardless of the time‐
              stamps.

              This option is a TRANSFER RULE, so don’t expect any exclude  side
              effects.

              A  caution  for those that choose to combine --inplace with --up‐
              date: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on
              the receiving side that has a very recent modified time,  so  re‐
              running  the  transfer will probably not continue the interrupted
              file.  As such, it is usually best to avoid combining  this  with
              --inplace  unless you have implemented manual steps to handle any
              interrupted in‐progress files.

       --inplace
              This option changes how rsync transfers  a  file  when  its  data
              needs  to be updated: instead of the default method of creating a
              new copy of the file and moving it into place  when  it  is  com‐
              plete, rsync instead writes the updated data directly to the des‐
              tination file.

              This has several
Title: Rsync: Backup Directories, Suffixes, Update, and In-Place Options
Summary
This section of the rsync documentation details the use of the '--backup-dir' option to specify a directory for storing backups on the receiving side and explains its implications for relative paths and daemon receivers. It also describes the '--suffix' option for overriding the default backup suffix. The '--update' option is explained, which skips files on the destination with a newer modified time than the source file. Finally, the '--inplace' option is introduced, which modifies the way rsync updates files by writing directly to the destination file instead of creating a new copy.