Incorrect Total File Size

[Nittany Jim]

Greetings, 

I am rsync'ing a file approximately 30-50MB in size.  The source file changes several times a day.  rsync is launched on the destination host every 1-2 minutes using the following command: 

/usr/bin/rsync --stats --verbose --bwlimit=16 --delete -Cavz ${hostname}::grids ${localdir} 

Since the file only changes several times a day, most of the rsync commands do nothing.  Most of the time when the source file changes, rsync pulls the source file over just fine. 

Occasionally rsync will "think" it needs to update the destination file when in reality the source file has not been touched for hours.  In those cases, the contents of the destination file do not change, but rsync still seems to "go through the motions."  I noticed that rsync seems to think that the source file's byte count has changed when in reality it has not.  The results of the stats argument shows the following: 

----- 
Number of files transferred: 1 
Total file size: 38595728 bytes 
Total transferred file size: 38595728 bytes 
Literal data: 0 bytes 
Matched data: 36412008 bytes 
File list size: 84 
Total bytes sent: 42362 
Total bytes received: 160 

sent 42362 bytes  received 160 bytes  2932.55 bytes/sec 
total size is 38595728  speedup is 907.66 
----- 

The source file is 36412008 bytes (I confirmed this), yet rsync thinks it is 38595728 bytes.  If I am understanding things properly, rsync attempts to move the updated bytes, finds that in reality nothing changed, and exits.  The next rsync attempt usually recognizes the correct file size. 

Can anyone explain why I am seeing this behavior?  It's not causing huge problems for me, but it is creating some minor annoyances that I would like to resolve. 

The particulars: 

rsync version 2.6.3 protocol version 28 (yes, I know it's old) 
source host: Red Hat 3.4.6-8 
destination host: Red Hat 3.4.6-2 

Any help is greatly appreciated. 

Thanks! 
Jim

       
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