Blog of spblinux

Backup with rsync on qnap nas (architecture armel). Inside a private protected local network rsync (3.2.7) is running in daemon mode. Together with btrkbk to store snapshots. Debian 12 is the latest version of debian which supports my nas (qnap trs219p).

Having updated debian os, 2026-07, rsync stopped working with files bigger than 2GB – rsync error: file too large.
(dpkg -l | grep rsync shows: rsync_3.2.7-1+deb12u6)

Going back to version rsync_3.2.7-1+deb12u4 removed this error. (Possible background: debian maintainers backported the patches described here.)

Steps to downgrade from rsync patch version u6 to u4:

• as root user:
  • apt-get install build-essential fakeroot devscripts
  • apt build-dep rsync
• as normal user build deb package for rsync:
  • mkdir src; cd src
  • mkdir rsync3271u4; cd rsync3271u4
  • look up url of dsc file for rsync_3.2.7-1+deb12u4.dsc here (snapshot.debian.org)
  • dget DSC_URL
  • cd rsync-3.2.7
  • debuild -b -uc -us
• as root user:
  • tell debian apt to pin version u4 of rsync
  • create file /etc/apt/preferences.d/rsync
  • content of this file:
    Package: rsync
    Pin: version 3.2.7-1+deb12u4
    Pin-Priority: 1000
  • finally install rsync u4 from local deb package
  • dpkg -i rsync3271u4/rsync_3.2.7-1+deb12u4_armel.deb