https://blog.margrop.net/en/tag/rsync/ Recent content in Rsync on Margrop Blog Hugo en-US Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:30:00 +0800 https://blog.margrop.net/en/post/rsync-diff-incremental-sync/ Sat, 11 Jul 2026 13:30:00 +0800 https://blog.margrop.net/en/post/rsync-diff-incremental-sync/ <blockquote> <p><strong>The short answer</strong></p> <p>The best rsync habit is not memorizing more switches. It is separating every risky job into two stages: <strong>generate a dry-run plan first, review it, and only then perform the real incremental sync</strong>. Deletion should be a separate, explicit permission rather than a hidden default.</p> <p>The common <code>rsync -n -avz --delete --out-format=&quot;%n&quot;</code> pattern can list paths that may change, but <code>%n</code> only preserves the name. A safer machine-readable plan uses <code>--itemize-changes</code> together with <code>%i</code>, so each line identifies an addition, update, deletion, or metadata change.</p> </blockquote>