rsync - Feb 2003 - rsync and extended attributes

Hi,

Right now rsync is unable to preserve extended attributes when copying
files. I want to be able to copy files over from one XFS Linux machine to
another XFS Linux machine over the network and I thought rsync would be
better because it supports incremental backup. Also, rsync supports
symlinks, while file copy using rcp, scp, and smbfs do not. It would also
probably be easier to modify than file copy over NFS.


I was wondering if you could give me some direction on what to do so I can
integrate this kind of support into rsync. What would I need to modify in
the source code so rsync could preserve extended attributes when copying? I
would appreciate any input or suggestions that you might have to help me in
this project.


Thanks,
~Eric

Hi,

Right now rsync is unable to preserve extended attributes when copying
files. I want to be able to copy files over from one XFS Linux machine to
another XFS Linux machine running redhat 7.1 kernel 2.4.19-xfs-1.1 on an
i686 over the network and I thought rsync would be better because it
supports incremental backup. Also, rsync supports symlinks, while file copy
using rcp, scp, and smbfs do not.

I was wondering if you knew where rsync does the actual file copy/transfer
so I could try to add extended attribute functionality. I was thinking about
adding code that is similar to getfattr and setfattr to rsync so that when a
file is copied/transfered, the attributes are saved (getfattr), the file is
copied/transferred, then the attributes are restored (setfattr). I'm not
sure if this is a good approach to doing this task, so if anyone has
comments or suggestions, please let me know. If anyone has been working on
this type of project, please get in touch with me because I will be more
than willing to help out.

Thanks,
~Eric