On Thu, May 08, 2008 at 09:34:07PM -0400, Matt McCutchen wrote: > This is to continue my discussion with Carl [...] about whether > no-tweak mode should become rsync's default when --inplace is not > specified.
I completely reject this idea. The --inplace option is all about data updating, not attribute updating. Most of the time when I'm copying things, I want rsync to modify file attributes in-place, and I almost never want it to modify a file's content in-place. So joining those two disparate things into a single option would be counter productive. I also don't want to change the default because most of the time when a user is using rsync ad-hoc, it is not being used for a backup. When it is, the command has usually been setup in a script that we can expect to have been configured with the right options. So, I think changing rsync's default would inconvenience users. Rsync currently supports the full preservation of attributes in an incremental-backup scenario by copying into an empty hierarchy of files using one of the --*-dest options (usually --link-dest). Anything different is a method of copying that rsync does not currently support (without an extra patch that adds an additional option). It's not that unreasonable to want to do this, but at the moment if you're using link- dest into a directory of existing files, you're telling rsync that you care more about disk space and less about the history of file attributes (which is a choice that some folks have made when doing this). ..wayne.. -- 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