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Level 1

148 points

Backing up iTunes data to external HDD resulted in a smaller file than the original. cp -pr worked fine. Wondering what command or utility is deployed for the drag and drop.

Backing up iTunes data to external HDD via drag and drop resulted in a smaller file than the original. Seemed to have worked OK—didn't see any error messages. Resorted to cp -pr with success. Left wondering what command or utility is deployed by drag and drop. cp? dd? other? The problem may have occurred previously, but it isn't constant.

Mid-2012 MBP, 10.12.6.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12.6), null

Posted on Nov 17, 2017 5:34 PM

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VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

111,215 points

Posted on Nov 18, 2017 8:58 AM

If you use rsync, do not overlook the -E (extended attributes) switch. Also, ditto is another copy and preserve command that is fine without any switches as most things are default. See the rsync and ditto man pages.

I imagine that the Finder copy is using appropriate Objective-C commands to achieve its goal, rather than forking out to cp, mv, rsync, or ditto.

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Backing up iTunes data to external HDD resulted in a smaller file than the original. cp -pr worked fine. Wondering what command or utility is deployed for the drag and drop.

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