Questions[rsync](server)

I have searched for this option already, but have only found solutions that involve custom patching. The fact that it does not show in --help and no more info can be found probably indicates the answers is 'no', but I'd like to see this confirmed.

Is it possible to show total file transfer progress with rsync?

Can anyone clarify the differences between the --checksum and --ignore-times options of rsync?

My understanding is as follows:

--checksum
If the file size and time match, it will do a checksum at both ends to see if the files are really identical.

--ignore-times
'Transfer' every file, regardless of whether file time is same at both ends. Since it will still use the delta-transfer algorithm, if a file actually is identical, nothing gets transferred.

That's the technical difference, but as far as I can tell, they are semantically the same thing.

So, what I'm wondering is:

• What is the practical difference between the two options?
• In what cases would you use one rather than the other?
• Is there any performance difference between them?

I know you can use -a or --archive to activate archive mode when using rsync. Unfortunately, I have no idea what archive mode is supposed to do, and the man page is not at all explicit about what this is:

equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)

Can you explain what those options (rlptgoD) mean and what's the behaviour of rsync when I use them?

I have to copy a large directory tree, about 1.8 TB. It's all local. Out of habit I'd use rsync, however I wonder if there's much point, and if I should rather use cp.

I'm worried about permissions and uid/gid, since they have to be preserved in the copy (I know rsync does this). As well as things like symlinks.

The destination is empty, so I don't have to worry about conditionally updating some files. It's all local disk, so I don't have to worry about ssh or network.

The reason I'd be tempted away from rsync, is because rsync might do more than I need. rsync checksums files. I don't need that, and am concerned that it might take longer than cp.

So what do you reckon, rsync or cp?

Any unix:

I have the following cmd line which works fine.

rsync -avr -e ssh /home/dir [email protected]:/home/

But I need to set it up now to rsync to a remote server that only has an FTP server on it. How do I go about that?

I looked at the rsync help but quickly got lost (I don't do this stuff very often).