rsync - Apr 2008 - "Date Created" missing on files transferred from an ext3 file system to an NTFS file system

I'm using rsync 2.6.9 to transfer tiff files from a linux RHEL 5 server 
to an NFSv3 directory exported by a NAS running Windows Storage Server 
2003 R2 sp2.  The NAS is running Microsoft Services for NFS.

The rsync command I'm using is:

rsync -auz --remove-source-files /m2/archives /nfs-destination

The problem I'm having is that ~50% of the files that are moved are 
missing a creation date.  The main problem with this is that the backup 
software always thinks that they are new versions and always backs them 
up during an incremental backup.  I also haven't found a good way of 
supplying the creation date on files that have already been moved the 
the NAS.

If anyone can provide insight into this problem, I will be grateful.

Kor

On Fri 25 Apr 2008, Kor Kiley wrote:
> The rsync command I'm using is:
>
> rsync -auz --remove-source-files /m2/archives /nfs-destination
>
> The problem I'm having is that ~50% of the files that are moved are  
> missing a creation date.  The main problem with this is that the backup  
There is no such thing as a "creation date" in unix/linux.
Commonly people misinterpret the "ctime" field as having something to
do
with "creation", but actually the C stands for "inode
change".
Hence the ctime will be updated if you change the owner of a file, or
make a hard link to the file; anything that changes the information in
the inode.

Of course, I don't know what your combination of NFS over an NTFS disk
does with such "unix" concepts...


When data is copied with rsync, the ctime field should contain the current
timestamp. Not having any ctime would be surprising. It would help if
you explained exactly why you think the "creation date" is missing,
what
tools have you used to determine this and what exactly do they show?
> software always thinks that they are new versions and always backs them  
> up during an incremental backup.  I also haven't found a good way of  
"Backup software" should look at the modification time, not at the
"creation date" or ctime. Is this "backup software"
something different
than rsync?


Paul Slootman