rsync -LvP following symlinks always retransmits all files

Question

I do rsync -LvP some_local_files* host:dir (related link).

It works (it follows symlinks), but it always retransmits all the files, ignoring what is already there.

How can I avoid that? I.e. I only want to transmit files which were not copied yet.

Answer 1

This seems to be because on the destination, with the options -LvP, when the file is created it does not get the timestamp of the source file, nor even of the source symbolic link, but instead gets a timestamp of "now".

By adding option -t or --times, the modification time of the referent source file is set on the destination. Future rsyncs find the file is of the same size and timestamp, and so it no longer copied again.