Hi, I'm curious as to why you need a new option rather than just using --link-dest. Both --link-dest and --copy-dest already allow the "two very common restor scenarios" that you mention and --link-dest uses hardly any extra disk space than your --move-dest suggestion. You also get the added advantage that each previous backup continues to look like a full "snapshot".
David 2008/12/9 Josh Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Looking over rsync's --compare-dest, --copy-dest, and --link-dest > options, there's one thing I really wish I could do, and I've been > looking for a few years now for a program that could do it: Instead of > copying or hard-linking from the compare directory to the target > directory, I'd like to move the files. > > That is, whenever the file already exists in the compare directory, it > is moved forward into the target directory; but if the existing file is > different or doesn't exist, then a new file is made in the target > directory. > > The result would be that, after several backups (each to a new > directory, perhaps named with the current date) the most recent > directory would be a snapshot of the source, and each previous directory > would have previous versions of files or copies of deleted files. (This > is effectively the opposite result of --compare-dest, which gives you a > snapshot of the first version of the files, with each successive > directory storing only the changed files.) This makes two very common > restore scenarios very simple: restoring the entire directory tree to > the most recent version after a drive failure, and restoring a previous > version of a single file after it was accidentally over-written, even if > the modified version has since been backed up. > > I looked over the rsync source to see if I could add this functionality > myself, but I'm really not a very good programmer and it's definitely > beyond me. To someone familiar with the source, however, I have to > imagine it would be a fairly straightforward feature to add... just add > replace the copy operation in --copy-dest or the link operation in > --link-dest with a move operation. > > -- Josh > -- > 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 > -- 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