Because cp will copy everything, while rsync will copy only the things that actually need copying, and also delete the things that should be gone?
> rsync (remote sync) is a utility for transferring and synchronizing files between a computer and a storage drive and across networked computers by comparing the modification times and sizes of files.
Re:Did Claude Increase Bugs in Rsync?
by Joel_Mckay on Saturday June 06, 2026 @07:44AM
(#48423980)
If you deal with large numbers of files, the ability to dynamically skip compressing media and zipped files for transfer can be extremely handy.
While stuff like sshfs is great for a few small files (and win11), it will be an order of magnitude slower than an rsync task.
Most smart folks automate backup/recovery scripts, and only sometimes edit them with a new OS install. =3
Can someone explain why one would ever use rsync (pre vibecode version) instead of cp and dd?
Can't we just 'apt remove rsync' and save ourselves the time even spent on evaluating this dependency?
Thanks