On Sun, Aug 18, 2013 at 8:32 PM, Johannes Ernst <jernst@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > What happens if that occurs during an rsync? Or is that prevented from happening? > > Similarly, what if a client updates from a mirror while the database file is being replaced by rsync? You can't get a partially updated database, as the replacement of a database is atomic. Both our dbscripts and rsync ensure that, by using the basic rename-to-replace approach (see `man 2 rename`). However, this only applies to single databases. Before really big changes that affect multiple databases I stop rsync and wait for all connections to close, to ensure atomicity. For example, I do this when I move a major GNOME update between repositories, as that can take a couple of minutes. I can't speak for others, though.