What does it mean to copy symlinks in rsync?
“Copy symlinks as symlinks” means exactly what it says: If rsync sees a symlink in the source directory, it will create an identical symlink in the destination. Nothing more. (A few lines down in the manual page, a different option, –copy-links, describes the opposite behavior (always copying the data) which you described as undesirable.)
Is it possible to delete all files in rsync?
The rsync command wont delete any file while you use some of its options delete in that command. So if any file or folder added in source, it’ll be synced to target without any deletion. I suggest you to use rsync for make backup from source files and use find rm for deletion files for period of time or size of files:
What does it mean when Link is broken in rsync?
This is okay, it doesn’t matter if the links are broken in the backup directories so long as they would be fixed and working if such time comes when they need to be restored. “Copy symlinks as symlinks” means exactly what it says: If rsync sees a symlink in the source directory, it will create an identical symlink in the destination.
Why is there no link flag in rsync?
Fearing (but not certain) that rsync -a would copy all those media files I instead added the –no-links flag. This does not seem to be behavior I want. It just ignores copying any link which is problematic because I do have links I want copied (e.g. links to common header files from different project directories).
Is there way to delete system / nrcalc in rsync?
As you showed, system/nrcalc is a symlink on the local system, but it’s a directory on the remote server. If the directory on the remote system is not empty, rsync will refuse to delete it (to make way for the symlink) unless you specify –force or one of the –delete options.
What’s the difference between symbolic links and copy links?
Nothing more. (A few lines down in the manual page, a different option, –copy-links, describes the opposite behavior (always copying the data) which you described as undesirable.) If –links is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same target on the destination.