rsync of backups/extras increases in size at target

rsync of backups/extras increases in size at target - ZxBackup https://community.zextras.com/forum/zxbackup/rsync-of-backups-extras-increases-in-size-at-target/ Zextras Community Discussion Board en-US Wed, 20 May 2026 01:29:38 +0000 wpForo 60 rsync of backups/extras increases in size at target https://community.zextras.com/forum/zxbackup/rsync-of-backups-extras-increases-in-size-at-target/#post-1110 Sat, 30 May 2015 02:00:47 +0000
I was setting up the rsync backup script (from my production server to an NFS-mounted filesystem off the backup server) and wanted to test the rsync speed.

# rsync -av /opt/zimbra/backup /Backups/ZIMBRA/backuptest

When finished, I checked the size of the two directories:

/opt/zimbra/backup is 9.9GB
/Backups/ZIMBRA/backuptest is 40 GB (!!!!)

I have searched high and low in /opt/zimbra/backup for any symlinks (or hard links) that could explain /Backups/ZIMBRA/backuptest blowing up in size (by copying over also the targets of the links during rsync) but have found nothing! I would like to remove the /Backups/ZIMBRA/backuptest but now I am worried that if I: rm -rf backuptest I may remove files on the server that are symbolically linked.

I would be grateful if I could understand the reason for this file growth and then figure out how to safely remove the rsync-ed directory tree in the target. Has anyone seen this behavior before?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for any help!
George]]> ZxBackup georged https://community.zextras.com/forum/zxbackup/rsync-of-backups-extras-increases-in-size-at-target/#post-1110