rsync - Nov 2003 - Implemented "--exclude-old" in rsync

Hi,

I'm using rsync to keep several file servers in sync. Uploads to the 
data  can be placed at any time on any server. I'm using the extended 
N-way backup, following the example from the two way backup in the FAQ:

rsync --archive --update rsync::first/files files (on second, third)
rsync --archive --update rsync::second/files files (on first, third)
rsync --archive --update rsync::third/files files (on first, second)

I'm looking for a way to "phase out" old files (>60 days).
Currently,
I'm running 'find files -mtime +60 | xargs rm -f' after each rsync,
to
remove the oldest files from the local server. This approach is working 
OK when all the servers run the cleanup job at the same time.

However, with large number of files, the rsync/find are happend on 
different time on different servers. As a result, old files are being 
removed by the cleanup job, are getting restored by on the next rsync 
from other servers that are still processing the previous rsync/cleanup 
job. The file can get "ping-pong"ed for several times, until it get 
removed from all servers at the same time.

Does anyone has any idea if it's possible to add "exclude-old
<days>" to
'rsync' - which will instruct rsync to exclude files older than a 
specific date ?

Thanks
Yair Lenga

-t will preserve the timestamps.

Andy

On Thu, Nov 06, 2003 at 02:43:12PM -0500, Yair Lenga
wrote:
> Does anyone has any idea if it's possible to add "exclude-old
<days>" to
> 'rsync' - which will instruct rsync to exclude files older than a 
> specific date ?
I'd suggest looking into "unison", which is designed to sync data
in
both directions.  With it, you'd just run the cleanup job on one machine
and the files would vanish on the other machines during the next unison
run.

As for an rsync-related solution, you could keep a list of all the files
you just removed and use it as an exclude list for incoming transfers.
You could trim the list as soon as all the systems were known to have
finished the cleanup job.

..wayne..