--link-dest and file/dir transfer to remote rsync daemon

[Alexander Grahn]

Hi NG,

I want to do incremental backups to a remote server running rsyncd
(because daemonless transfer via ssh often hangs!). In contrast to
transfer via ssh (without remote rsyncd) this doesn't seem possible, or
do I miss something?

Imagine I want to incrementally backup `mydir' to the backup space
`backup' on e remote server `alpha' running an rsync daemon. rsyncd on
`alpha' is configured as follows:

  [backup]
    path = /home/grahn/backupdir

If I run:

  rsync --port=54321 -a -v --link-dest=../yesterday mydir alpha::backup/today

on the local machine, the directory structure

  /home/grahn/backupdir/today/mydir/test.txt

is created on remote `alpha'. Contrary to what was expected, the file
`test.txt' which hasn't changed since yesterday is not hard linked to

  /home/grahn/backupdir/yesterday/mydir/test.txt

On the other hand this works (transfer via ssh tunnel):

  rsync -a -v --link-dest=../yesterday mydir alpha:backupdir/today

The hard link is created, as expected.

What's wrong with the first (remote rsyncd) approach?

Thanks for any piece of advice!

Alex