A couple of platform issues with rsync

I’ve been writing scripts the past couple of days for synching things up between a few servers. I’ve wasted too much time already with 2 issues:

1. When using rsync anywhere near mounted Windows shares, always include the option -modify-window=1. This will prevent rsync from trying to copy nearly *every* file each time. It has something to do with the differences in how Windows stores modification times.

2. The latest OS X update to Tiger broke the –delete option. Target deletion simply doesn’t work any more. As a workaround, I’ve installed the DarwinPorts version instead.  Then I moved the broken binary out of the way and symlinked the ports version in its place. Something like this (assuming you already have DarwinPorts)…

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sudo port install rsync

sudo mv /usr/local/bin/rsync /usr/local/bin/rsync-tiger

sudo ln -s /opt/local/bin/rsync /usr/local/bin/rsync

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