Bug 6928 - Warn the user to use --modify-window=1 --no-owner --no-group etc. on FAT partitions
Summary: Warn the user to use --modify-window=1 --no-owner --no-group etc. on FAT part...
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: rsync
Classification: Unclassified
Component: core (show other bugs)
Version: 3.1.0
Hardware: All All
: P3 enhancement (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Wayne Davison
QA Contact: Rsync QA Contact
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-11-24 22:15 UTC by Jason Spiro
Modified: 2020-07-28 00:20 UTC (History)
0 users

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Description Jason Spiro 2009-11-24 22:15:11 UTC
When the OS reports that the user is using a FAT partition, or when you detect that the user is probably using a FAT partition (maybe you can look at the few file times in the partition's root directory and check if they're all even numbers), and the user is not using --modify-window=1, please print a warning onscreen, warning the user to do so.

This will help newbies who didn't read the manpage.  I originally didn't read it, and many of the people who come to irc.freenode.net haven't read it either.
Comment 1 Matt McCutchen 2009-11-27 22:51:33 UTC
I would be disinclined to add this to the main version of rsync.  Rsync generally doesn't devote effort to second-guessing the user.  Not reading the man page is not a supported use case.
Comment 2 Jason Spiro 2009-12-04 00:35:46 UTC
I neglected to use --modify-window=1 when I first started using rsync.  More importantly, think how other people have made the same mistake.  Who knows how many hours, days, or weeks of unneeded syncing we (the group as a whole) have waited through in total until we've learned.

"With very few exceptions, users will not cuddle up with [a] manual and read it through before they begin to use [some] software.  In general [...] users are trying to get something done, and they see reading the manual as a waste of time, or at the very least, as a distraction that keeps them from getting their task done."  -- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000062.html
Comment 3 Wayne Davison 2020-07-28 00:20:05 UTC
There's no good way for rsync to know that it is copying onto a FAT filesystem.