Rsync isn't behaving the way I've come to expect
Like many people, I've used rsync to do backups (over a network) of my iTunes 'stuff' to a Linux server at home.
I typically use a command line similar to the following:
rsync -aP ~/Music/iTunes remotehost:/srv/
If I were to do a Linux -> Linux transfer, it's typically very fast - mainly because the data isn't changing, and only new files are transfered.
However, with OS X, it isn't that fast at all - even if the file's MD5sum and SHA1sum are identical on the different hosts (ie. the files in both locations are identical), and only the date or permissions are different, the entire file is still transferred. (ie. the number of bytes sent or received is greater than the size of the file)
Again, with a Linux->Linux transfer, if a large file is identical on both sides (excepting the date stamp), the actual amount of data transferred when using rsync is much smaller than the actual filesize. A multi-GB file could end up sending/receiving a few MB in Linux->Linux rsync, but when I do OS X -> linux, several GB's are sent.
What am I missing? I'd expect rsync to behave more or less the same with plain files and no extended attribues...
Message was edited by: pariah0
MacBook Pro 17", Mac OS X (10.5)