rsync - Jan 2012 - disable interpretation of trailing slash

Hello,

This is a feature request for a command-line option to disable special
interpretation of trailing slashes on source directories.  I have been
using rsync for a couple of years now (what an awesome program!) and the
meaning of the trailing slash on a source is always the one aspect of
its syntax that slows me down and makes me check and re-check the manual
to ensure that I have remembered its behavior correctly.  The likelihood
of making a mistake with a trailing slash is compounded by the fact that
shell completion (e.g. in bash) puts it there by default, and it was
this very behavior that caused me to be a little too carefree last week
and mess up a large backup.  While the trailing slash is a powerful and
useful feature, it also strikes me as risky to have so much power built
into a single character of syntax, especially a character which usually
has no special meaning in other programs.  Others I have chatted with on
this topic shared the same view.  My feature request then, is for a
command line switch to disable the special interpretation of the
trailing slash on sources.  A short option would be preferred.  My
reasoning is that it is easier to remember to always use a particular
option, except in situations requiring more nuance, than it is to
remember the special rule and to always check the syntax of the sources.

Thank you for your time.

-- 
John Foerch

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I don't speak for anyone else but I would be opposed to this.
Primarily because there isn't an alternate syntax that performs the
exact same function /path/* doesn't work as expected if using --delete
(and for good reason).

On 01/07/12 21:40, John J Foerch wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> This is a feature request for a command-line option to disable
> special interpretation of trailing slashes on source directories.
> I have been using rsync for a couple of years now (what an awesome
> program!) and the meaning of the trailing slash on a source is
> always the one aspect of its syntax that slows me down and makes me
> check and re-check the manual to ensure that I have remembered its
> behavior correctly.  The likelihood of making a mistake with a
> trailing slash is compounded by the fact that shell completion
> (e.g. in bash) puts it there by default, and it was this very
> behavior that caused me to be a little too carefree last week and
> mess up a large backup.  While the trailing slash is a powerful
> and useful feature, it also strikes me as risky to have so much
> power built into a single character of syntax, especially a
> character which usually has no special meaning in other programs.
> Others I have chatted with on this topic shared the same view.  My
> feature request then, is for a command line switch to disable the
> special interpretation of the trailing slash on sources.  A short
> option would be preferred.  My reasoning is that it is easier to
> remember to always use a particular option, except in situations
> requiring more nuance, than it is to remember the special rule and
> to always check the syntax of the sources.
> 
> Thank you for your time.
> 
- -- 
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On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 6:40 PM, John J Foerch <jjfoerch at
earthlink.net>wrote:
> This is a feature request for a command-line option to disable
> special interpretation of trailing slashes on source directories.

One solution is to install a bash script (or setup a bash function) in
place of the real rsync that strips a single trailing slash from each arg.
 That lets you specify dir// if you want to copy a dir's contents. 
Here's
one I did some mild tesing on and it appears to work OK:

#!/bin/bash
args=()
for arg in "${@}"; do
    # Strip a single trailing slash from each arg (if present)
    args=("${args[@]}" "${arg%/}")
done
echo /usr/bin/rsync "${args[@]}"
#exec /usr/bin/rsync "${args[@]}"

When you're satisfied with that, comment out the echo and uncomment the
exec.  Install it somewhere on your path ahead of the real rsync, or rename
the real rsync (tweak the script to exec the right binary) and install the
script in place of the current rsync binary.

..wayne..
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