I am trying to transfer files between two OSX machines using a FAT32
formatted flash drive. I am transferring a "big" directory (7G).
Basically I want to sync everyday my home and work computers for some
directories.
I tried many possible rsyncs (original supplied, fink 3.0.5/3.0.4
macports 3.0.5, rsync-2.6.3+hfsmode-1.2b2, 3.0.6+fileflags+crtimes)
What I would really like to happen is:
all additional HFS attributes of files are tranferred, and
when no or few changes occur, nothing or little should be copied or
transferred, so I can go home quickly.
I am currently using 3.0.6+fileflags+crtimes, with the following command:
sudo rsync -aNHAXx --fileflags --force-change --modify-window=1 SRC DST
I get errors of the type:
rsync: get_xattr_names:
llistxattr("masking/figures/._intro_err_2tissue_worst_best_add1.pdf",1024)
failed: Operation not permitted (1)
These errors occur, I think, trying to access files that store xattr
on the FAT32 drive. They occur even in a trial run (-n). What is
interesting is that if I run rsync several times consecutively, I get
a different set of files that report these errors - each odd run one
set, and on the even run another.
In addition, I see files that are transferred every time - even when
no change happens. These seem to be directories and some of the
attributes files (._*)
I tried to use bbouncer to check what is copied correctly. For this I did
sudo rsync -vaNHAXx --fileflags --force-change --modify-window=1
/Volumes/Src/ /Volumes/FAT32/DST
sudo rsync -vaNHAXx --fileflags --force-change --modify-window=1
/Volumes/FAT32/DST/ /Volumes/Dst/
and then compared the results with
sudo bbouncer verify /Volumes/Src /Volumes/Dst
Here are the results:
Verifying: basic-permissions ... FAIL (Critical)
Verifying: timestamps ... stat: ./some-file: stat: No such
file or directory
FAIL (Critical)
Verifying: symlinks ... ok (Critical)
Verifying: symlink-ownership ... FAIL
Verifying: hardlinks ... stat: link1: stat: No such file or directory
stat: link2: stat: No such file or directory
stat: link3: stat: No such file or directory
FAIL (Important)
Verifying: resource-forks ... FAIL (Critical)
Verifying: finder-flags ... ok (Critical)
Verifying: finder-locks ... ok
Verifying: creation-date ... ok
Verifying: bsd-flags ... ok
Verifying: extended-attrs ... ok (Important)
Verifying: access-control-lists ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying: fifo ... FAIL
Verifying: devices ... FAIL
Verifying: combo-tests ... FAIL
Can I do better? Should I use different patches, different version,
different flags? Should I just give up and transfer only the files (no
-X), or try to use an HFS formatted partition on a flash drive?