rsync -p. why would you want to preserve owner, permissions

basically the title. I'm lacking unix basics but on windows if I backup with robocopy I wouldn't want to preserve ownership bc then I would have to take ownership of it again anyway when replaying the backup. (default is actually data, attr, timestamps)

I'm trying to backup a macbook in order to reset it and I'm hesitant to use the global archive flag -a. Will I have to take ownership of the files or can I just use rsync -a with no problems later on?

Solution 1:

When you restore your data, do you really want to have to fix your permissions?

Do you have the permissions documented somewhere else so you know what they should be?

if I backup with robocopy I wouldn't want to preserve ownership

Maybe you don't but 9 times out of 10, I do. Permissions and metadata about files in some cases is as important as the data in the file.

Do you want to share PII with the wrong person? Do you want to give store the salary and personnel database in a place where anyone and everyone can get into it?

These tools are at least partially designed for usage on servers in multi-user systems.