Unix

Trailing slashes

rsync

Rsync has two major modes of operation. The modes are dependent on the absence or presence of the trailing slash on the source directory. Remember: source directory. Trailing slash on the destination directory doesn't matter.

Copy the source directory to the destination (this is the recommended mode; see note below).

rsync -a --delete /home/mst3k /backup/

Copy the contents of the source directory into the destination.

rsync -a --delete /home/mst3k/ /backup/

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MacOS: default Bash shell

If the source_file ends in a /, the contents of the directory are copied rather than the directory itself.

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cp and mv

You should not put a trailing slash on the source directory

Use trailing slashes on destination directory

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