I have read either conflicting information or could not find any information about the behavior of rsync under certain situations, and was hoping someone here could clarify a few points for me:
1. Let's say I have a 4 GB file that is monitored by rsync. If I rename this file but make no other changes to its content, will rsync recopy the entire 4 GB file again with the new name and then delete the original, or is it smart enough to just rename the existing file?
2. Let's say I have the same 4 GB file that is monitored by rsync. If I change one byte of this file AND rename it, will rsync recopy the entire 4 GB file again with the new name and delete the original, or is it smart enough to rename the existing file and change only the single byte?
3. Will rsync successfully copy files if they are in use when rsync is running? Does it capture all changes that have been committed to the file up to that point? I don't recall ever receiving an error from rsync claiming that a file was in use and could not be copied, yet the MS synctoy tool will not sync files that are currently in use. Why is this?
4. How could using the --whole-file option ever be faster than using the differential transfer option? I read the section in the rsync man page about this, but I don't get it. How could it ever be faster to send the entire file instead of just the changes?
1. Let's say I have a 4 GB file that is monitored by rsync. If I rename this file but make no other changes to its content, will rsync recopy the entire 4 GB file again with the new name and then delete the original, or is it smart enough to just rename the existing file?
2. Let's say I have the same 4 GB file that is monitored by rsync. If I change one byte of this file AND rename it, will rsync recopy the entire 4 GB file again with the new name and delete the original, or is it smart enough to rename the existing file and change only the single byte?
3. Will rsync successfully copy files if they are in use when rsync is running? Does it capture all changes that have been committed to the file up to that point? I don't recall ever receiving an error from rsync claiming that a file was in use and could not be copied, yet the MS synctoy tool will not sync files that are currently in use. Why is this?
4. How could using the --whole-file option ever be faster than using the differential transfer option? I read the section in the rsync man page about this, but I don't get it. How could it ever be faster to send the entire file instead of just the changes?