How do I backup a non-empty directory and preserve metadata like permissions/user-group ownership/time file was modified?

Question

I used rsync for creating a backup copy:

bash-3.2$ rsync -tvrog /export/home/kent/Scripts /export/home/kent/TEST_Scripts_rsync

With these options:

Options:
      -v, --verbose               increase verbosity
      -r, --recursive             recurse into directories
      -o, --owner                 preserve owner (super-user only)
      -g, --group                 preserve group

Observe the Source directory contents:

bash-3.2$ cd /export/home/kent/Scripts
bash-3.2$ ls -l
total 170
-rw-r--r--   1 kent   kent        74 Feb  5 07:10 1.sh
drwxr-xr-x   2 kent   kent         2 Jun 17 06:21 456
-rwxrwxrwx   1 kent   kent       355 Feb  5 07:10 App_recreate.msh
...

Destination:

bash-3.2$ cd TEST_Scripts_rsync/Scripts/
bash-3.2$ ls -l
total 168
-rw-r--r--   1 kent   kent        74 Feb  5 07:10 1.sh
drwxr-xr-x   2 kent   kent         2 Jun 17 06:21 456
-rwxr-xr-x   1 kent   kent       355 Feb  5 07:10 App_recreate.msh
...

Note that the permissions have changed for App_recreate.msh. So is there a way to preserve the permissions at the least if not also preserve the last modified date?

Note that I traversed all the directories from / to /export/home/kent/ but couldn't find a sticky bit that might be responsible for masking the permissions.

---

Note:

• Once done, I may have to do an incremental backup using rsync - so I guess simply tar-ing the files wouldn't be of much help.

Answer 1

Add the --perm ( or -p ) option. The manpages are your friend.