'Slashes and the rsync command

I am trying to do something along the same lines as what is asked in this question: RSync: How do I synchronize in both directions?

However, what I can't figure out is whether or not I should add slashes to the end of the file path. Basically I'm trying to create an alias command that syncs the contents of two directories that go by the same name but are on two different servers. What I don't want is for one directory to be copied into the other (which I am aware is a possibility depending on how the slashes at the end are done).

What I have currently is:

alias syncDirectories1 = 'rsync -tvur name@host:/Users/me/directory/ /Users/me/directory/'
alias syncDirectories2 = 'rsync -tvur /Users/me/directory/ name@host:/Users/me/directory/'

For what I am trying to accomplish, should there be slashes at the end of both file paths?

Thank you in advance for the help.

linuxunixdirectoryrsync


Solution 1:[1]

I tested it with rsync 3.1.3 on Arch Linux, the results are below:

1. rsync -avPzu test  login@remote:/home/login/test   "test" directory is copied inside of existing "test" on remote (structure is then test/test/...)
2. rsync -avPzu test  login@remote:/home/login/test/  same as above
3. rsync -avPzu test/ login@remote:/home/login/test   content of "test" directory is synchronized with the remote "test" directory
4. rsync -avPzu test/ login@remote:/home/login/test/  same as above
5. rsync -avPzu test  login@remote:/home/login/       same as above
6. rsync -avPzu test  login@remote:/home/login        same as above

The methods 3-6 are the correct ones in this case, contrary to the accepted answer.

Solution 2:[2]

keep the slashes on the source, and remove them from the destination. Like this:

alias syncDirectories1 = 'rsync -tvur name@host:/Users/me/directory/ /Users/me/directory'
alias syncDirectories2 = 'rsync -tvur /Users/me/directory/ name@host:/Users/me/directory'

Solution 3:[3]

I had different results from accepted answer on Ubuntu 17.04. It seems that the destination / does not have an effect. I did the following four commands:

rsync -av src  nslash    # No slashes on either src or dest
rsync -av src  dslash/   # Slash on Dest only  
rsync -av src/ sslash    # Slash on src only 
rsync -av src/ sdslash/  # Slash on both src and dest

Conclusions:

  • once there is a / on the src, then the contents of the src only will be copied over to the dest, regardless off whether the dest has a slash or not.
  • no slash on the src, then the src and its content will be copied to dest.
  • Slashes on dest has no effect.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 mak
Solution 2 rink.attendant.6
Solution 3 wjandrea

Related Questions