rsync - May 2026 - fileflags

Hi Lena,
One of the problems with the patches archive was we had no idea if
anyone was using it, so its purpose as a staging area for changes to
go into the main release didn't work very well.
Now I know FreeBSD included it I could create a PR for it to go into a
future release as a standard feature.
I don't run FreeBSD myself so I won't do testing beyond CI runs.
I'll
also need to think about how the change may impact systems like Linux
that don't have chflags
Cheers, Tridge

On Tue, 19 May 2026 at 15:35, Lena via rsync <rsync at lists.samba.org>
wrote:
>
> Under FreeBSD, /usr/ports/UPDATING warns:
>
> > This file documents some of the problems you may encounter when
upgrading
> > your ports.  We try our best to minimize these disruptions, but
sometimes
> > they are unavoidable.
> >
> > You should get into the habit of checking this file for changes each
time
> > you update your ports collection, before attempting any port upgrades.
> >
> > 20260515:
> >   AFFECTS: Users of net/rsync
> >   AUTHOR: rodrigo()FreeBSD.org
> >
> >   Since rsync 3.4.2, the rsync project removed support for the
unmaintained
> >   rsync-patches archive. As a consequence options such as File system
flags
> >   (--fileflags) are not available anymore in default build.
>
> I use rsync for daily local backup from SSD to HDD,
> so that in an emergency I should be able to boot from the HDD.
> For that I use
>
> --fileflags --force-change
>
> My solution is to lock the rsync port at rsync-3.4.1_7 version,
> preventing upgrade to 3.4.2 and further. Is this what you want users to do?
> Are there plans to add the --fileflags option again?
>
> Or is there another way to do the same with rsync (not backup|restore)?
>
>
> --
> Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list.
> To unsubscribe or change options:
https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync
> Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Hi Andrew,
> Now I know FreeBSD included it I could create a PR for it to go into a
> future release as a standard feature.
Please do. Thank you.
> > I use
> >
> > --fileflags --force-change
> > Are there plans to add the --fileflags option again?

On May 19, 2026, at 01:39, Andrew Tridgell via rsync
wrote:
> 
> One of the problems with the patches archive was we had no idea if
> anyone was using it, so its purpose as a staging area for changes to
> go into the main release didn't work very well.
> Now I know FreeBSD included it I could create a PR for it to go into a
> future release as a standard feature.
MacPorts has been using the fileflags.diff patch since 2008. It was added to
resolve this bug report:

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/15472

We started using crtimes.diff at the same time, until it was merged into the
main sources in rsync 3.2.3.

We also used the hfscompression.diff patch since 2012 to resolve this feature
request:

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/35514

but rsync 3.1.3 broke that. I recall discussing that matter with rsync
developers at that time. Reenabling this feature remains an open to-do for us:

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/60792

And had been for the rsync project as well until the repository was archived:

https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync-patches/issues/1

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/rsync/attachments/20260520/7c2a2f77/attachment.htm>