rsync -a --update resets status of newer target directories

[Matthias Schniedermeyer]

On 15.01.2014 17:45, Arvid Requate wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> this is a question regarding the behavior of the --update option for the 
> recursive replication of directories. rsync 3.0.7-2 shows the following 
> behavior on a Debian squeeze system (ext4):
> 
> After running the following commands the adjusted ownership of the 
> subdirectory /tmp/dst/sub below the target directory is overwritten and its 
> newer modification time is reset to that of the older corresponding source 
> directory:
> 
> ####################
> mkdir -p /tmp/src/sub
> rsync -auAX   /tmp/src/   /tmp/dst
> 
> # now adjust target and update it's mtime
> chown nobody /tmp/dst/sub
> touch /tmp/dst/sub
> 
> # mtime and ownership gets reset to root during next rsync:
> rsync -auAX   /tmp/src/   /tmp/dst
> ####################
> 
> This cought me by surprise, as I expected the --update option to cause rsync 
> to consider the modification timestamp of the target subdir as newer and skip 
> it. This works for files, but doesn't seem to apply to directories.
> 
> Is this behavior intended? If so, is there a combination of options or a  
> workaround to avoid changing the status of the target subdirectory (while 
> still synchronizing its content)?

As rsync is a tool for unidirectional(!) synchronization of differences 
between file-trees. I would think: Yes. That is intended behaviour.

I don't seen an option to only exclude directories if newer, but there 
is an option to ignore directory-times completely: --omit-dir-times




-- 

Matthias