RDIFFDIR(1)

🦋 rdiffdir(1) — like rdiff but for whole directories, bestie

okay so this is the manual page for rdiffdir, one of the User Manuals, and it's genuinely iconic once you get the vibe. stay with me 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

rdiffdir — compute and apply signatures and diffs to directories. yes. directories. the whole folder. slay 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

rdiffdir [options] sig[nature] basis_dir signature_file

rdiffdir [options] delta full_sigtar {incr_sigtar} new_dir delta_file

rdiffdir [options] patch basis_dir delta_file

rdiffdir [options] tar basis_dir tar_file

okay and here's the little note that comes with it, do not skip this, it's important 🫶

If signature_file or delta_file are -, the data will be read from stdin or written to stdout as appropriate. literal main character energy for a dash tbh.

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so rdiffdir is supposed to be like rdiff, but it can operate on directories. that's the whole thing. See rdiff(1) for more information — the syntax is similar. no cap. ⭐

now about the delta command, because this part is lowkey the whole plot 🍓: the full_sigtar operand is a signature_file written by an earlier signature or tar command (the latter using the --write-sig-to option). the optional incr_sigtar operands are signature files written by earlier delta commands using the --write-sig-to option.

so the way this works is: this way the Nth invocation of the delta command can parse (and extend) the signature chain that has been founded by the first signature or tar command with a full signature, and then extended by the subsequent N-1 delta invocations with incremental signatures. it's giving relay race. it's giving chain reaction. 🔥

and then — listen — it is the responsibility of the user to specify the sigtar operands in logical increment order. that's you. that's your job. don't come for me, I'm just the messenger 🙈

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🧚 OPTIONS 🧚

• --write-sig-to sigfile — this option is only used in delta and tar modes. when specified, rdiffdir will write a signature of the directory it is processing to sigfile. the end result will be a delta and a new signature calculated over the same data. two for one, we love efficiency 💜
• -z, --gzip-compress — enable gzip compression and decompression of signature and delta files. smaller files, same vibes, periodt 💅

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🌈 SELECTION OPTIONS 🌈

in signature and delta modes, rdiffdir accepts duplicity-like selection options including --exclude, --exclude-filelist, etc. See the duplicity(1) manual page for more information. iykyk 👑

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💀 BUGS 💀

• Hard links are currently unsupported (they will be treated as non-linked regular files). so if you were hoping, bestie… no. 😭
• Bad signatures will be treated as empty instead of logging appropriate error message. yeah. that's just how it is right now. 🫠

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Original Author - Ben Escoto <bescoto@stanford.edu>

Current Maintainer - Kenneth Loafman <kenneth@loafman.com>

Contributors, continuous ones 🌟

Edgar Soldin, Mike Terry

Also we'd like to thank everybody posting issues to the mailing list or on launchpad, sending in patches or contributing otherwise. Duplicity wouldn't be as stable and useful if it weren't for you. fr fr, every single one of you 🫶💖

Special thanks 🌸

A special thanks goes to rsync.net, a Cloud Storage provider with explicit support for duplicity, for several monetary donations and for providing a special "duplicity friends" rate for their offsite backup service. Email info@rsync.net for details. iconic behaviour honestly ⭐

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

duplicity(1), python(1), rdiff(1), rdiff-backup(1).

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and that's the page!! 💖 ok one last thing, the cute sign-off: this whole thing is Version 0.8.23, dated May 15, 2022 — so if you're reading this, that's the era you're in. go forth and diff those directories, bestie. slay. 🎀🦋✨