Question/comment about -n (dry run) flag of rsync

T. Shandelman todd.shandelman at gmail.com
Wed Mar 11 02:17:00 UTC 2020


No problem

On Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 18:05 raf via rsync <rsync at lists.samba.org> wrote:

> raf via rsync wrote:
>
> > T. Shandelman via rsync wrote:
> >
> > > Rsync is a remarkably handy tool that I use virtually every day.
> > >
> > > But there is one thing about rsync that drives me totally crazy.
> > >
> > > Under the -n (dry run) flag, rsync seems to produce exactly the same
> output
> > > as without that flag.
> > >
> > > I cannot tell you how many times I sit and scratch my head long and
> > > hard,after I discover that my intended rsync operations did not
> actually
> > > happen. Until I finally remember that I ran rsync in dry-run mode.
> That's
> > > why! This is especially a problem for very long-running rsync jobs run
> in
> > > dry-run mode.
> > >
> > > It seems to me that when run in dry-run mode, rsync should display a
> > > warning at the very, very end, something like:
> > >
> > > *WARNING: None of the above operations have been actually performed, *
> > > *because you ran rsync in dry-run mode.*
> > >
> > > Or does rsync already have such a feature, and I am not aware of it?
> > >
> > > But if not, that is my vote for the next feature to be added. It
> should be
> > > a very, very easy fix.
> > >
> > > Todd S.
> > > Austin, Texas, USA
> >
> > Bear in mind that it shouldn't happen by default as
> > that could break scripts that parse rsync's output. You
> > should need to request this behaviour in the config
> > file somehow.
>
> Oops. Please ignore that.
>
>
> --
> Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list.
> To unsubscribe or change options:
> https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync
> Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/rsync/attachments/20200310/c06c9ee6/attachment.htm>


More information about the rsync mailing list