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I tried to sync with an ExFAT partion on an external HDD using the command:

rsync -avvP --remove-source-files /path/to/sourceDir /path/to/destDir

However I got this type of error several times:

rsync: [generator] symlink "/destDir/subdirectory/
" -> "A" failed: Function not implemented (38)

At the end of the rsync recursive copy operation, the following error was printed:

rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1330) [sender=3.2.3]

The sending side is an ext4 partitioned internal hard drive.

bit
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  • Fortunately all the symlinks in the source directory are not important or needed. – bit Jan 10 '21 at 15:58
  • Adjacently-related: [Super User: rsync seems to overwrite already existing file on ExFat](https://superuser.com/q/763366/425838) – Gabriel Staples May 20 '23 at 23:44

1 Answers1

3

If you use the rsync option:

rsync -a

you will get a function not implemented error like:

rsync: [generator] symlink "/destDir/subdirectory/
" -> "A" failed: Function not implemented (38)

due to the limitation of the ExFAT file system. ExFAT does not support symlinks so rsync can not create one on an ExFAT file system 1 2. See answers in this question for possible workarounds.

Anecdotal evidence 3.

ExFAT also does not understand permissions, owners or groups 4 so when syncing to an ExFAT partition using: rsync you will get errors like this:

rsync: mkstemp … failed: Function not implemented (38)
bit
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  • See here too!: https://www.scivision.dev/rsync-to-exfat-drive/ They recommend using options `-vrltD` with exFAT, rather than `-a`. As I mention [in my answer here](https://superuser.com/a/1388910/425838), `-a` includes options `-rlptgoD`. – Gabriel Staples May 20 '23 at 23:37
  • But...like you said, and [like Microsoft says here](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/filesystem-functionality-comparison), exFAT does not support symlinks (soft links), so remove the `-l` and just use `-vrtD`. See also here: [SuperUser: rsync seems to overwrite already existing file on ExFat](https://superuser.com/a/1181312/425838) – Gabriel Staples May 21 '23 at 00:11