Mention the open64()/mkstemp64() configure change.
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
c8d771a0 2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
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20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
eb06fa95 24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
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25exists.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
f39281ae 28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
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29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
b9f592fb 35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
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36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
43cd760f 38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
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39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
bef49340 47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
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48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
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54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
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56 single : separator.
57
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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60 contains a : separator.
61
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
bb18e755 64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
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65
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
bb18e755 68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
039faa86 69
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70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
74 also provided.
75
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
4d888108 80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
bef49340 81
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82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
84 local destination.
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85)
86
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87Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88and destination paths must be local.
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89
90manpagesection(SETUP)
91
92See the file README for installation instructions.
93
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94Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 96daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 97for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 98different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 99
1bbf83c0 100You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
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101command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
102
103One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
104security.
105
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106Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
107machines.
108
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109manpagesection(USAGE)
110
111You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112and a destination, one of which may be remote.
113
4d888108 114Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
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115
116quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
117
8a97fc2e 118This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
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119current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122differences. See the tech report for details.
123
124quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
125
8a97fc2e 126This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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127machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 129links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 130in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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131size of data portions of the transfer.
132
133quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
134
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135A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
142/dest/foo:
143
144quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
145quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
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146
147You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149an improved copy command.
150
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151quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
152
8a97fc2e 153This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
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154somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
155
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156
157manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
158
1bbf83c0 159It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
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160transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
161running on TCP port 873.
162
eb06fa95 163You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
4c3b4b25 164environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
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165your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
166proxy connections to port 873.
4c3b4b25 167
1bbf83c0 168Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
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169that:
170
171itemize(
172 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
bb18e755 173 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
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174
175 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 176 connect.
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177
178 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
179 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 180
f7632fc6 181 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 182 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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183)
184
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185Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
186you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
187password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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188the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
189may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 190
3bc67f0c 191WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 192users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 193
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194manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
195
196It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
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197server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
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199to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
200firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
201features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
202below).
203
204From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
205using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
206explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
207--rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
208this functionality.)
209
210In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
211server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
212
213quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
214
215The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
216used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
217
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218manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
219
4d888108 220An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
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221rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
222file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
223shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
224is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
225(typically $HOME).
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227manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
228
229See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
230server configuration file.
231
232Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
233user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
234configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
235if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
236
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237To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
bef49340 239
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240manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
241
242Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
243
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244To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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246
247quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
248
f39281ae 249each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
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250"arvidsjaur".
251
252To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
253targets:
254
255quote( get:nl()
256 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
257
258 put:nl()
259 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
260
261 sync: get put)
262
263this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
f39281ae 264connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
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265lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
266
267I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
268command
269
270quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
271
272this is launched from cron every few hours.
273
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274manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
275
14d43f1f 276Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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277to the detailed description below for a complete description.
278
279verb(
280 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 281 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
c95da96a 282 -c, --checksum always checksum
06891710 283 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
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284 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
285 -R, --relative use relative path names
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286 --no-relative turn off --relative
287 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
915dd207 288 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
5b56cc19 289 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
915dd207 290 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
c95da96a 291 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
75b243a5 292 --inplace update the destination files inplace
716e73d4 293 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
eb06fa95 294 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
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295 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
296 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
297 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
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298 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
299 -p, --perms preserve permissions
300 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
301 -g, --group preserve group
302 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
303 -t, --times preserve times
304 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
305 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
306 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
93689aa5 307 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
c95da96a 308 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 309 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
915dd207 310 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
d9fcc198 311 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
1347d512 312 --existing only update files that already exist
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313 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
314 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
315 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
d48c8065 316 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
b5accaba 317 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
0b73ca12 318 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
c95da96a 319 --partial keep partially transferred files
44cad59f 320 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
915dd207 321 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
c95da96a 322 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 323 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
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324 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
325 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
f6aeaa74 326 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
c95da96a 327 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
915dd207 328 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
59c95e42 329 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
d9fcc198 330 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
c95da96a 331 -z, --compress compress file data
f177b7cc 332 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
2acf81eb 333 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 334 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 335 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 336 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
f177b7cc 337 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
915dd207 338 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
c95da96a 339 --version print version number
bb18e755 340 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
bbd6f4ba 341 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
2a951cd2 342 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
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343 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
344 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
b5accaba 345 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
93689aa5 346 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
c95da96a 347 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 348 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 349 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 350 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
ef5d23eb 351 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
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352 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
353 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
c8d895de 354 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
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355 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
356 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
c95da96a 357 -h, --help show this help screen
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358
359
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360)
361
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362manpageoptions()
363
364rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
365options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 366below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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367The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
368can be used instead.
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369
370startdit()
371dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
372available in rsync
373
374dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
375
376dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 377are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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378single -v will give you information about what files are being
379transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
380information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
381information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 382you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 383
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384dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
385are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
386from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
387cron.
388
41059f75 389dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
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390already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
391This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
41059f75 392
a03a9f4e 393dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
915dd207 394already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
a03a9f4e 395--size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
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396regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
397after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
398exactly.
399
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400dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
401the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
402modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
403set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
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404transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
405with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
5b56cc19 406
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407dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
408a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
409explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
410which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
a03a9f4e 411receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
41059f75 412
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413dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
414way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
415everything.
416
417Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
418finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
419specify bf(-H).
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421dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
422recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
423directories at all.
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424
425dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
426names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
427just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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428you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
429example, if you used the command
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430
431verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
432
433then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
434machine. If instead you used
435
436verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
437
438then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
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439machine -- the full path name is preserved.
440
441dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
442needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
443file processing.
444
445dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
446implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
447of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
448the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
449path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
450the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
451destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
452the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
453which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
454symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
41059f75 455
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456dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
457renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
458backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
459--backup-dir and --suffix options.
41059f75 460
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461dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
462tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
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463very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
464specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
465(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
466will keep their original filenames).
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467If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
468(which changes in a recursive transfer).
66203a98 469
b5679335 470dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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471backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
472if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 473
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474dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
475destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
476file.
477
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478In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
479considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
480is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
481symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
482regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
483free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
484
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485dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
486pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
487from the sender.
488
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489dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
490and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
98f51bfb 491file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
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492network reduction it might otherwise.
493
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494This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based change
495or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound not network bound.
a3221d2a 496
399371e7 497WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 498transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 499should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
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500rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
501receiving user.
a3221d2a 502
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503dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
504symlink on the destination.
41059f75 505
eb06fa95 506dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
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507they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
508versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
509receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
510modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
511to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
512an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
513will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
b5313607 514
eb06fa95 515dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 516symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
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517are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
518source path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 519
d310a212 520dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 521which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
d310a212 522also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 523give unexpected results.
d310a212 524
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525dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
526the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
527option hard links are treated like regular files.
528
529Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
530are in the list of files being sent.
531
532This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
533
534dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
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535is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
536faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
6eb770bb 537destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
4d888108 538"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
6eb770bb 539the source and destination are specified as local paths.
41059f75 540
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541dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
542default.
543
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544dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
545permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
546
547Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
548source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
549other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
550(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
41059f75 551
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552dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
553destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
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554only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
555is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
556circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
41059f75 557
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558dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
559destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
560program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
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561receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
562is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
563circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
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564
565dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
566block device information to the remote system to recreate these
567devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
568
569dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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570with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
571option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
572modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
573cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
574their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
575changed.
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576
577dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
578instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
579
580dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
581up less space on the destination.
582
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583NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
584filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
585correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
586
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587dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
588boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
589contents of only one filesystem.
590
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591dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
592only update files that already exist on the destination.
593
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594dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
595This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
596the destination.
597
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598dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
599files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
600to prevent disasters.
601
41059f75 602dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
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603side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
604transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 605
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606This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
607
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608This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
609to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
610deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 611
b5accaba 612If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
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613files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
614prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
615sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
2c5548d2 616destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
41059f75 617
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618dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
619receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
620delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
786c3687 621Implies --delete.
b33b791e 622
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623dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
624receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
625sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
626after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
57df171b 627
2c5548d2 628dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 629even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 630
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631dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
632they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
633is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
634Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
41059f75 635
e40a46de 636dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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637the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
638
b5679335 639dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 640remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
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641remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
642default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 643
bef49340 644If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
4d888108 645remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
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646remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
647shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
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648running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
649TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
bef49340 650
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651Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
652presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
98393ae2 653
ea7f8108 654quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
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WD
655
656(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
657options in their .ssh/config file.)
658
41059f75 659You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
ea7f8108 660environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
41059f75 661
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662See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
663
b5679335 664dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
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665rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
666that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
667the binary is in.
41059f75 668
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669dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
670broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
671systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
672a file should be ignored.
673
674The exclude list is initialized to:
675
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676quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
677.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
678.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
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679
680then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
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681files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
682are delimited by whitespace).
683
f177b7cc 684Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
2a383be0 685.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
2a383be0 686See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 687
b5679335 688dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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689certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
690useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
691
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692You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
693to build up the list of files to exclude.
694
6156e72f 695See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 696
b5679335 697dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
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698option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
699FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
700';' or '#' are ignored.
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701If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
702
b5679335 703dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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704specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
705build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
706
6156e72f 707See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 708
b5679335 709dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
43bd68e5 710from a file.
c769702f 711If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 712
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713dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
714exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
c769702f 715for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
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716transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
717instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
718is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
719directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
720than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
721behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
722you want it.
723
724The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
725source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
726allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
727command:
728
729quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
730
731If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
732directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
733contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
734or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
735that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
736duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
737force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
738
739In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
740instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
741(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
742specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
743transfer". For example:
744
745quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
746
747This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
748was located on the remote "src" host.
749
750dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
751file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
752This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
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WD
753It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
754file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 755
b5679335 756dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 757scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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758transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
759the temporary files in the receiving directory.
760
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761dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
762the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
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DD
763files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
764destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
765destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
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DD
766flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
767example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
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DD
768although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
769This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
770transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
771have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 772to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
375a4556 773
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774dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
775also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
776unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
777linked.
d31c09c8 778Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 779to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
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WD
780An example:
781
782verb(
783 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
784)
59c95e42 785
41059f75 786dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
089e73f8 787the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
f39281ae 788option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
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789same method that gzip uses.
790
791Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
792that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
793compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
794information sent for matching data blocks.
795
796dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 797and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
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798at both ends.
799
4d888108 800By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 801what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 8020 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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AT
803option is not specified.
804
ec40899b
WD
805If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
806on the destination system, then the numeric ID
807from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
808"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
809the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
810users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 811
b5accaba 812dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
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AT
813timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
814then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 815
eb06fa95
MP
816dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
817daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
818bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
819
820If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
821run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
822become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
30e8c8e1 823(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
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MP
824requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
825details.
41059f75 826
bbd6f4ba
MP
827dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
828rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
829option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
830be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
831bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
832bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
833debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
834sshd.
835
5c9730a4 836dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
e30f0657
AT
837when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
838rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
839address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
840in conjunction with the --config option.
5c9730a4 841
b5679335 842dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
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DD
843the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
844The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
845a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
846the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
41059f75 847
b5679335 848dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 849rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 850
b5accaba 851dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
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WD
852a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
853rsync defaults to using
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WD
854blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
855ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 856
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857dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
858default.
859
3a64ad1f 860dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 861rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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DD
862specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
863rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 864
b72f24c7
AT
865dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
866on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 867algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 868
d9fcc198
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869dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
870transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
871it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
872--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
873make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
874
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875dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
876put a partially transferred file into DIR instead of writing out the
877file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
878dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
879rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
880its purpose.
881
882Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
883whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
884"--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
885in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the DIR
886if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
887DIR was specified as a relative path).
888
889If you are deleting files on the destination and your partial-dir is
890inside the destination hierarchy, make sure you specify an exclude to
891prevent the partial file from being deleted (it could get deleted at the
892end of the transfer when using --delete-after, or at the beginning of the
893transfer when using --delete). E.g. "--exclude=.rsync-partial/".
894
895IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users to
896avoid a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
897
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898dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
899showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
900something to watch.
e2559dbe 901Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
7b10f91d 902
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903When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
904
905verb(
906 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
907)
908
909This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
910is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
911data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
912remaining in this transfer.
913
914After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
915
916verb(
917 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
918)
919
920This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
921transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
922the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
923These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
924what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
925
d9fcc198
AT
926dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
927found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
928option to make it easier.
929
65575e96
AT
930dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
931in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
bb18e755 932is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
65575e96 933transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
fc7952e7
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934must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
935single line.
65575e96 936
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DD
937dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
938transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
939using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
940of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
941transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 942result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
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DD
943of zero specifies no limit.
944
b9f592fb 945dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
98f51bfb 946another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
b9f592fb 947section for details.
6902ed17 948
b9f592fb 949dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
c769702f 950file previously generated by --write-batch.
399371e7 951If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 952See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 953
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WD
954dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
955when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
956control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
957rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
958listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
959versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
960an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
961try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
962
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WD
963dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
964NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
965MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
b9f592fb 966by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
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WD
967is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
968applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
969in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
970Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
b9f592fb 971for checksum seed.
c8d895de 972
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AT
973enddit()
974
43bd68e5
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975manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
976
977The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 978selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 979
be92ac6c 980Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
98606687 981the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
43bd68e5 982name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
23489269 983pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
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AT
984skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
985skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
986filename is not skipped.
987
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WD
988The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
989to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
990subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
991is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
992This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
993
994Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
20af605e 995trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
a4b6f305
WD
996option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
997changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
998system). The following examples demonstrate this.
999
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WD
1000Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1001path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1002Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305
WD
1003
1004verb(
b5ebe6d9 1005 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
a4b6f305 1006 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1007 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 1008 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1009 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 1010
b5ebe6d9 1011 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
1012 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1013 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
a4b6f305 1014 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1015 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
a4b6f305 1016
b5ebe6d9 1017 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
1018 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1019 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
a4b6f305 1020 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1021 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
be92ac6c 1022
b5ebe6d9 1023 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
1024 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1025 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
be92ac6c 1026 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1027 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305
WD
1028)
1029
1030The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1031look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1032(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 1033
be92ac6c
WD
1034Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1035every subcomponent of
a4b6f305 1036every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
27b9a19b 1037applied recursively to each subcomponent.
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WD
1038The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1039when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1040parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1041because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1042hierarchy.
27b9a19b
DD
1043
1044Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
2fb139c1
AT
1045each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1046--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1047
14d43f1f 1048The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
43bd68e5
AT
1049
1050itemize(
d1cce1dd 1051
43bd68e5
AT
1052 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1053 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
d1cce1dd
S
1054 the filename.
1055 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
a4b6f305
WD
1056 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1057 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
d1cce1dd 1058 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
27b9a19b
DD
1059 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1060 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1061 end of the file name.
43bd68e5
AT
1062
1063 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
a4b6f305 1064 directory, not a file, link, or device.
43bd68e5
AT
1065
1066 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
a8b9d4ed
DD
1067 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1068 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
43bd68e5 1069
8a7846f9
WD
1070 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1071 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
27b9a19b 1072
38499c1a
WD
1073 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1074 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1075 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1076 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1077 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
8a7846f9 1078 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
43bd68e5
AT
1079
1080 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1081 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1082 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
43bd68e5
AT
1083
1084 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1085 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1086 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
de2fd20e
AT
1087
1088 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
eb06fa95 1089 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
43bd68e5
AT
1090)
1091
b7dc46c0
WD
1092The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1093you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
20af605e 1094options in the proper order.
27b9a19b 1095
20af605e
WD
1096Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1097directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1098the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1099important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
43bd68e5 1100
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WD
1101verb(
1102 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1103 + /file-is-included
1104 - *
1105)
1106
1107This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1108so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1109directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1110to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
f28bd833 1111before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
20af605e
WD
1112include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1113instance, this set of rules works fine:
1114
1115verb(
1116 + /some/
1117 + /some/path/
1118 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1119 + /file-also-included
1120 - *
1121)
1122
1123Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
43bd68e5
AT
1124
1125itemize(
1126 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
a4b6f305 1127 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1128 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
a8b9d4ed 1129 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1130 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
a8b9d4ed 1131 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1132 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1133 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
5d5811f7
DD
1134 directories and C source files
1135 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1136 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1137 it would be excluded by the "*")
43bd68e5
AT
1138)
1139
6902ed17
MP
1140manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1141
2e3c1417 1142bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
7432ccf4
WD
1143of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1144feel free to try this out.
088aac85
DD
1145
1146Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1147identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1148number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1149source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1150hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1151write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1152of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
1153client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1154this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1155
1156To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1157with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1158file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1159using the information stored in the batch file.
1160
1161For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1162option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 1163".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb
WD
1164a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1165batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1166passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1167instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1168path differs from the original destination tree path.
1169
1170Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1171status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 1172updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
1173be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1174at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 1175
4602eafa 1176Examples:
088aac85
DD
1177
1178verb(
98f51bfb
WD
1179 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1180 $ scp foo* remote:
1181 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4602eafa
WD
1182)
1183
1184verb(
98f51bfb
WD
1185 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1186 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4602eafa
WD
1187)
1188
98f51bfb
WD
1189In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1190and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1191"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1192into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1193reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1194
1195itemize(
1196
1197 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1198 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1199 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
6902ed17 1200
98f51bfb
WD
1201 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1202 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1203
1204 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1205 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1206 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1207 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1208 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1209 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1210
1211)
088aac85
DD
1212
1213Caveats:
1214
98f51bfb 1215The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
1216to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1217batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
7432ccf4
WD
1218is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1219appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1220and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1221error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1222if the command got updated. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1223always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1224option. If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1225partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
088aac85
DD
1226be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1227destination tree.
1228
b9f592fb
WD
1229The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1230one used to generate the batch file.
088aac85 1231
98f51bfb 1232The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
088aac85
DD
1233error.
1234
7432ccf4
WD
1235When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1236to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1237as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1238For instance
b9f592fb
WD
1239--write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1240--include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
7432ccf4 1241without --delete-excluded.
b9f592fb 1242
98f51bfb
WD
1243The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1244options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1245shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1246list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1247user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1248to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1249
6902ed17
MP
1250See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1251reports.
1252
eb06fa95
MP
1253manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1254
f28bd833 1255Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
1256link in the source directory.
1257
1258By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1259"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1260
1261If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1262target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1263bf(--links).
1264
1265If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1266copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1267
1268rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1269example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1270ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1271bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1272bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1273they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
4d888108 1274unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
eb06fa95 1275
7bd0cf5b
MP
1276Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1277(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1278components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1279
d310a212
AT
1280manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1281
14d43f1f 1282rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212
AT
1283cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1284version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1285
1286This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1287facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 1288for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
1289remote shell like this:
1290
1291verb(
43cd760f 1292 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
d310a212
AT
1293)
1294
1295then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 1296should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
1297rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1298data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 1299it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
1300scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1301for non-interactive logins.
1302
e6c64e79
MP
1303If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1304try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1305show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1306
55b64e4b
MP
1307manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1308
1309startdit()
a73de5f3
WD
1310dit(bf(0)) Success
1311dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1312dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1313dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1314dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 1315was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 1316them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 1317not by the server.
a73de5f3 1318dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
b5accaba
WD
1319dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1320dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
a73de5f3
WD
1321dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1322dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1323dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1324dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1325dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1326dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
1327dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1328dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
a73de5f3 1329dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
55b64e4b
MP
1330enddit()
1331
de2fd20e
AT
1332manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1333
1334startdit()
1335
1336dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1337ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1338more details.
1339
1340dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108
WD
1341override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1342options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
de2fd20e 1343
4c3b4b25
AT
1344dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1345redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1346rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1347
de2fd20e 1348dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 1349password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
de2fd20e
AT
1350daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1351password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1352
1353dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
bb18e755 1354are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
4b2f6a7c 1355If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
de2fd20e 1356
14d43f1f 1357dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e
AT
1358default .cvsignore file.
1359
1360enddit()
1361
41059f75
AT
1362manpagefiles()
1363
30e8c8e1 1364/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
41059f75
AT
1365
1366manpageseealso()
1367
1368rsyncd.conf(5)
1369
1370manpagediagnostics()
1371
1372manpagebugs()
1373
1374times are transferred as unix time_t values
1375
f28bd833 1376When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171
DD
1377unmodified files.
1378See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1379
b5accaba 1380file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
41059f75
AT
1381values
1382
a87b3b2a 1383see also the comments on the --delete option
41059f75 1384
38843171
DD
1385Please report bugs! See the website at
1386url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75
AT
1387
1388manpagesection(CREDITS)
1389
1390rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1391COPYING for details.
1392
41059f75 1393A WEB site is available at
3cd5eb3b
MP
1394url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1395includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1396manual page.
9e3c856a
AT
1397
1398The primary ftp site for rsync is
1399url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
1400
1401We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1402
9e3c856a
AT
1403This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1404Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
1405
1406manpagesection(THANKS)
1407
1408Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
7ff701e8
MP
1409and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1410I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1411
ce5f2732 1412Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
98f51bfb 1413Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
41059f75
AT
1414
1415manpageauthor()
1416
ce5f2732
MP
1417rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1418Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 1419
a5d74a18 1420Mailing lists for support and development are available at
7ff701e8 1421url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)