rsync - Sep 2005 - mtime of target directory

Hello,

I just observed something strange:

rsync -av --exclude /USER/NoBackup --exclude '*.NTX' 
--compare-dest=/backup/novell/vollbackup /mnt/novellserver/SYS/
/backup/novell/ziel

rsync -av --exclude /USER/NoBackup --exclude '*.NTX' 
--compare-dest=/backup/novell/vollbackup/PUBLIC /mnt/novellserver/SYS/PUBLIC/
/backup/novell/ziel

For debugging purposes (saving time) I used rsync for one directory within 
the usual tree only (the second case). The target directory is a symlink.

Only in the second case the mtime of the target directory is set to the one 
of /mnt/novellserver/SYS/PUBLIC/, the parent directory of the data to be 
handled. This happens with rsync version 2.6.3.


Best regards

Hauke

On Fri, Sep 23, 2005 at 03:24:28AM +0200, Hauke Laging
wrote:
> rsync -av --exclude /USER/NoBackup --exclude '*.NTX' 
> --compare-dest=/backup/novell/vollbackup /mnt/novellserver/SYS/
/backup/novell/ziel
> 
> rsync -av --exclude /USER/NoBackup --exclude '*.NTX' 
> --compare-dest=/backup/novell/vollbackup/PUBLIC
/mnt/novellserver/SYS/PUBLIC/ /backup/novell/ziel
That's inconsistent in what gets copied.  In the first case, the PUBLIC
subdir would get created in /backup/novell/ziel.  In the second case,
the contents of the PUBLIC dir would get put into /backup/novell/ziel,
moving it up a level.  Did you mean to leave off the trailing slash from
the PUBLIC in the source?  Or did you forget the PUBLIC dir in the
destination?
> Only in the second case the mtime of the target directory is set to
> the one of /mnt/novellserver/SYS/PUBLIC/, the parent directory of the
> data to be handled.
Please clarify this.  You say that /backup/novell/ziel is a symlink,
right?  If both of those commands are run exactly as you stated, then
the directory that /backup/novell/ziel points to will be updated with
the time of the source directory in both cases -- more specifically,
the dot dir is being copied, so either /mnt/novellserver/SYS/. or
/mnt/novellserver/SYS/PUBLIC/. would be affecting /backup/novell/ziel/.
(which is presumably a directory in another part of the filesystem).

..wayne..