XPost: uk.comp.os.linux   
   From: dan@djph.net   
      
   On 2025-10-21, Java Jive wrote:   
   > On 2025-10-21 16:37, Dan Purgert wrote:   
   >>   
   >> rsync cannot "backup" something it doesn't know about or isn't   
   >> changing... likewise your command shouldn't have deleted "extratest"   
   >   
   > My mistake, in my post above I didn't transcribe the process directly   
   > because for other reasons I'd already logged out of the server.  Below I   
   > do so, but get the same result ...   
   >   
   > [...]   
   >   
   > Unfortunately, this doesn't happen with this rsync on these QNAP servers   
   > whether or not I specify an absolute path to elsewhere:   
   >   
   > [user@server Test]# mkdir 1temp 2temp elsewhere   
   > [user@server Test]# touch 1temp/test   
   > [user@server Test]# touch 2temp/extratest   
   > [user@server Test]# rsync -av --backup-dir=elsewhere --delete 1temp/ 2temp/   
   Could be a version thing, yeah. Here's what I'm working with:   
      
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ rsync --version   
   rsync  version 3.2.7  protocol version 32   
   [...more stuff...]   
      
      
   For ref, did the exact commands you posted, just in case my previous   
   test somehow handled the backup-dir because I did rsync without delete   
   first.   
      
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ mkdir 1temp 2temp   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ touch 1temp/test   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ touch 2temp/extratest   
      
     (NB: edited command to deal with line-wrapping)   
      
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ rsync -av --backup-dir=elsewhere --delete \   
                           1temp/ 2temp/   
   sending incremental file list   
   deleting extratest   
   ./   
   test   
      
   sent 116 bytes  received 51 bytes  334.00 bytes/sec   
   total size is 0  speedup is 0.00   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ ls -al 1temp/*   
   -rw-r--r-- 1 dan dan 0 Oct 21 15:32 1temp/test   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ ls -al 2temp/*   
   -rw-r--r-- 1 dan dan    0 Oct 21 15:32 2temp/test   
      
   2temp/elsewhere:   
   total 8   
   drwxr-xr-x 2 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:33 .   
   drwxr-xr-x 3 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:32 ..   
   -rw-r--r-- 1 dan dan    0 Oct 21 15:32 extratest   
      
      
   There might also be the issue that the testing is using zero-byte files,   
   that has caused me heartache in the past.   
      
   Realistically though, as I understand your actual situation, this series   
   of commands is closer to what happened, right?   
      
   (1) Created some new source directory (and files), then ran rsync   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ mkdir -p src/oops dest   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ touch src/oops/somefile.txt   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ rsync -av src/ dest   
   sending incremental file list   
   oops/   
   oops/somefile.txt   
      
   sent 157 bytes  received 39 bytes  392.00 bytes/sec   
   total size is 0  speedup is 0.00   
      
   (2) Realized there was a mistake, corrected the source tree...   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ mkdir src/correct   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ mv src/oops/somefile.txt src/correct/somefile.txt   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ rmdir src/oops   
      
      
   (3)need to re-sync with the destination, and cleanup the wrong files.   
   Dry-run to make sure stuff we expect to happen will happen...   
      
     (NB: edited the command to deal with line-wrapping)   
      
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ rsync -av --backup-dir=backupdir --delete \   
                           --dry-run src/ dest   
   sending incremental file list   
   deleting oops/somefile.txt   
   deleting oops/   
   ./   
   correct/   
   correct/somefile.txt   
      
   sent 130 bytes  received 56 bytes  372.00 bytes/sec   
   total size is 0  speedup is 0.00 (DRY RUN)   
      
   (4) dry-run looked good, so run without that switch.   
      
     (NB: Edited the command to deal with line-wrapping)   
      
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ rsync -av --backup-dir=backupdir --delete \   
                            src/ dest   
   sending incremental file list   
   deleting oops/somefile.txt   
   deleting oops/   
   ./   
   correct/   
   correct/somefile.txt   
      
   sent 170 bytes  received 76 bytes  492.00 bytes/sec   
   total size is 0  speedup is 0.00   
      
   (5) checked the result   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ ls -al src   
   total 12   
   drwxr-xr-x 3 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:42 .   
   drwxr-xr-x 4 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:42 ..   
   drwxr-xr-x 2 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:42 correct   
   dan@framework:~/rsync$ ls -al dest/   
   total 16   
   drwxr-xr-x 4 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:42 .   
   drwxr-xr-x 4 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:42 ..   
   drwxr-xr-x 3 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:43 backupdir   
   drwxr-xr-x 2 dan dan 4096 Oct 21 15:42 correct   
      
      
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