# Pastebin AbUqDGM5
trying to use rsync --link-dest for incremental backups, but it appears as if it's making a full copy each time instead of doing hard links

my command is: rsync -Pavzhe 'ssh -p #####' --delete --link-dest=/mnt/f/rsync-backup/backups/symlink-to-latest user@host:/home/homedir /mnt/f/rsync-backup/backups/2022-03-11_10.18.52

i run this from WSL 2, if that matters. from what i read it shouldnt matter - it should work normally

the symlink `/mnt/f/rsync-backup/backups/symlink-to-latest` points to -> `/mnt/f/rsync-backup/backups/2022-03-10_01.44.40`

but when i try running `find . -links +1` i get none, which makes it seem that all files are new copies and not hard links to unchanged files

is there maybe something causing rsync to believe that all the files changed?... am i looking at the file links count wrong?... is there another way to tell if the files are hard links & sum up the actual total size used on disk?

example stat difference between files which should have been hard linked with `--link-dest` but instead seem copied:

$ stat backups/2022-03-10_01.44.40/homedir/.bash_profile
  File: backups/2022-03-10_01.44.40/homedir/.bash_profile
  Size: 176             Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 31h/49d Inode: 562949954752472  Links: 1
Access: (0777/-rwxrwxrwx)  Uid: ( 1000/ regedit)   Gid: ( 1000/ regedit)
Access: 2022-03-10 01:44:54.903835800 -0500
Modify: 2022-01-06 16:23:48.000000000 -0500
Change: 2022-03-10 13:08:49.481694200 -0500
 Birth: -
$ stat backups/2022-03-11_09.56.20/homedir/.bash_profile
  File: backups/2022-03-11_09.56.20/homedir/.bash_profile
  Size: 176             Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 31h/49d Inode: 4222124651991185  Links: 1
Access: (0777/-rwxrwxrwx)  Uid: ( 1000/ regedit)   Gid: ( 1000/ regedit)
Access: 2022-03-11 09:57:46.737625200 -0500
Modify: 2022-01-06 16:23:48.000000000 -0500
Change: 2022-03-11 09:57:46.740625400 -0500
 Birth: -