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canopic jug writes:

FOSS developer Michael Stapelberg has started a four part blog post on Rsync and how it works. He wrote the i3 tiling window manager, among other projects, and is a former Debian developer. Now he has written about three scenarios for which he has come to appreciate Rsync, specifically in DokuWiki transfers, software deployment, and backups. Then he looks at at integrating it into various work flows, and then at what the software and protocol actually do. The fourth section is to be announced.

• Scenarios in which Rsync is useful
• Integration of Rsync into the work flow
• How Rsync works

Rsync is an algorithm and a utilty, both initially developed by Andrew Tridgell as part of his PhD dissertation work, and by Paul Mackerras. It is used for updating files on one machine so that they become identical to a file on another machine while at the same time transferring the minimal amount of data to effect the update, saving on time and bandwidth. Rsync is the underlying component in a great many backup utilities and routines. With the right settings it can even do incremental backups. Andrew is also well-known for having worked on Samba, and won in the EU against M$ in order to get the required interoperability specifications needed to share files using CIFS/SMB.

Previously:
(2014) Ask Soylent: Suggestions for Remote Backup
(2014) How Do You Sync Your Home Directory?

Original Submission

1. "canopic jug" - https://soylentnews.org/~canopic+jug/
2. "four part blog post on Rsync and how it works" - https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2022-06-18-rsync-overview/
3. "Scenarios in which Rsync is useful" - https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2022-06-18-rsync-article-1-scenarios/
4. "Integration of Rsync into the work flow" - https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2022-07-02-rsync-surroundings/
5. "How Rsync works" - https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2022-07-02-rsync-how-does-it-work/
6. "Rsync is an algorithm" - https://rsync.samba.org/tech_report/
7. "won in the EU against M$" - http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070919214307459
8. "interoperability specifications" - http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071220124013919
9. "Ask Soylent: Suggestions for Remote Backup" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/07/10/1532226
10. "How Do You Sync Your Home Directory?" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/03/24/2034236
11. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=56631

printed from SoylentNews, A Series on How Rsync Works on 2026-01-13 05:34:52