Is rsync copying over the entire file? Sent bytes matches actual file size.

[Michal Soltys]

Hedley J. Phillips wrote:
> Question 2:
> 
> The time taken to run the command is the same with or without the
> switch. Why is this? I would expect the command with the no whole file
> switch to run faster as it only has to transfer a portion of the entire
> file.
> 

Do you mean precisely the same, or maybe just felt similar ?

Either way - to know which portion(s) to transfer, rsync has to read 
(and process) the file on both ends, and update the destination file 
accordingly.

http://rsync.samba.org/tech_report/node2.html

With --whole-file it's just read here, write there. If the bandwidth for 
the transfer is large, it will likely be faster.