is it a bug or a feature? re:time zone differences, laptops, and suggestion for a new option

[Robert Scholten]

>Dear Tim, Martin,

Thanks for helping with this.  I tried setting TZ=UTC at both ends, and 
discovered that for some reason the files had a 1-hour timestamp 
difference.  Not sure how that happened, but clearly not an rsync 
problem.  I have added a note on this to my web page for PC users 
(http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_pc1.html):

rsync tries to convert all file timestamps into UTC at both ends. If 
seemingly identical files with the same timestamp seem to be transferring, 
try this at both ends:
      export TZ=UTC
      ls -l --full-time file_in_question
If the remote and local files have the same timestamp, and they're still 
transferring, then you have a different problem.

BTW, I have recently found another problem with using rsync on 
Windows/cygwin platforms.  I had an exclude/include file list in dos format 
(cr/lf pairs instead of newlines).  Oh boy did that create some 
fun.  include/exclude rules are funny enough without the weird behaviour of 
matching added CR's.  In my rsync scripts I now run dos2ux on these lists 
before executing rsync.

Thanks again for your help.  I live and breathe by rsync now that I'm 
20,000km from hom.
Rob.


>Robert Scholten <r.scholten at physics.unimelb.edu.au>
>Sent by: rsync-admin at lists.samba.org
>04/04/2002 04:14 AM
>
>
>         To:     rsync users <rsync at lists.samba.org>
>         cc:     (bcc: Tim Conway/LMT/SC/PHILIPS)
>         Subject:        is it a bug or a feature?  re:time zone 
> differences, laptops,  and
>suggestion for a new option
>         Classification:
>
>
>
>
> >Hi,
>
>I am using rsync to back up some files from a WinXP laptop to a Linux
>server.  The two machines are in different time zones (8 hour
>separation).  It seems that rsync wants to do a full checksum on every
>file
>because it thinks their time stamps are different.
>
>Example:
>          GMT is 9am, Local time (Netherlands) 10am, remote time
>(Australia) 8pm
>
>In this case, the file was created and copied to both machines with the
>same timestamp (e.g. 8pm) when both machines were in the same timezone
>(Australia).  Then I changed countries with my laptop, and ran
>rsync.  After rsync, the remote (Linux) file has a new timestamp which 8
>hours earlier (e.g. 10am).
>
>I guess that in some sense, rsync "thinks" they were created at different
>universal times, and after rsyncing, they are matched to the same UTC.
>
>This is OK after I have done it once, but would it be possible to tell
>rsync that if the timestamp difference is the same as the current time
>difference, it should ignore?  Or just change the timestamp rather than
>doing a full checksum?  I could write a script to run on the Linux box, to
>
>change the timestamps by the 8-hour time diff, and revert when I return to
>
>Australia, but surely this happens regularly to other people with laptops?
>
>Or am I totally confused?
>
>Any help will be appreciated.
>Thanks,
>Rob.
>
>
>
>--
>Robert Scholten
>Eindhoven University of Technology
>Physics Department, building N-laag room g2.02
>P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven
>The Netherlands
>
>Tel:    +31 40 247 4242
>Mobile: +31 611 430 467
>Fax:    +31 40 245 6050
>
>email: r.scholten at physics.unimelb.edu.au
>http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~scholten
>
>
>
>--
>To unsubscribe or change options:
>http://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync
>Before posting, read: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

--
Robert Scholten
Eindhoven University of Technology
Physics Department, building N-laag room g2.02
P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven
The Netherlands

Tel:    +31 40 247 4242
Mobile: +31 611 430 467
Fax:    +31 40 245 6050

email: r.scholten at physics.unimelb.edu.au
http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~scholten