delete not working with multiple source directories

[Robert DuToit]

Hello All,

I have lately heard from a  couple of people that delete option was not deleting extraneous files on destination. This only happens when there are several source directories and at destination some show delete working and others not. I can not reproduce the issue so it is hard to pinpoint. 

one example:

This is on OSX Mavericks running rsync 3.0.9 with the usual osx patches and options

rsync -aHAXN --fileflags --force-change --protect-decmpfs --exclude-from=/tmp/BLexclusions.txt --stats —delete —progress -vvv /Applications /Library /Users /Volumes/Backup

So  with /Applications /Library /Users  being source, only /Applications shows files being deleted. Removing /Applications and the two other directories work with delete fine. Even changing the order has same result. The exclude file shows only one directory in /Applications. 

I asked user to try different (new) external drive - same results. 

I’m stumped as there are no rsync errors. Rsync progress shows everything fine and mentions files deleted in /Applications and nowhere else.

I am not very good with rsync source but perhaps there are areas I could look where --delete might be disabled for whatever reasons? 

There are usually ACL's on both /Applications and /Library in OSX

0: group:everyone deny delete

but this is overridden by rsync as root any ways…  usual regular permissions on all directories as well. 

Any thoughts appreciated

Thanks,  Rob