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Symlinks can be dangling during the sync #1118
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This would be a consistency-window feature, not an atomic update. Open to discussing implementations.
This would be a consistency-window feature, not an atomic update.
I agree with this.
Proposed implementation (diff): a new opt-in
--delay-symlinksoption.- On the receiving side, the generator holds back new and changed symlinks instead of creating them as soon as it reaches them in the file list. Each one is still itemized and logged at its normal place; only creating it moves.
- Once the receiver signals it has finished (the same
NDX_DONEthe generator already waits for after the--delay-updatesrenames), the generator creates the held-back links withatomic_create(), after re-checking each destination. This happens before--delete-delay/--delete-afterdeletions and beforetouch_up_dirs(). --delay-symlinksworks both with or without--delay-updates. It is forwarded to a remote receiver and implies--no-inc-recursiveon the receiver.- Symlinks are not held back with
--remove-source-filesor--dry-run, or when they're hard-linked together under-H.
That branch silently disables the option for hard-linked symlinks and
--remove-source-files. An old receiver rejects--delay-symlinksbefore the claimed protocol fallback can occur. It also itemises links before deferred creation can fail. Make incompatible combinations explicit errors, keep itemisation truthful and replace the ctime assertion with deterministic synchronisation before opening a PR please.Reacted by rajputa-deshawI have created #1124 with the suggested changes.
Since rsync creates symlinks on the receiving side as it is walking through the file list, a symlink can be dangling until the file that it points to has been copied. With
--delay-updates, this duration becomes even larger.Could we hold back the symlink creation until all regular files are in place? Even an opt-in flag for this behavior would be helpful. I have a sample LLM generated implementation here. I can refine it and create a PR if this can be added.