[Bug 1965076] Re: rsync --update incorrectly reports file "is newer" than itself

[Paride Legovini]

Hello Ian and thanks for this bug report. My question here is: is this
actually a bug?

The manpage for --update says:

  This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination
  and have a modified time that is newer

It seems sensible to me to make this a '>=' comparison, and not a strict
'>' comparison: when considering modification times there's no need to
update a file which has the same timestamp of the source file.

In other words: I fail to see the problem here. Could you please
elaborate a bit more? Thanks!

** Changed in: rsync (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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Title:
  rsync --update incorrectly reports file "is newer" than itself

Status in rsync package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  rsync 3.2.3 has a broken "--update" option.    See the examples below.
  The "--update" option incorrectly makes rsync say a file is newer than itself.
  Remove the "--update" option, and rsync correctly says the file is "uptodate".
  The right output should of course be "is uptodate" in all cases.
  This bug also shows up between machines if the source rsync is 3.1.3 and the destination is 3.2.3.
  The bug does not show up if the source rsync is 3.2.3 and the destination is 3.1.3.

  $ touch foo
  $ rsync -avv --update foo .
  delta-transmission disabled for local transfer or --whole-file
  foo is newer                 <=== THIS IS NOT CORRECT - A file can't be newer than itself.
  total: matches=0  hash_hits=0  false_alarms=0 data=0
  sent 38 bytes  received 96 bytes  268.00 bytes/sec
  total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

  $ rsync -avv foo .
  delta-transmission disabled for local transfer or --whole-file
  foo is uptodate              <=== THIS IS CORRECT
  total: matches=0  hash_hits=0  false_alarms=0 data=0
  sent 41 bytes  received 106 bytes  294.00 bytes/sec
  total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.10
  Package: rsync 3.2.3-4ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.13.0-35.40-generic 5.13.19
  Uname: Linux 5.13.0-35-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu71
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Tue Mar 15 22:47:44 2022
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-03-16 (0 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 21.10 "Impish Indri" - Release amd64 (20211012)
  SourcePackage: rsync
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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