Today I got this message - for the first time as far I can remember : rsync warning: some files vanished before they could be transferred (code 24) at main.c(1052) [sender=3.0.9] It happens at an almost stable Gentoo with kernel 3.3.3, booted from an external USB disk. The rsync backup's from that external USB disk to another luks-encrypted USB disk using these parameters : --archive --cvs-exclude --delete --delete-excluded --devices --include-from=/include.list --exclude-from=/exclude.list --itemize-changes --link-dest=$REF BTW it was the first time, that I accessed the backup disk not directly as /dev/sdc1, instead I used /dev/disk/by-uuid/<uuid> I do the backup nearly daily, so with the given $REF (the directory from the day before) rsync mostly has to make hard links at the external USB disk. FWIW the system was under load (~5-6), b/c I run in parallel a compile job (make -j 2) and was within the dokcing station, all USB disks were atatched directly to the notebook.
This warning happens whenever rsync sees a file during the indexing phase but by the time it gets around to actually copying the file it is no longer there (as in something else deleted it). This is most common on things like email spools but I can see a compile job causing it as well. Usually it can be safely ignored. However, you should look higher in the output as rsync should have said what file(s) vanished. The path to the device that you mounted would not matter to rsync.
Ah - thx, therefore not a bug (but then I must mis the line with the vanished file name ...) BTW do you know, whether a special return code is used in this case ? Then I could catch this special case.
Yes, exit code 24.
thx