rsync/NEWS

NEWS for rsync 2.6.1 (UNRELEASED)
Protocol: 28 (changed)
Changes since 2.6.0:

  ENHANCEMENTS:

    * Lower memory use and more optimal transfer of data over
      the socket (see the INTERNAL section for details).

    * The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable can now contain a
      "USER:PASS@" prefix before the "HOST:PORT" information.
      (Bardur Arantsson)

    * The --progress output now mentions how far along in the
      transfer we are, including both a count of files transferred
      and a percentage of the total file-count that we've processed.
      It also shows better current-rate-of-transfer and remaining-
      transfer-time values.

    * The configure script now accepts --with-rsyncd-conf=PATH
      to override the default value of the /etc/rsyncd.conf file.

    * Added a couple extra diffs in the "patches" dir, removed the
      ones that got applied, and rebuilt the rest.

  BUG FIXES:

    * When -x (--one-file-system) is combined with -L (--copy-links)
      or --copy-unsafe-links, no symlinked files are skipped, even
      if the referent file is on a different filesystem.

    * The --link-dest code now works properly for a non-root user
      when (1) the UIDs of the source and destination differ and -o
      was specified, or (2) when the group of the source can't be
      used on the destination and -g was specified.

    * Fixed a bug in the handling of -H (hard-links) that might
      cause the expanded PATH/NAME value of the current item to
      get overwritten (due to an expanded-name caching bug).
      
    * We now reset the "new data has been sent" flag at the start
      of each file we send.  This makes sure that an interrupted
      transfer with the --partial option set doesn't keep a shorter
      temp file than the current basis file when no new data has been
      transfered over the wire for that file.

    * Fixed a byte-order problem in --batch-mode on big-endian
      machines.  (Jay Fenlason)

    * Fixed configure bug when running "./configure --disable-ipv6".

    * Fixed "make test" bug when build dir is not the source dir.

    * When using --cvs-exclude, the exclude items we get from a
      directory's .cvsignore file once again only affect that one
      directory (and not all following directories too).  The
      items are also now properly word-split and parsed without
      any +/- prefix munging.

    * When specifying the USER@HOST: prefix for a file, the USER
      part can now contain an '@', if needed (i.e. the last '@'
      is used to find the HOST, not the first).

    * Fixed some bugs in the handling of group IDs for non-root
      users:  (1) It properly handles a group that the sender didn't
      have a name for (it would previously skip changing the group
      on any files in that group).  (2) If --numeric-ids is used,
      rsync no longer attempts to set groups that the user doesn't
      have the permission to set.

    * Fixed the "refuse options" setting in the rsyncd.conf file.

    * Improved the -x (--one-file-system) flag's handling of any
      mount-point directories we encounter.  It is both more optimal
      (in that it no longer does a useless scan of the contents of
      the mount-point dirs) and also fixes a bug where a remapped
      mount of the original filesystem could get discovered in a
      subdir we should be ignoring.

    * Rsync no longer discards a double-slash at the start of a filename
      when trying to open the file.  It also no longer constructs names
      that start with a double slash (unless the user supplied them).

    * Path-specifying options to a daemon should now work the same with
      or without chroot turned on.  Previously, such a option (such as
      --link-dest) would get its absolute path munged into a relative
      one if chroot was not on, making that setting fairly useless.
      Rsync now transforms the path into one that is based on the
      module's base dir when chroot is not enabled.

    * Fixed compilation problem on Tru64 Unix (having to do with
      sockaddr.sa_len and sockaddr.sin_len).

    * Fixed a compatibility problem interacting with older rsync
      versions that might send us an empty --suffix value without
      telling us that --backup-dir was specified.

    * The "hosts allow" option for a daemon-over-remote-shell
      process now has improved support for IPv6 addresses and a fix
      for systems that have a length field in their socket structs.

    * Fixed the ability to request an empty backup --suffix when
      sending files to an rsync daemon.

  INTERNAL:

    * Most of the I/O is now buffered, which results in a pretty
      large speedup when running under MS Windows.  (Craig Barratt)

    * Optimizations to the name-handling/comparing code have made
      some significant reductions in user-CPU time for large file
      sets.

    * Some variable-type cleanup that makes the code more consistent.

    * Reduced memory requirements of hard link preservation.
      (J.W. Schultz)

    * Implemented a new algorithm for hard-link handling that speeds
      up the code significantly.  (J.W. Schultz and Wayne Davison)

    * The --hard-link option now uses the first existing file in the
      group of linked files as the basis for the transfer.  This
      prevents the sub-optimal transfer of a file's data when a new
      hardlink is added on the sending side and it sorts alphabetically
      earlier in the list than the files that are already present on the
      receiving side.

    * Dropped support for protocol versions less than 20
      (2.3.0 released 15 Mar 1999) and activated warnings for
      protocols less than 25 (2.5.0 released 23 Aug 2001)
          (Wayne Davison and J.W. Schultz, severally)

    * More optimal data transmission for --hard-links (protocol 28).

    * More optimal data transmission for --checksum (protocol 28).

    * Less memory is used when --checksum is specified.

    * Less memory is used in the file list (a per-file savings).

    * The generator is now better about not modifying the file list
      during the transfer in order to avoid a copy-on-write memory
      bifurcation (on systems where fork() uses shared memory).
      Previously, rsync's shared memory would slowly become unshared,
      resulting in real memory usage nearly doubling on the receiving
      side by the end of the transfer.  Now, as long as permissions
      are being preserved, the shared memory should remain that way
      for the entire transfer.

    * Changed hardlink info and file_struct + strings to use
      allocation pools.  This reduces memory use for large file-
      sets and permits freeing memory to the OS.  (J.W. Schultz) 

    * The 2 pipes used between the receiver and generator processes
      (which are forked on the same machine) were reduced to 1 pipe
      and the protocol improved so that (1) it is now impossible to
      have the "redo" pipe fill up and hang rsync, and (2) trailing
      messages from the receiver don't get lost on their way through
      the generator over to the sender (the latter mainly affected
      hard-link messages and verbose --stats output).

    * The reading & writing of the file-list in batch-mode is now
      handled by the same code that sends & receives the list over
      the wire.  This makes it much easier to maintain.

    * Improved the internal uid/gid code to be more portable and
      a little more optimized.

    * The device numbers sent when using --devices are now sent as
      separate major/minor values with 32-bit accuracy (protocol 28).
      Previously, the copied devices were sent as a single 32-bit
      number.  This will make inter-operation of 64-bit binaries more
      compatible with their 32-bit brethren.  Note that optimizations
      in the binary protocol often sends the device data using fewer
      bytes than before, even though more precision is now available.

    * Some cleanup of the exclude/include structures and its code
      made things clearer, simpler, and more efficient.