Get rsync to generate a patch file instead of copying across files?
Solution 1:
There might be a better way, but this might work, albeit not that efficiently:
rsync -vrn / dest:/ > ~/file_list
Then edit test to remove the stats, then:
while read file; do
diff $file <(ssh dest "cat $file")
done < ~/edited_file_list
Another Option:
You might also consider mounting the file system with something like sshfs/fuse, and then just using diff.
Solution 2:
For create patch:
rsync -arv --only-write-batch=patch old/ new/
For apply it:
rsync -arv --read-batch=patch dir/
or use auto-generated script:
./patch.sh
Sources:
- https://russt.me/2018/07/creating-and-applying-diffs-with-rsync/
- https://www.comentum.com/rsync.html
Solution 3:
rsync can't do this natively, but if there's a possibility of using unison you can produce diff style format from that.