warnings on symlinks using link-dest

[Wayne Davison]

On Fri, Feb 03, 2006 at 10:00:27AM -0500, George Georgalis wrote:
> rsync: symlink "/sawmill/backup/sawmill/snapshot/2006.02.03.0000.01/sawmill/home/geo/comphome" -> "/sawmill/comp/home/geo" failed: File exists (17)

That's a strange error that I haven't seen before.  The "File exists"
part of the message comes from interpreting the errno returned from a
symlink() call, so that's what the OS is telling rsync is going wrong.
The call that rsync tried to make is symlink($2, $1), where $2 is the
second name mentioned in the error (the referent) and $1 is the first
name mentioned in the error (the symlink to create).  Rsync should
remove anything that was in the way of the symlink (which you say should
not be there, due to the directory starting out empty).  When an error
occurs, ls the first name and see if something is there.  Perhaps there
is a second rsync running and the two are trying to create symlinks for
in the same places?

..wayne..