destination dir doubles in size

[Martin Pool]

On 22 Sep 2001, Ralph Brown <php4u at pacbell.net> wrote:
> I am using Rsync to mirror my primary drive to a mounted second 
> drive. I am using a crontab to control it: 
> 
> 30 3 * * * /usr/bin/rsync -rpogl /* /mnt/backup2/systemBackup/ 
> 
> The first run seems fine. But the subsequent running seems to double 
> the original directory size. I notice this by running df -k. The 
> destination size increases two fold, as if each time Rsync runs, it 
> repeats itself, rather than skipping over unmodified files. Do i need 
> to change a switch?  FYI, i am running RH 7.1. 

So, /mnt is one of the directories that will be matched by /*.  I 
think you will find all of /mnt/backup2 has been copied to 
/mnt/backup2/systemBackup/mnt/systemBackup/.

You can avoid this with

  --exclude /mnt

you probably also want

  --exclude /proc 

and perhaps some others.

-- 
Martin