[SOLVED] HowTo? Make rsync copy file names but not contents

haertig · 07-12-2014, 12:48 PM

Is there a way to do this? I have a few directory structures where the filenames ARE the data (the files themselves only contain a few worthless bytes). I could write some custom commands to do this backup, but I was wondering if rsync can be told/tricked into doing this for me, since I already use rsync for all my other backups.

In case anyone is wondering what strange application I have that might need something like this, it is related to how I am using Plex Media Server. Plex manages all my video collection, including all the DVD's I own. The DVDs are not stored on my computer with the other videos, but I create filenames for them just as if they were, and Plex will then catalog them, load metadata and artwork from the internet, etc. Plex will not catalog a zero length file, so I put the bogus text "DVD" inside the files to trigger Plex to process them. And I name the files with an mp4 extension to kick Plex into cataloging them too. These DVD files are obviously small, and backing up their contents would not be a problem, except they are intermixed with other regular video files (of considerable size) that I do not want to back up.

cin_ · 07-12-2014, 01:11 PM

it appears rsync is without any way to simply make empty 'copies' of a directory of files..

seems you will have to homebrew a method

http://superuser.com/questions/50464...only-filenames

haertig · 07-12-2014, 04:05 PM

I went the easy route. Instead of writing a custom script, what I did was move all the placeholder DVD files to their own separate directory. And had rsync skip the main video file directory (that contains large video files), but include the DVD file directory (that has the small 4-byte long DVD-named files). Worked fine. Then I just configured Plex to recognize both the main video file directory AND the DVD directory as the "Movies library". Problem solved!

Apparently rsync can't do what I was proposing. The question of having rsync copy filenames but not contents was not solved, but my underlying goal of accomplishing the backup task at had was solved. Hence, I'm marking this thread as solved anyway. Thanks!