On Mon, 2010-05-03 at 05:53 -0700, Jim Preston wrote: > Dennis Peterson wrote: > > > > Rsync is able to transfer only the differences between two files > > provided a version of the file being transferred exists on the source > > and the destination. In addition, rsync will not transfer anything if > > it determines there are no changes between the two files. > > Is this true for binary files as well? or just text files?
Rsync treats all files as binary. When finding changes it splits a file into blocks, computes a checksum for each block and performs a comparison between the sending and receiving side. Then it only sends the blocks which have changed. When dealing with a text file which has been appended to, like a log, all the initial blocks are the same. But if the file is sorted, it's possible only a few additional lines will disrupt most every block by changing the start offsets through out the entire file. -- Chris _______________________________________________ Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide: visit http://wiki.clamav.net http://www.clamav.net/support/ml
