Hi all,
I would like to run rsync in a way that only add files or replaced edited files but it never removes something.

For example lets say that there is a hardware error on my source and instead of my 20.000 files only shows 2 (file system error, hard disk error whatever).
I do not want the rsync to say "Hey the 20.000 files now became 2. Remove the 20.000 and just keep the 2"

Right now I am calling rsync as :
rsync -rav -e ssh [source] [destination]

How I can improve my rsync to never remove something that is already copied?

I would like to thank you for your reply

Regards
Alex

You're already doing that.

To expand on that, rsync only deletes files at the target location when it is run with one of the --delete options. More info on that with

Cool.. so if my source files for some reason are moved.. (Virus, system administration, whatever) I will still keep them in my back up external hard disk

Regards
Alex

yes, you might also want to consider multiple directories for backups too. IE: dow Mon, Tue, etc...

Yes, but it has a downside. If you move or rename a large piece of data (say a directory) it is moved on your source disk, but duplicated on your backup disk.

As long as you take this into account there is no problem.

Since you should have at least 2 backup disks anyway (one disk might crash or get damaged during use) you can run rsync on purpose with the --delete switch when you are sure your second backup is sound.

jlinkels

Thanks guys
Alex