On Sun, 2002-11-24 at 20:48, Adrian Ho wrote: > On Sun, Nov 24, 2002 at 05:46:06AM -0500, Jeff Bearer wrote: > > I'm trying to write a script that runs rsync to pull files and then > > detect which ones of them have changed. The problem is when I run rsync > > without the -t flag the mtime gets updated every run, not only when the > > file changes. It this a bug, by design, or un-avoidable? > > By design -- "man rsync" and read the "-t" option description.
But if the file isn't modified, the modified time shouldn't be updated, from my testing I've found out that it is. The description of -t does not explain that it should behave that way. When a modified file is synced without the -t flag both the atime and the mtime should be the same, then the next rsync it should only update the atime if the file has not changed. > > Is there any way to make rsync behave as desired? > > Yeah, and you mentioned it in your problem description. Is there a > reason why you can't use "-t"? -t sets the mtime of the file to the same as the mtime on the source file. That doesn't help with the -N file test operator because the atime will always be after the mtime so it will never return true. I forgot to mention that I'd prefer not to store any meta data about the file, and if I used the -t flag I'd have to store the mtime and compare it to the mtime of the file every run to see if it's changed. I'm still interested on a fresh idea on how to find modified files after a rsync, without storing meta data. -- Jeff Bearer, RHCE Webmaster, PittsburghLIVE.com Winner 2002 Eppy Award, Best U.S. Newspaper Website -- To unsubscribe or change options: http://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
