Article:		Automated Backups on Tiger Using rsync
Subject:		Beware rsync's huge bug...
Date:		2005-07-22 16:31:15
From:		Corvus
Response to: Beware rsync's huge bug...
Thanks Mechanist; I've been using rsync for months and never noticed that. rsync compares file data, it doesn't use the modificatin date, but still... I'll try it with RsyncX.

Showing messages 1 through 5 of 5.

• Beware rsync's huge bug...
  2005-07-23 15:10:41  joseph p.muscara [View]
  
  
  I've been using RsyncX for ages, but the problem I've had lately is that I can't get it to run properly as a cron job. It consistently causes a kernel panic on my 10.4.2 Server. I was hoping that switching to rsync would solve my problems.
  
  If anyone has any suggestions about using RsyncX as a cron job, I'd appreciate it; I did use the fix for the bug in the script generator to make sure the cron job was using /usr/local/bin/rsync.
• Beware rsync's huge bug...
  2005-07-24 05:06:54  Corvus [View]
  
  
  Hi Joseph. Is your problem with rsync or cron? If it's the latter, my suggestion is to use iCal events as shown in the article, not cron.
  
  I know Linux users will be aghast, but I have found iCal events much easier to create, manage, control, and understand than cron. And there is negligible difference in performance if you're just running the command once a day or so.
• Beware rsync's huge bug... (and more)
  2005-07-24 02:49:48  Alexander_Lamb [View]
  
  
  Several remarks here:
  
  1)
  I use file vault. To avoid backuping the sparseimage in addition to the decrypted data, I use this:
  
  sudo rsync -Eavb --delete --backup-dir="/Volumes/alamb_bck/rsync_bck" --exclude="alamb.sparseimage" /Volumes/DATA/Users/alamb "/Volumes/alamb_bck"
  
  However, since I don't want to leave an unencrypted backup on a machine somewhere on the network on on my portable drive, I create an encrypted sparse image that I mount for the destination.
  
  2)
  I managed this mounting from a Windows SMB volume. Doing this you avoid the ressource forks issues. (since you are backuping to hfs+ and not ntfs).
  
  3)
  There is a bug (Apple calls it a feature) which makes rsync recopy systematically ALL the resource forks of the files.
  
  4)
  I consistently had "broken pipe" errors when I had my source volume (where my home is) as hfs+ journaled WITH case sensitivity.
  
  5)
  Some files (other than resource forks) get systematically backed up (iPhoto photos for example). No way to tell why. Obviously it takes ages.
  
  6)
  I never managed to have rsync run consitently with crashing on broken pipes or other issues. For me, it is not ready to prime time on MacOSX (RsyncX had the same problem).
  
  7)
  It looks like there are fewer problems when backuping through rsh with ssh.
  
  8)
  There must be a squeduling issue with rsync. I have a power book with 1 gig ram but when I am runing rsync I hardly can move the mouse or type a text in text edit!!
  
  9)
  Someone on a forum suggested it was the --delete creating problems. But how should I backup correctly without --delete and without at least archiving what is deleted??
  
  Well, I am at the point where the time I wasted trying to make all this work cost me more than a 50$ sync program such as ChronoSync, SynchronizeProX, TriBackup or YouSynchronize.
  
  Any hint as to where I should go to now??
  
  Alex
• Beware rsync's huge bug... (and more)
  2009-04-23 19:11:22  lucidsystems [View]
  
  
  The version of rsync shipping with Mac OS X (10.5.6 and earlier) has various issues. However, if you install the latest version of rsync ( currently 3.0.5) with the appropriate patches for Mac OS X, it is a great backup utility.
  
  The URL below contains instructions for downloading, patching, compiling and installing the latest version of rsync on Mac OS X. Once you have developer tools installed, this e process will typically take less than five minutes. Details at the following URL.
  
  http://connect.homeunix.com/lbackup/developer/rsync_hfs
  
  I hope this helps.
• Beware rsync's huge bug... (and more)
  2007-08-30 04:20:30  Blue80 [View]
  
  
  After many hours and much fiddling trying to get backup happening. Rsync Lart 2.6.6 Darwinports version finally works for me on Tiger
  
  http://rsync-lart.darwinports.com/
  
  The broken pipe errors are finally gone.
  
  Well as good as it can....see Backup Bouncer for independent testing of capability:
  http://www.n8gray.org/blog/2007/04/27/introducing-backup-bouncer/