Rsync & the changing File 'Date Modified'

[Matt McCutchen]

On 9/4/07, jrradtke <jrradtke at cacs-inc.org> wrote:
> I am using Rsync to backup 4 Linux/Samba servers to a Netware 6.5 server over
> a VPN. Also using cyRsync to backup XP computers to the same Netware 6.5
> server ovre a LAN.
> Rsync is run from a cron job on the Linux servers and the actual process
> works fine.
> However, I have found that when I rsync to the Netware Server from either
> Linux/Samba or Xp, the file Date Modified is changed to something like
> 12/31/2097 for files only, and only for some of the files ... like the ones
> that have been recently modified ...

I suspect the corrupted times are Netware's fault.  Let's talk about
the Linux -> Netware job because it's simpler (no Windows involved).
What is the full rsync command?  Is the Netware server accessed using
rsync's remote capabilities (a remote shell or daemon) or a network
filesystem?

If a network filesystem, try running "touch
--reference=src/path/to/file dest/path/to/file" manually (where
path/to/file represents the path of one of the affected files).  If
the same thing happens to the modification time, then Netware is
definitely at fault, but you might be able to work around the problem
by using remote rsync to the Netware server instead of the network
filesystem.  Here's a version of rsync for Netware (unfortunately it's
quite old):

http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/project/?rsync

Matt