deleting (empty) directories

[My old address]

I am evaluating rsync for the mirroring of a website and associated
database. To exercise it and establish the correct run string I need I am
running tests LOCALLY between two test directories.

I have a /scratch/temp/Departure and a /scratch/temp/Arrival trees. I
apply changes to the Departure tree, run rsync, and do a diff -r.

Now I delete a file in Departure
rm  Departure/Quattro/uno.file

rsync -vvv -rlptPzu --delete \
  /scratch/temp/Departure/* /scratch/temp/Arrival/

and it does work (deletes file from Arrival/Quattro/uno.file)

Now I delete the only other file in the same directory
rm  Departure/Quattro/due.file

and repeat rsync and it works too.

Now Departure/Quattro is empty so I can remove it
rmdir Departure/Quattro

and repeat rsync .... and the empty directory is NOT removed !!!
Why ?

Apparently if I do the same game one level below (e.g. with
Departure/Quattro/Sub) the empty directory Sub is instead deleted.

I am using rsync version 2.5.5 protocol version 26

Ah, using the --force option does not help. I tried that. From -vvv it
looks like that the missing "top level" directory Departure/Quattro
gets not listed at all (contrary to Departure/Quattro/Sub) and therefore
is ignored ... and Arrival/Quattro is left unchanged.

What am I doing wrong ?

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Lucio Chiappetti - IASF/CNR - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)
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