Problem with using rsync to transfer files on remote server to local HFS+ partition

Question

I have some files (specifically music files) on a remote filesystem (ext3) that I'm connecting to via SSH. I issued this command to copy those files onto a local HFS+ partition:

rsync -r -v --progress user@server:mydir/ /media/hfs_volume/mydir/

After it's finished executing, you'd assume it's done, but if you re-execute it, some files are transfered again (the same files each time). I don't think it completely transfers the file, but just parts of it. I noticed that most of these files have special characters in them, like "é" or "ñ".

Also, I noticed that the size of the directory the receiving end is smaller that that on the server (using "du -sk"). Server: 49441852k; local: 49349516lk.

What is causing this problem? Is it on rsync's or HFS+'s end?

Answer 1

What happens when you try one of these:

rsync -r -t -v --progress user@server:mydir/ /media/hfs_volume/mydir/

or

rsync -av --progress user@server:mydir/ /media/hfs_volume/mydir/

I suspect that you need the -t option to preserver the modification times. Without that, I think that rsync may need to run checksums.

You might also try RsyncX from http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9066/rsyncx/