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Ian Ling
Asked: 2015-10-01 14:46:25 +0800 CST

rsync - file is 8 bytes larger on recipient

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I have a file that I have tried transferring across the wired LAN via both scp and rsync, and both have yielded the same result. When I run du file on the file after the transfer, the file is 8 bytes larger on the recipient host.

I have also checked head file | hexdump -C on both hosts, and they are identical. Same story for tail...

Any ideas why this might be happening? If it matters, the file is a gzip.

ssh

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    du file is not a suitable way to measure file size. Even the very first line of the man page says « du - estimate file space usage » (my italics).

    Instead, use one or more of the following methods (others will also exist):

    ls -l file       # byte size should be the same on both sides
cksum file       # checksum should be same result on both sides
md5sum file      # checksum should be same result on both sides
stat -c %s file  # byte size should be same result on both sides
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