Understanding the output of rsync --itemize-changes

As you may know the rsync's --delete options if misused could make severe damage.

To prevent this you can use the --itemize-change and the --dry-run options to figure out how the command will behave before launching the real one.

The output will be something like that:

.d..t..g... ./
.f...p.g... Something.pdf
.f.....g... md5sum-2010-02-21.txt
.f...p.g... prova.rb
.d.....g... .metadata/
.f...p.g... .metadata/.lock
.f...p.g... .metadata/.log
.f...p.g... .metadata/version.ini
>f+++++++++ Parameter_Usage.txt

Where the first field of each line tell what rsync would do to each file.

I wrote this little schema that helped me to understand this output format and I'm publishing hoping it will be useful for others.

YXcstpoguax  path/to/file
|||||||||||
`----------- the type of update being done::
 ||||||||||   <: file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
 ||||||||||   >: file is being transferred to the local host (received).
 ||||||||||   c: local change/creation for the item, such as:
 ||||||||||      - the creation of a directory
 ||||||||||      - the changing of a symlink,
 ||||||||||      - etc.
 ||||||||||   h: the item is a hard link to another item (requires --hard-links).
 ||||||||||   .: the item is not being updated (though it might have attributes that are being modified).
 ||||||||||   *: means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message (e.g. "deleting").
 ||||||||||
 `---------- the file type:
  |||||||||   f for a file,
  |||||||||   d for a directory,
  |||||||||   L for a symlink,
  |||||||||   D for a device,
  |||||||||   S for a special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
  |||||||||
  `--------- c: different checksum (for regular files)
   ||||||||     changed value (for symlink, device, and special file)
   `-------- s: Size is different
    `------- t: Modification time is different
     `------ p: Permission are different
      `----- o: Owner is different
       `---- g: Group is different
        `--- u: The u slot is reserved for future use.
         `-- a: The ACL information changed

This schema is based on the contents of the rsync manual.