sysinstall v2

[Chris Pressey]

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 23:28:47 -0700 (PDT)
Matthew Dillon <dillon at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> :As I understand it, we already need cvsup installed.  What does cvsup
> do:that rsync does not, if rsync's easier to include? 
>  
>     cvsup understands cvs, so it will only download the incremental
>     patch or tag change when a commit is made.  rsync will copy the
>     whole file if it changes.

Well... technically, rsync attempts to only copy the parts that have
changed, and it's usually pretty good at *not* copying the whole file
unless it really has to.

>     cvsup also understands files which are appended to (like
>     log files).  I'm not sure if rsync understands appends but I think
>     it will copy the whole file in that case too.

Again, rsync's pretty smart, so it only copies a minimal bit (what's
actually been appended, rounded up to a blocksize.)  I read the rsync
paper a couple of weeks ago and I was suitably impressed by its
cleverness.