deploy_to_server ran rsync -r, which does not preserve modification
times. Every transferred file took the time it arrived, so the next deploy
found no mtime it agreed with and re-sent the entire site — 206 files each
time, regardless of what changed.
-rt fixes it.
Measured against the live server, dry-run transfer counts:
- before, with mtimes already wrong from prior deploys: 206
- after one deploy that writes correct mtimes: 0
The itemized flags tell the same story: files that only differed in
timestamp showed as <f..T...., not <f.sT.....