How do you properly use "--partial"?

[Jason Haar]

[background: we rsync Gbs of data over our WAN, so want to run rsync as
efficiently as possible. We have Linux "rsync servers" that mount local
Windows file servers - i.e we use Linux-rsync to replicate data between
Windows file servers. (why? we found Linux IP stack to be superior over our
WAN)]

I know that "--partial" on it's own merely makes the rsync server process
rename the partially uploaded tempfile back onto the actual filename - but
who actually wants that? I mean - it's effectively a "corrupt" file.

Is there a way to make rsync keep partially (down|up)loaded files, but keep
them separate from the actual end dir until they are finished? I was hoping
"--link-dest"/etc were for that, but they appear to assume you are
willing to run duplicates of the entire tree you are wishing to synchronize
- which isn't an option for us...

I would have thought "--partial" could have been written so that any
partially transmitted file could be kept in a dir separate from the real
data, and when the transfer successfully finishes, renamed/copied into the
live area...

Am I missing something obvious here?

-- 
Cheers

Jason Haar
Information Security Manager, Trimble Navigation Ltd.
Phone: +64 3 9635 377 Fax: +64 3 9635 417
PGP Fingerprint: 7A2E 0407 C9A6 CAF6 2B9F 8422 C063 5EBB FE1D 66D1