rsycnc copies all files

[Stuart Halliday]

> I am making an extraordinary claim: rysnc seems to copy all my files, 
> not just ones that have changed or new files.
> 
> rsync version 2.6.0  protocol version 27
> Debian 3.0 Woody
> 
> I have tested this with one simple file, my example is shown below.
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions to rectify this?

Always use option -c or -t as it doesn't seem to work correctly otherwise.

The use of -a (equivalent to rlptgoD)

which is:
recurse into directories
copy symlinks as symlinks
preserve permissions
preserve times
preserve group
preserve owner (root only)
preserve devices (root only)

seems to be the ideal default.

The documents are awful aren't they?
They talk about rsync ability to transfer files using only the changed aspects. But the docs don't tell you that it doesn't do this by default!
This hads me puzzled for many an hour.

Learning rsync is like climbing a mountain with no shoes - slow and painful.
:-)