In Ubuntu, I want to copy a big file from my hard drive to a removable drive by rsync
. For some other reason, the operation cannot complete in a single run. So I am trying to figure out how to use rsync
to resume copying the file from where it left off last time.
I have tried to use the option --partial
or --inplace
, but together with --progress
, I found rsync
with --partial
or --inplace
actually starts from the beginning instead of from what was left last time. Manually stopping rsync
early and checking the size of the received file also confirmed what I found.
But with --append
, rsync starts from what was left last time.
I am confused as I saw on the man page --partial
, --inplace
, and --append
seem to relate to resuming copying from what was left last time. Is someone able to explain the difference? Why don't --partial
or --inplace
work for resuming copying? Is it true that for resuming copying, rsync
has to work with the --append
option?
Also, if a partial file was left by mv
or cp
, not by rsync, will rsync --append
correctly resume copying the file?