Rsync create folders recursively?

Toasterman · 08-12-2014, 01:39 PM

I have BackupPC installed which uses rsync automatically every night. As of now I can only restore files one directory deep. However, this will not work for me as I have many files and folders which need to be copied. Is there a switch for rsync that will do this?

For example, if I needed to restore a file to /var/lib/a/b/ where a and b do not currently exist, the restore would fail and I get the following error in BackupPC:

Code:

Remote[1]: rsync: mkdir "/var/lib/a/b/" failed: No such file or directory (2)
Remote[1]: rsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at main.c(576) [receiver=3.0.6]

Thanks in advance.

keefaz · 08-12-2014, 02:18 PM

-r option ?

man rsync

Code:

OPTIONS SUMMARY
       Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
       to the detailed description below for a complete description.
[...]
 -r, --recursive             recurse into directories
[...]

Toasterman · 08-12-2014, 03:17 PM

Thank you but the recursive option is already enabled. Also, that recursive option deals specifically with what is being copied and restored. It won't create the parent folders of the restore destination. I was hoping there was some way to do this automatically.

szboardstretcher · 08-12-2014, 03:20 PM

Are you trying to use rsync from the command line to do this? Or are you using BackupPC?

From what I remember, BackupPC has to be used to restore BackupPC backups.

Toasterman · 08-13-2014, 07:41 AM

I am using BackupPC to restore backups but I'm getting the rsync error through BackupPC. The interface allows me to enter custom switches for rsync if there is anything that will accomplish what I need.

Beryllos · 08-15-2014, 01:06 AM

Perhaps it is not allowed by the permissions of the directory you are restoring to, or the rsync process is running under a user account that does not have permission to write in that directory.

pan64 · 08-15-2014, 05:41 AM

I have discussed something like this with the authors of rsync and the conclusion was something like this:
rsync does not care about the dirs outside of the content (to be synced). So if they (parts of the path to the root) were not yet created rsync will fail.