Incremental file-list recursion has landed in CVS; Re: RSYNC + iNotify

[Matt McCutchen]

On 8/5/07, Buck Huppmann <buckh at pobox.com> wrote:
> GNU cpio
> (Debian 4.0/2.6-17) doesn't object to being treated so perversely. of
> course, you have to work around stdio buffering . . .

OK, so cpio appears to be a good option for continuous copying using a
single process.  I personally would use repeated invocations of rsync
(perhaps only because I understand rsync better).

> i hate to mention another tool on this list,

I don't think it's bad to mention other tools per se.  If someone asks
how to accomplish something on this list, it's in everyone's interest
to give the best possible solution, regardless of whether it uses
rsync.  This principle is similar to "Describe the goal, not the step"
( http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#goal ) .

People do get annoyed, however, when it appears that a poster's
purpose is to advertise the tool rather than to offer it as a helpful
possibility.  For example, look at the reaction to Jörg Schilling
repeatedly promoting his `star' on the GNU bug-tar mailing list:

http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-tar@gnu.org/msg00360.html

For that reason, I treaded lightly when suggesting my mini-fork of
rsync as a solution to some users' problems about two years ago, and I
was glad to see that doing so didn't seem to create any ill will.  But
I digress.

Matt