rsync, leave files compressed?

[gregory mott <gmott ntlworld com>]

i have just discovered rsync (thanks to a redhat-list poster for
pointing it out) and it is very good..  actually it is half of what i've
been wanting..  the other half is (an option) to compress (preferably
bzip2) each file on transmission (iff that results in a reduction in
size) and store it still compressed (with appropriate name extension) on
the other end.  and of course vice versa.

does this kind of capability already exist out there somewhere?

by the way, why is redhat dropping bzip2?

and similarly, i wonder why afio, once offered on a redhat extra-tools
cd, never landed in the rh distro nor seemingly caught much popularity
otherwise?  compressing a file at a time instead of the whole stream is
definitely a better approach..