Rsync

Rsync may be used for various purposes and you should check around for proper documentation.
This page is a memo sheet for us here, where rsync is used to create a mirror copy of a disk or a directory, i.e. we use it for backup

• for some reason first directory (SOURCE) should be written with a trailing slash and second (TARGET) without (?)
• use -n for 'dry run', especially if usign --del (to check what is to be _deleted_ on destination (TARGET))
• do delete .Trash .. Recycled and similar stuff before copying, or exclude it
• delete or exclude large files worthy of deleting (boring divx movies) beforehand, as large files slow the whole affair

rsync -avrin --del SOURCE/ TARGET > for_me_to_review_in_detail.txt

if all seems fine then run rsync as shown bellow (logging does not happen with -n)
maybe you do not need --del after all?

rsync -avri --del --log-file=logname.txt SOURCE/ TARGET

• with excluded directories it looks like

rsync -avri --exclude /Recycled/ --exclude '/.Trash*' /--del --log-file=logname.txt SOURCE/ TARGET (to be tested)

-a archive mode
-v verbose
-r recursive
-i output summary (may not need -v verbose then?)

links

• http://lists.samba.org/archive/rsync/ mailing list / forum
• google "man rsync"