Is updating rsync going to kill Apple specific changes?

[Jak T Rip]

Hi there!

As far as I understood it, Apple included an old version of rsync and made changes to it (-E flag for copying Apple specific meta data).
Now, if I use e.g. homebrew to update rsync to a new version, will that not remove the Apple specific changes?

Also, as I read here, there were some issues with the Apple changes:

Mini-HOWTO: Fixing rsync on Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4.x)

Now, this refers to a long while back, but when I tried rsync on a bigger folder with the -E flag, I got buffer overruns... so I believe the issues are still present today. If I update to a new rsync, will I be able to copy Apple specifics without issues?

And a related but more general question: is there a way to update rsync while keeping the old version just in case? Can I simply copy the rsync command file to "rsync-old" or something?

 

[spainbran]

Have a look here:

macOS - updating scripts - moving from rsync 2.6.9 to 3.0.6

We are using rsync on macOS to migrate a specific user's home directory from OLD (current) to NEW computer. User is in possession of OLD computer...we are in possession of NEW computer. Both comp...

stackoverflow.com

Installing through Homebrew adds an extra executable in a specific path and does not replace the existing one.
use:
which -a rsync

to see the different paths.

 

[frou]

If you look at the Homebrew recipe for rsync, they apply at least one patch to it before compiling: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/rsync.rb

It's also possible that the contemporary version of rsync simply has improved Mac support out of the box. But you'd probably have to pore over the documentation/release-notes to find out whether that's happened.

 

[Jak T Rip]

Some great answers here, THANK YOU!

I updated through homebrew (thanks for the tip with which -a, that helped alot!) and yes, the new rsync can handle Apple specifics out of the box, but rsync 3 is not compatible to rsync 2, so I also had to update my receiving computer, which is an old PPC Mac. To my surprise, I could compile rsync there with only minor issues - so I am running rsync 3 now from Apple Silicon to PPC and it works like a charm.

Thank you again, without your help I would have required weeks to get here.