rsync - Nov 2009 - --fuzzy search over to-be-deleted files to catch moved files and directories

Hi,

I use rsync via rsnapshot to backup a large collection of files.
Using "--fuzzy" already saves me a lot of time by discovering most
renames that happen within a directory. Therfore I already use the
"--delete-after" option. 

Now the question is, if fuzzy search could be extended to search for
moved files across directory borders. If for example I move pictures
aound to reorganize them in a different directory hierarchy, or if I 
move whole directories around as I reorganize part of my music files.

I know there is --compare-dest but that requires knowledge of the old
location.

As i understand it, the"--delete-after" option already implies that
the
receiving side has to keep all to-be-deleted files till the end of the
transfer.
So, instead of searching all files at the destination for a match, would 
it be possible to also search that list of files that otherwise would 
be deleted, and use them as potential fuzzy-match files?

If the performance penalty for performing this "file-resurrection" on 
lots of files would be too big, there could be an options to only keep
files over a certain size in that list "second chance" list.

Does that sound like a useful feature?

cheers
-henrik

On Tue, 2009-11-10 at 17:55 +0100, H. Langos wrote:
> Now the question is, if fuzzy search could be extended to search for
> moved files across directory borders. If for example I move pictures
> aound to reorganize them in a different directory hierarchy, or if I 
> move whole directories around as I reorganize part of my music files.
Consider the --detect-renamed option provided by the maintained patch
"detect-renamed.diff".  It will find moved files that match exactly
according to the "quick check" in effect (size + mtime or checksum). 
It
doesn't calculate name similarity like --fuzzy because that would be
prohibitively expensive in the current implementation.

-- 
Matt

H. Langos <henrik-rsync at ...> writes:
> I use rsync via rsnapshot to backup a large collection of files.
> Using "--fuzzy" 
[...]

Any progress on this?

Cheers,
JH