rsync - Jun 2010 - Prevent --max-delete from deleting any files?

Is there a way to prevent rsync from deleting any files if --max-delete is
exceeded?
I want to avoid having my hourly cron job inadvertently destroy my backup a
chunk
at a time.  By morning, the damage would already be done.  Ideally, it should
just
stop and not sync or delete anything since something is horribly wrong.

The only way I could see to do it is by running rsync twice - something like:

  rsync --dry-run -a --delete --max-delete=1000 /foo /bar && rsync -a
--delete --max-delete=1000 /foo /bar


I found bug 2408 (https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2408) that
described my concerns:
> If you specify the --max-delete option to rsync and there are more files to
be
> deleted than the specified number, all the deletes upto that number are
normally
> performed and other files that would otherwise be deleted are now silently
> ignored. Also, if more files are scheduled for removal, no error code is
returned.
> 
> The --max-delete option is especially usefull if by some misconfiguration a
> great number of files would be deleted. If it is a job that runs daily, all
the
> files would be silently deleted after a few days rather than all at once
more or
> less defeating the purpose.
> 
> What I would like to see would be a test that would exit rsync with an
error
> code if too many deletes would take without actually deleting any files.
> Returning an error code is the least that should be done IMHO.

The response was:
> ------- Comment #4 From Wayne Davison 2005-03-06 00:02:57 CST [reply]
-------
> I have updated the source in CVS so that it complains at the end of the run
and
> returns a new status code (25) when the max-delete value is exceeded.  It
also
> mentions how many deletions were skipped.  This will let you run rsync with
> --dry-run --max-delete=1 to see a count of the number of deleted files
minus
> one. I don't have any plans to make rsync check the delete count
automatically
> before starting the deletions.

While adding the return code was a big improvement, is there any possibility of 
revisiting this issue to prevent deletions altogether if something is wrong?  
Perhaps a new option such as --max-safe-delete or something?  While I understand
that it is inefficient to count up all the files in advance before doing the 
deletions, it cannot be as inefficient as having to run rsync twice.

Thoughts?

Regards, 

Marco Moreno

Haven't heard anything...any thoughts on this?

Marco


On Jun 2, 2010, at 1:30 PM, Marco Moreno wrote:
> Is there a way to prevent rsync from deleting any files if --max-delete is
exceeded?
> I want to avoid having my hourly cron job inadvertently destroy my backup a
chunk
> at a time.  By morning, the damage would already be done.  Ideally, it
should just
> stop and not sync or delete anything since something is horribly wrong.
> 
> The only way I could see to do it is by running rsync twice - something
like:
> 
>  rsync --dry-run -a --delete --max-delete=1000 /foo /bar && rsync
-a --delete --max-delete=1000 /foo /bar
> 
> 
> I found bug 2408 (https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2408) that
described my concerns:
> 
>> If you specify the --max-delete option to rsync and there are more
files to be
>> deleted than the specified number, all the deletes upto that number are
normally
>> performed and other files that would otherwise be deleted are now
silently
>> ignored. Also, if more files are scheduled for removal, no error code
is returned.
>> 
>> The --max-delete option is especially usefull if by some
misconfiguration a
>> great number of files would be deleted. If it is a job that runs daily,
all the
>> files would be silently deleted after a few days rather than all at
once more or
>> less defeating the purpose.
>> 
>> What I would like to see would be a test that would exit rsync with an
error
>> code if too many deletes would take without actually deleting any
files.
>> Returning an error code is the least that should be done IMHO.
> 
> 
> The response was:
> 
>> ------- Comment #4 From Wayne Davison 2005-03-06 00:02:57 CST [reply]
-------
>> I have updated the source in CVS so that it complains at the end of the
run and
>> returns a new status code (25) when the max-delete value is exceeded. 
It also
>> mentions how many deletions were skipped.  This will let you run rsync
with
>> --dry-run --max-delete=1 to see a count of the number of deleted files
minus
>> one. I don't have any plans to make rsync check the delete count
automatically
>> before starting the deletions.
> 
> 
> While adding the return code was a big improvement, is there any
possibility of
> revisiting this issue to prevent deletions altogether if something is
wrong?
> Perhaps a new option such as --max-safe-delete or something?  While I
understand
> that it is inefficient to count up all the files in advance before doing
the
> deletions, it cannot be as inefficient as having to run rsync twice.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Regards, 
> 
> Marco Moreno
> 
> -- 
> 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

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 10:30 AM, Marco Moreno <mmoreno at pobox.com>
wrote:
> Is there a way to prevent rsync from deleting any files if --max-delete is
> exceeded?

No, there is no way to do that.  You could tweak the source to change
--delete-delay so that it ignores the delay list if the list grows too long,
but that is not something that is currently supported.

..wayne..
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/rsync/attachments/20100618/768f9da6/attachment.html>