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So I currently do stuff like:

rm -rf ../../../$CLOUD_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib_boost
mkdir ../../../$CLOUD_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib_boost
cp -r ../../../$BOOST_ROOT_DIR/$BOOST_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib/* ../../../$CLOUD_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib_boost/

Which sucks... So I wonder how to update/remove/add only updated files between 2 folders (in demo we have the folder with the latest stuff ../../../$BOOST_ROOT_DIR/$BOOST_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib/ and a folder with stuff that may be outdated ../../../$CLOUD_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib_boost)?

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2 Answers 2

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6

Rsync is your newest best friend.

rsync -av original/folder/ new/folder/

The trailing slashes are important on both; if you exclude the first, it will copy that folder as it's own folder into new/folder/. It's best to use the -a flag to preserve permissions, timestamps, etc.

Rsync will also automatically create directories as necessary to duplicate the structure.

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  • Man, you were faster :) +1 Commented Jan 27, 2012 at 4:42
  • Is rsync installed on most Linux unix distribs like rm or cd? Commented Jan 27, 2012 at 17:43
  • @myWallJSON Yes. While rsync isn't part of the absolutely minimal can't-even-boot-without-it core system like rm and cd, it's installed by default by most distributions, so you can expect it to be available on non-embedded Linux installations. Commented Jan 27, 2012 at 23:28
  • Rsync is marked ‘optional’ on Debian, i.e. not installed by default. I habitually (and explicitly) install it on every new box I deploy. However, it's marked ‘standard’ on Ubuntu. I wouldn't say you can expect it to be installed, I'd say your mileage may vary. Commented Jan 28, 2012 at 0:33
  • @laebshade: I'd also add -HAXS to rsync invocations unless you know for a fact there aren't hard links (-H), ACLs (-A), extended attributes (-X) or sparse files (-S). None of these are implied by -a. Commented Jan 28, 2012 at 0:38
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You could use rsync for that, in your example it will like that:

rsync -va ../../../$CLOUD_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib_boost/ ../../../$CLOUD_INSTALL_SUBDIR/lib_boost

Where -v option enables verbose mode and -a enables archive mode

You could read more about rsync on its manual page

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