rsync - Aug 2015 - [Bug 11423] New: rsync 3.1.x is creating empty backup directories

https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11423

            Bug ID: 11423
           Summary: rsync 3.1.x is creating empty backup directories
           Product: rsync
           Version: 3.1.1
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: major
          Priority: P5
         Component: core
          Assignee: wayned at samba.org
          Reporter: adsh at univ.kiev.ua
        QA Contact: rsync-qa at samba.org

Running the command

$ rsync -a --delete --backup --backup-dir=../old source/ dest/

with version 3.1.0 gives the output

Created backup_dir ../old/

even when no files are copied to the backup directory. I usually add the
current time to the backup directory name, which means I end up with many empty
directories. With version 3.0.9 of rsync, a backup directory was only created
if needed.

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--- Comment #1 from Kevin Korb <rsync at sanitarium.net> ---
Just a fellow user here but...

Isn't it worth it to you to spend 4KB of disk space and 1 inode to record
that
a backup happened and that no files were replaced or deleted during that
backup?

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--- Comment #2 from adsh at univ.kiev.ua ---
It's request from not me only:

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/150378/rsync-3-1-0-is-creating-empty-backup-directories?rq=1

I search for solution to fix it like other peoples...

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--- Comment #3 from adsh at univ.kiev.ua ---
With construction like:

--backup-dir=/var/backups/www/old/`date +%F`

I see backup dirs with changed files only.

Rsync 3.1.x break this backup feature.

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--- Comment #4 from roland <devzero at web.de> ---
if rsync befor 3.1.0 created backup dir only when needed, i think the behaviour
should be changed to the old one - it sounds reasonable what you tell.

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Wayne Davison <wayned at samba.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
         Resolution|---                         |DUPLICATE

--- Comment #5 from Wayne Davison <wayned at samba.org> ---


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 10724 ***

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Wayne Davison <wayned at samba.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Resolution|DUPLICATE                   |WONTFIX

--- Comment #6 from Wayne Davison <wayned at samba.org> ---
I misread this bug as a duplicate of 10724, which is talking about empty dirs
down inside the top-level backup dir.  Sorry about that.

The newest rsync creates the top-level backup dir early so that the user gets
some feedback if they didn't expect the dir to get created.  It also ensures
that rsync has a better idea if backups are going to succeed or not in total (a
failure to find and/or make the backup dir causes the transfer to abort
immediately).  This change is as designed, and I'm not planning to change
it.

For your scripted backup use, you could follow an rsync run with:

rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty "$BACKUP_DIR"

if you want to ensure that an empty dir is removed.

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--- Comment #7 from adsh <adsh at univ.kiev.ua> ---
adsh at gw:~>mkdir test
adsh at gw:~>rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty test/
rmdir: illegal option -- -
usage: rmdir [-pv] directory ...
adsh at gw:~>uname -sr
FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p21

adsh at Launcher:~>mkdir test
adsh at Launcher:~>rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty test/
rmdir: unknown option -- -
usage: rmdir [-p] directory ...
adsh at Launcher:~>uname -sr
OpenBSD 5.4

There are many other OS in the World besides Linux...

Many peoples want use old program functionality, not dirty hack solution.

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--- Comment #8 from adsh <adsh at univ.kiev.ua> ---
You simply may add program code to remove empty backup-dir after sync is done
for compatibility with older versions.

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--- Comment #9 from Kevin Korb <rsync at sanitarium.net> ---
While it is true that 'rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty
"$BACKUP_DIR"' is GNU
(not Linux) specific it is also true that 'rmdir "$BACKUP_DIR"
> /dev/null
2>&1' is POSIX specific.  If you want even more compatibility here is
the
[t]csh version: rmdir "$BACKUP_DIR" >& /dev/null

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--- Comment #10 from adsh <adsh at univ.kiev.ua> ---
There is example how to remove all garbage backup-dirs in FreBSD without pipes
in one line:

find /var/backups/www/old/ -type d -maxdepth 1 -empty -delete

but all this solutions are dirty hacks, not well-established rsync
functionality.

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--- Comment #11 from Philip Rhoades <phil at pricom.com.au> ---
How is this resolved? The change in behaviour is a major PITA  . .

Phil.

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Wayne Davison <wayned at samba.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Resolution|WONTFIX                     |FIXED

--- Comment #12 from Wayne Davison <wayned at samba.org> ---
While I continue to like the new early verification of the top-level backup dir
at the start of the transfer, I've been persuaded to have it go back to not
creating the directory until it is needed.  Fixed for upcoming 3.1.2 release.

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