Using --delete option with rsync

Question

We are using the following rsync command in a script to copy files from source to destination.

rsync -av --exclude 'share/web/sessions/' --rsync-path "sudo rsync" /sdata/ 172.31.X.X:/sdata/ &>/home/fsync/rsyncjob/output

Now, we have a cleanup script on source host which is removing some of the files after some particular no of days based on our requirement. We want that the files once they are removed from source host , rsync should also get them removed from destination host .

For that I can see, rsync provides --delete-before and --delete-after options to get the files removed from destination host once they were removed from source host. But I am little skeptical in using these options as the man page says This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to first try a run using the --dry-run option (-n) to see what files are going to be deleted.

My updated command is as follows

rsync -av --exclude 'share/web/sessions/' --delete-after --rsync-path "sudo rsync" /sdata/ 172.31.X.X:/sdata/ &>/home/fsync/rsyncjob/outpu

Are these options correct ? These are production hosts for us and I want to be sure before using these options. Also any expert advice .

Answer 1

I would not use --delete-after because it forces rsync to rescan the file list. Best option today is to use --delete-during (or --del for short). If you want to retain the "delete after" effect due to I/O error concerns, use --delete-delay.

See the man page for reference:

Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: --delete-before, --delete-after, --prune-empty-dirs, and --delay-updates. Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify --delete is now --delete-during when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0 (use --del or --delete-during to request this improved deletion mode explicitly). See also the --delete-delay option that is a better choice than using --delete-after.

And of course the relevant portions for each method.