A more accurate description of --force as I know it.

[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo

diff --git a/rsync.yo b/rsync.yo
index 145ae71..084bcc5 100644 (file)
--- a/rsync.yo
+++ b/rsync.yo
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(14 Dec 2001)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(25 Jan 2002)()()
 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
 manpagesynopsis()
 
@@ -245,6 +245,7 @@ verb(
      --rsync-path=PATH       specify path to rsync on the remote machine
  -C, --cvs-exclude           auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
      --existing              only update files that already exist
+     --ignore-existing       ignore files that already exist on the receiving side
      --delete                delete files that don't exist on the sending side
      --delete-excluded       also delete excluded files on the receiving side
      --delete-after          delete after transferring, not before
@@ -452,6 +453,10 @@ contents of only one filesystem.
 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
 only update files that already exist on the destination.
 
+dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
+This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on 
+the destination. 
+
 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
 to prevent disasters.
@@ -484,13 +489,13 @@ then use the --delete-after switch.
 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
 even when there are IO errors.
 
-dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
-they are not empty.  This applies to both the --delete option and to
-cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
-contains a directory of the same name. 
-
-Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
-so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
+dit(bf(--force)) This option used to alter the behavior of the --delete
+option to force deletion of non-empty directories, but that happens now
+anyway because rsync does deletes in depth-first order.  The only known
+difference that --force makes now is an obscure case where the source is a
+non-directory (for example a file or a symlink) but the destination is a
+directory that contains a directory by the same name as the source while
+--recursive mode is in effect.
 
 dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.