rsync + hardlink, only on file system backend or any ext4 even if remote?

[avatar1024]

Hello, just got a quick question.

The Cloudron docs says that rsync will use hard links to save space only if using the filesystem backend so only if backups are saved on the local server. I was wondering if this is strictly true or whether it is possible to use hard link on a remote volume if the volume partition is ext4?

[nebulon]

@avatar1024 if the filesystem is remote, then mostly it won't matter what filesystem it uses locally. For example a folder, used over sshfs or samba/cifs, might reside physically on an ext2 or zfs or anything.

Generally most Linux filesystems support hardlinks though, but not all remote filesystems do. Samba/cifs does support hardlinks, however the server also has to have the support. So the answer is often not obvious.

[avatar1024]

@nebulon Thanks for your reply and sorry the question was confusing cause I talked about "volume partition".
The Cloudron docs says that hard link will be used only with the filesystem back-end.
So the question is, if we use another backend (sshfs, CIFS, etc.), and if the remote file system and server do support hard links, will hard links be used on the backup to save space on the remote drive, or will they not be used because of not using the filesystem backend?

[nebulon]

@avatar1024 you can see which backend supports it by virtue of having the hardlink checkbox in the backup configuration dialog available. Looks like the docs are a bit vague there.

[girish]

I have clarified the text a bit more now.