[tlug] Erratic Rsync Behavior

[Charles Muller <cmuller-lst@example.com>]

TLUGers,

Starting from a couple of weeks ago, my rsync began to do funny 
things: Sometimes it fails to copy (or update) recently updated 
files (it hits some, but not others). Then the next time I run it, 
it copies every single file, including files that were never touched 
in the interim.

I've been going nuts trying to track this down, and during this time 
have had to back up everything in all sorts of ways to try to cover 
myself.

The fact that this suddenly began to occur without any changes in my 
rsync/ssh scripts makes me think that some unknown change in my file 
system handling may have occurred in a recent Debian/Sid upgrade, 
wherein file time stamping or something of the sort may have changed 
or gotten out of whack. But it is happening on all of my Debian 
machines.

I am not yet 100% sure, but it is possible that the problem may be 
limited to copies across file systems, e.g., between ext3 and fat. 
Has anyone experienced this sort of thing recently. Or have any 
ideas as to where I can look to resolve this?

Chuck


---------------------------
A. Charles Muller

Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology
Faculty of Letters
University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongō, Bunkyō-ku
Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

Web Site: Resources for East Asian Language and Thought
http://www.acmuller.net

<acmuller[at]jj.em-net.ne.jp>