Preserve Windows Symlinks

[Kevin Korb]

Not quite.  I meant rsync a symlink then delete the source symlink and
use rsync to restore it from what rsync made.  If the target of the
symlink doesn't exist on the other system (in the same place) then the
symlink shouldn't work on the remote but rsync can still backup it up
and restore it.  At least that is how it works in *nix.

On 12/29/20 11:34 AM, Edwin Bradford wrote:
> Yes I found --checksum is much slower so following your feedback I'll do
> some more reading to see if I really need it thanks. Assuming I
> understand correctly I did the following test and also replaced absolute
> symlink paths with relative symlink paths which worked this time:
> 
> 1. I deleted and recreated the Windows symlinks on the source volume
> using relative paths.
> 2. I deleted and recreated the same symlinks directly on the destination
> volume.
> 3. I ran the same rsync command with the --archive flag (preserve symlinks).
> 
> The result was the symlinks on the destination volume were preserved or
> at least not destroyed by the subsequent sync. If this test is what you
> intended then it shows rsync can preserve the symlink between NTFS
> volumes but I would have to manually recreate the symlinks on the
> destination NTFS volume once.
> 
> Have I understood correctly? 
>  
> 
> On Tue, 29 Dec 2020 at 13:53, Kevin Korb via rsync
> <rsync at lists.samba.org <mailto:rsync at lists.samba.org>> wrote:
> 
>     If you delete the link then restore it does it start working again when
>     in the correct place?
> 
>     Also, don't use --checksum unless you are really certain you understand
>     how terribly slow it is and how it doesn't actually accomplish much of
>     anything (certainly not any kind of data verification).
> 
>     On 12/29/20 7:29 AM, Edwin Bradford via rsync wrote:
>     > Is it possible to preserve Windows symlinks when backing up from
>     NTFS to
>     > NTFS volumes or any other for that matter?
>     >
>     > I am running rsync in Ubuntu in Windows Subsytem for Linux on
>     Windows 10
>     > backing up a local NTFS volume to an external NTFS volume (and
>     also to a
>     > remote Unix server).
>     >
>     > The source NTFS volume has symlinks created in Windows using:
>     >
>     >     mklink the\link the\file
>     >     mklink /d the\link the\directory
>     >
>     > I am running rsync within a long shell script with the command:
>     >
>     >     rsync
>     >     --verbose --archive --checksum --itemize-changes --human-readable
>     >     --delete --delete-excluded --partial --progress --stats
>     >     --exclude-from='ignore.txt'
>     >     source/ destination
>     >
>     > The symlinks are copied to the external NTFS partition and have
>     the same
>     > name but no functionality. Windows doesn't recognise them as symlinks,
>     > doesn't know what to do with them and there is no apparent difference
>     > between symlinked directories and files.
>     >
>     > I tried creating the symlinks with relative paths on the source volume
>     > but rsync generated an error and refused to complete. Using
>     --copy-links
>     > instead of --links (implicit in --archive) gives the expected
>     behaviour
>     > but I would prefer to preserve symlinks rather than replace them with
>     > their linked contents.
>     >
>     > At this point I'm not sure if it's a limitation of rsync and NTFS
>     > compatibility or whether I'm missing something.
>     >
>     > + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
>     >
>     > Email: edwinbradford at gmail.com <mailto:edwinbradford at gmail.com>
>     <mailto:edwinbradford at gmail.com <mailto:edwinbradford at gmail.com>>
>     >
>     > Tel.: +44 (0)7981 873 771
>     >
>     > + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
>     >
> 
>     -- 
>     ~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,
>             Kevin Korb                      Phone:    (407) 252-6853
>             Systems Administrator           Internet:
>             FutureQuest, Inc.               Kevin at FutureQuest.net  (work)
>             Orlando, Florida                kmk at sanitarium.net
>     <mailto:kmk at sanitarium.net> (personal)
>             Web page:                       https://sanitarium.net/
>     <https://sanitarium.net/>
>             PGP public key available on web site.
>     ~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,
> 
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-- 
~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,
	Kevin Korb			Phone:    (407) 252-6853
	Systems Administrator		Internet:
	FutureQuest, Inc.		Kevin at FutureQuest.net  (work)
	Orlando, Florida		kmk at sanitarium.net (personal)
	Web page:			https://sanitarium.net/
	PGP public key available on web site.
~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,