On 02/11/2015 09:02 AM, Francis Gerund wrote:
> When using rsync to backup and restore, when should and when should one
> *not* include hard links (by using the -H option switch)?
It's probably too site or application specific to give any general advice.
Run this command across the filesystem you're going to back up:
find /path -type f -links +1
All of the files listed in find's output have multiple links, and will
benefit from using -H.
The cost associated with -H is that rsync has to keep a table in memory
of all of the inodes and paths that it processes. A large filesystem
can cause rsync to consume a lot of RAM. If sufficient RAM is
available, I would always recommend -H.