rsync - Jul 2008 - DO NOT REPLY [Bug 5647] New: A way to make earlier --compare-dest dirs hide later ones

https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5647

           Summary: A way to make earlier --compare-dest dirs hide later
                    ones
           Product: rsync
           Version: 3.1.0
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P3
         Component: core
        AssignedTo: wayned@samba.org
        ReportedBy: matt@mattmccutchen.net
         QAContact: rsync-qa@samba.org


Suppose I have a series of sparse incremental backups and I want to make a new
backup, specifying all the previous ones as --compare-dest dirs.  Any source
file that differs from its last recorded state in the backup series should be
copied to the destination.  However, in the current --compare-dest
implementation, the file is only copied if it differs from *all* recorded
states.  Thus, if the file is changed and then reverted, the reversion won't
be
represented in the backup series.

To fix this, we need a way to make --compare-dest dirs specified earlier on the
command line hide later ones.  Then the correct result is obtained by listing
the previous backups in order from newest to oldest.  Wayne suggested a while
ago that this new behavior should become the default:

http://lists.samba.org/archive/rsync/2007-January/017186.html

I'm not so sure because I have a use case for the current behavior.  In
reviewing obsolete versions of my Web site for content that I might want to
keep, I had several trees with some differences among them.  I wanted to
identify files in one tree that were not matched in any of the other trees and
copy them to a new tree for review, so I used multiple --compare-dest dirs and
relied on rsync to omit files matched in any of the dirs.  Wayne, if this use
case isn't important enough, please feel free to change this report from an
enhancement to a bug and change the default behavior.


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https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5647


wayned@samba.org changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Severity|enhancement                 |minor
             Status|NEW                         |ASSIGNED
            Summary|A way to make earlier --    |A search through the --
                   |compare-dest dirs hide later|compare-dest dirs should
                   |ones                        |stop at the first present
                   |                            |file




------- Comment #1 from wayned@samba.org  2008-08-01 21:34 CST -------
I think the current behavior is broken for the most useful use of multiple
--compare-dest directories.

For your alternative use-case, a less easy way to do the same thing would be to
specify --link-dest and check to see which files ended up with no hard links.


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