If so, I am afraid I don’t really have any further suggestions… except maybe to try experimenting with folders with shorter paths and see if the command works then within an Apple Script script. For example, I would try to put a “test” folder in your home folder and then try a script with:

do shell script “rsync -a –eahfs –delete /Volumes/TheLoraxG4PB-HD/Users/bbushman/test /Volumes/TheLoraxG4PB-HD/Library/WebServer/Documents 2>>~/rsyncErr.txt || echo -n”

and see if that works. And then take it from there. There must be something in the folder paths themselves that is causing the problem.

THEN: I was getting real errors in my RSync error file, which showed that I’m missing some spaces in my concatonation. Just fixed those, and VOILA! It copies, and it syncs.

Thanks again…

I started with all one big script and then did the extra applescript to get it to work. if I just run this:

do shell script
“rsync -a –eahfs –delete /Volumes/TheLoraxG4PB-HD/Users/bbushman/DEV/brandsourcedev/website/trunk/src/cart /Volumes/TheLoraxG4PB-HD/Library/WebServer/Documents/brandsourcedev 2>>~/rsyncErr.txt || echo -n”

I get this applescript error, whether I run as scpt file from the menu, or from the “run” command in script editor, or as a .app file:
“can’t make current apllication into type string.”

As far as my rsync error file: it’s blank. :)

Also, do you really need to have the extra AppleScript code? Can you not just type out the full path of the source and the target in the do shell script command itself and have an AppleScript script with a single line of code? It would make a very long line of code, but that doesn’t really matter.

set mySrc to “/Volumes/TheLoraxG4PB-HD” & the POSIX path of buildCart
set myTgt to “/Volumes/TheLoraxG4PB-HD” & the POSIX path of siteCart

on MakeCopy()
return do shell script “/usr/local/bin/rsync -a –eahfs ” & mySrc & myTgt & ” 2>>~/rsyncErr.txt || echo -n”
end makeCopy
———————–
HOWEVER: now the rsync portion isn’t working. It makes my error file, so it’s running it in some capacity, but nothing is getting copied. Thoughts?

My script definitely has no “tell” command. It just contains a series of “do shell script” commands, each one with a different rsync command for a specific folder.

Does this help at all?

more info in my comments at Richard’s original article:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/07/22/backup.html?page=2

It’s a pretty big bug, unless you have no files with resource forks. Many files from “legacy” Mac applications still use them. For example, BBEdit still uses the resource fork to store important information about its text files.

If you are unsure whether your files to backup contain resource forks, your best bet is to replace the built-in rsync command with the one that comes with RsyncX, and modify the syntax of your rsync commands accordingly.

Thanks for your help, Jussi!

Looking at the manpage it actually seems that some of the flags I’m using are duplicates that are already set by –archive (-a). Well, perhaps I had better not to touch my command so that I won’t be bitten by the bug.


rsync --perms --group --owner --delete --archive --extended-attributes ~ /path/to/backup/Users/


and according to ls and finder the modification dates are same in both my homedir and backup volume (for items I have not changed after my backup, previously done on 15th of August) For example:


$ ls -l /Volumes/Backup/BACKUP/Agnus/Users/hagi/gui_osx.c_tmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 hagi hagi 140163 Jun 16 04:32 /Volumes/Backup/BACKUP/Agnus/Users/hagi/gui_osx.c_tmp
pB:~/webkit hagi
$ ls -l ../gui_osx.c_tmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 hagi hagi 140163 Jun 16 04:32 ../gui_osx.c_tmp


But sure I’ve not tested it very well, it could be that some of the swiches I’m using accidentally triggers the correct behaviour. :)

rsync -aE --delete ~ /Volumes/Files/FilesBackup 2>>~/rsyncErr.txt || echo -n

(as an example). Since the author of the O’Reilly confirmed the problem, I am guessing I am not the only one :). Besides, Apple has since responded to my bug report saying that it was a duplicate of a known issue.

The wrong dates can be seen in the Finder with the Get Information window or in the Preview column in the Finder.