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Asked: 2018-09-06 06:58:25 +0800 CST

what does the period (.) do when using rsync

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Are the two commands below interchangeable? Does it matter whether I use the . or not?

sudo rsync -aXS /home/ /media/home/
sudo rsync -aXS /home/. /media/home/.

I know that the period . means the following in the rsync context:

. refers to the current directory

.. refers to the parent directory

command-line bash rsync

1 Answers

  1. One usage of . in rsync is to limit the amount of path information that is sent as implied directories for each path you specify. 

    rsync -avR /src/path/to/dir/./file /target/

    creates file in /target while:

    rsync -avR /src/path/to/dir/file /target/

    would creates /src/path/to/dir/file in /target.

    The other usage is when you are using rsync with -d option:

    rsync -d /boot /target

    will copy the boot into /target while: rsync -d /boot/ /target or: rsync -d /boot/. /target would copy the contents of /boot into /target.

    As I can see, it your situation it doesn't make any differences.

    rsync documentation

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