Question about rsync and BIG mirror

[Jamie Lokier]

jp wrote:
> 100gb of 4-40MB files sounds like my home PC full of digital photos I've 
> taken. It backs up to a linux PC right beside it with rsync. I don't 
> really call it that big a project for rsync. Big things for rsync are 
> millions of files. At 100mbps, it takes a few seconds to build the list. 
> I use the -W option to copy the whole file instead of mess with 
> incremental on a fast network. The linux PC running rsync only has 
> 768MB, athlon 1700, and runs X, so it's nothing special.

Hmm.  My home directory, on my laptop (a mere 60GB disk), does contain
millions of files, and it takes about 20 minutes to build the list on
a good day.  100Mbps network, but it's I/O bound not network bound.

It looks a lot like the number of files is more significant than the
amount of data at this scale.

-- Jamie