breakage? when using --ignore-times with --link-dest

[Matt McCutchen]

On 8/30/07, Ray and Sandie Clark <rclark03 at rochester.rr.com> wrote:
> I am trying to use --ignore-times with --link-dest and find that all
> files are duplicated inappropriately (IMHO).

This is by design.  --link-dest does not hard link in a basis file
unless rsync trusts that it has the same data as the source file, but
--ignore-times tells rsync never to trust that a source and
destination file have the same data.

> I am using rsync with the --link-dest option to perform backups to a
> local USB disk.  It works great without the --ignore-times option, but
> now I want to add that option to make it more bulletproof.

I would recommend --checksum as a way of bulletproofing the system
without nullifying --link-dest.

Matt