LinuxQuestions.org - rsync --del option

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rsync --del option

Hello LQites

What is the difference between:

1) rsync -av --del /dir_one /dir_two
and
2) rsync -av --del /dir_one/ /dir_two

Does option 1 delete all data on the destination folder /dir_two if directory /dir_one does not exist on /

Thank you.

MS

Hi there,

The best way to learn is to just try it yourself :-)

If /dir_one doesn't exist, the command will fail BEFORE deleting anything, so --del has no effect in that case, and behaves no differently in these 2 cases.

The only difference between the two commands is in what the destination directory structure will look like.

If /dir_one contains file_three, the first command will result in /dir_two/dir_one/file_three, while the second command will result in /dir_two/file_three.

Regards,

Clifford

test it out.

Code:

cd

mkdir /dir_one /dir_two

touch /dir_one/file1

touch /dir_one/file2

rsync -av --del /dir_one /dir_two

cd /dir_two

ls -alh

# look at the results

Code:

cd

rm -rf /dir_one /dir_two

mkdir /dir_one /dir_two

touch /dir_one/file1

touch /dir_one/file2

rsync -av --del /dir_one/ /dir_two

cd /dir_two

ls -alh

# look at the results

Code:

cd

rm -rf /dir_one /dir_two

mkdir /dir_one /dir_two

touch /dir_one/file1

touch /dir_one/file2

rsync -av --del /dir_one/ /dir_two

rm -rf /dir_one/file2

rsync -av --del /dir_one/ /dir_two

cd /dir_two

ls -alh

# look at the results