I'm curious what some of you who run RSYNC backups are seeing for your working OS/2 volumes?
I haven't looked through all of this, but this is what I found, when I was looking for myself.
First, RSync is not a good backup method for boot volumes (doesn't matter if they are HPFS, or JFS, drives), unless you are booted from an alternate boot system (the drive is not being used). There are just way too many things that are open, and some files have other flags set <see below>.
For boot volumes, I ZIP them up, using the parameters -r9yS (the parameter order doesn't matter). This works well, even when booted from the drive (you should close as much as possible). Then, I RSync the ZIP files to the backup device for safe keeping. You probably still need to filter things like log files out, because many programs keep them open, and ZIP can't work with them either. Old log files usually aren't much good anyway. I notice that some programs do not keep log files open, and that seems to be because they open the file, write to it, then close it (which makes more sense than keeping them open all the time, because there is less chance that CHKDSK will "fix" it after a system crash).
For my Data/Programs drive (which also contains my ZIPed boot volume backups) the ZIP (using the same commands) files are kept along with the boot volume ZIP files.
For RSYNC a FAT32 drive to a locally attached USB drive, I use:
rsync.exe -a --stats --no-perms --delete --log-file=W:/Utility/rsync/RSYNC2.LOG --filter=._W:/Utility/rsync/filters.list d:/ I:/main/DDrive/For JFS (and HPFS, if I used it), I use:
rsync.exe -aX --stats --no-perms --delete --log-file=W:/Utility/rsync/RSYNC2.LOG --filter=._W:/Utility/rsync/filters.list w:/ I:/main/WDRIVE/I also use RSync, to my ArcaOS machine, that I use as a NAS box. The command, that I use for a FAT32 drive is:
rsync.exe -a --progress --stats --no-perms --delete --log-file=W:/Utility/rsync/RSYNC3.log --filter=._W:/Utility/rsync/filters.list d:/ 192.168.0.108::IREBBS7/DDrive/For JFS (and HPFS, if I used it), I use:
rsync.exe -aX --progress --stats --no-perms --delete --log-file=W:/Utility/rsync/RSYNC3.log --filter=._W:/Utility/rsync/filters.list w:/ 192.168.0.108::IREBBS7/WDRIVE/File names, and paths need to change to match your preferences. RSYNC, in daemon mode, runs on the remote system (the "NAS" box). Filters.list contains the omitted list. It is the result of selecting failures, and determining if the file is really worth saving (many aren't). If it is an important file, you need to decide exactly how to handle it.
...one more point noting, here are the results when using the '--inline' option:
I don't see any '--inline' option. There is '--inplace', which is probably not a good idea, if the target drive has lots of room. I do use '--inplace' when the target drive doesn't have enough free space to have two copies of the largest file (plus a bit). Normally, RSYNC copies the file to a temporary name, then deletes the old one, and renames the new one. IMO, that is a LOT safer than deleting the original, then copying the new one.
I am curious though whey the failure on the OS2.INI in the target drive?
It is probably because it has the System, and Read Only, flags, which effectively prevents programs from writing over it. It is one of the reasons why I don't bother using RSYNC with boot volumes.
