Minor problem with unwritable directories

Elijah P Newren
Sat, 31 May 2003 02:15:11 -0000

Hi,

I'm not a member of the list, but I think I've run across a (minor)
bug.  The rsync web page directed me to this list for bug reports.
Anyway, I've described it below (including a simple test case with exact
commands to reproduce and the output I get from those commands).  I hope
this helps.  Let me know if any more information is needed.

Elijah

P.S. If it isn't a bug, could someone describe to me why this is
expected behavior?  I asked the sysadmin about it and he says it looks
like a bug to him.

-- Description of problem --

  Versions of rsync tested: 2.5.5, 2.5.6

  Clear all write permissions on a directory.  Use rsync to make a
  mirror of that directory (and perhaps other files and directories as
  well).  Without making any changes to any file or directory that was
  just mirrored, immediately run rsync again (I do this often to
  verify that no changes have occurred when mirroring large
  directories with potentially open files--such as when I backup
  /home).  All directories that are not writable--even though
  unchanged--will be sent again.  [Note that unwritable files are not
  transferred again--this only occurs with directories].


-- Set of commands to reproduce problem --

  mkdir -p temp1/some/set/of/subdirectories/
  mkdir temp2
  chmod -R a-w temp1/some/set/of
  rsync -av temp1/ temp2/
  rsync -av temp1/ temp2/


-- Output from those commands --
  # Note the 2nd rsync run and how unwritable directories are listed
  # again

  1190 newren@amr:~$ mkdir -p temp1/some/set/of/subdirectories/
  1191 newren@amr:~$ mkdir temp2
  1192 newren@amr:~$ chmod -R a-w temp1/some/set/of
  1193 newren@amr:~$ rsync -av temp1/ temp2/
  building file list ... done
  ./
  some/
  some/set/
  some/set/of/
  some/set/of/subdirectories/
  wrote 127 bytes  read 20 bytes  294.00 bytes/sec
  total size is 0  speedup is 0.00
  1194 newren@amr:~$ rsync -av temp1/ temp2/
  building file list ... done
  some/set/of/
  some/set/of/subdirectories/
  wrote 127 bytes  read 20 bytes  294.00 bytes/sec
  total size is 0  speedup is 0.00
  1195 newren@amr:~$

--
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Elijah Newren
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