Changed man page documentation of --force to say it is hardly ever needed
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
b5313607 2manpage(rsync)(1)(17 Feb 1999)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
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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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18manpagedescription()
19
20rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23exists.
24
25The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28report that accompanies this package.
29
30Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31
32itemize(
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
40 mirroring)
41)
42
43manpagesection(GENERAL)
44
039faa86 45There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
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46
47itemize(
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
50
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 single : separator.
55
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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58 contains a : separator.
59
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
946347b8 62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
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63
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
66 separator.
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67
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
70 local destination.
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71)
72
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73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
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75
76manpagesection(SETUP)
77
78See the file README for installation instructions.
79
80Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82destination are local.
83
14d43f1f 84You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
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85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
87One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
88security.
89
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90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
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93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
99
100quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
101
102this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
109
14d43f1f 110this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
14d43f1f 114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
118
14d43f1f 119a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
41059f75 120all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
14d43f1f 121/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
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122contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124using the --delete option.
125
126You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128an improved copy command.
129
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130quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
131
132this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
134
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135
136manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
137
138It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140running on TCP port 873.
141
14d43f1f 142Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
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143that:
144
145itemize(
146 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
147 separate the hostname from the path.
148
149 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 150 connect.
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151
152 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
153 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 154
f7632fc6 155 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 156 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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157)
158
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159Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
160you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
161password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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162the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
163may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 164
3bc67f0c 165WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 166users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 167
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168manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
169
170An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
171called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
172information.
173
174manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
175
176Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
177
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178To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
179files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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180
181quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
182
183each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
184"arvidsjaur".
185
186To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
187targets:
188
189quote( get:nl()
190 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
191
192 put:nl()
193 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
194
195 sync: get put)
196
197this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
198link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
199lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
200
201I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
202command
203
204quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
205
206this is launched from cron every few hours.
207
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208manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
209
14d43f1f 210Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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211to the detailed description below for a complete description.
212
213verb(
9ef53907 214Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
d853783f 215 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9ef53907 216 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
14d43f1f 217 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
9ef53907 218 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
14d43f1f 219 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
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220SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
221SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
222 sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
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223
224Options
c95da96a 225 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 226 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
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227 -c, --checksum always checksum
228 -a, --archive archive mode
229 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
230 -R, --relative use relative path names
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231 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
232 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
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233 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
234 -l, --links preserve soft links
235 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
b5313607 236 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
d853783f 237 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
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238 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
239 -p, --perms preserve permissions
240 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
241 -g, --group preserve group
242 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
243 -t, --times preserve times
244 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
245 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
246 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
247 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 248 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
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249 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
250 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
251 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
252 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
253 --partial keep partially transferred files
254 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
255 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
256 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
257 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
258 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
375a4556 259 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
c95da96a 260 -z, --compress compress file data
2acf81eb 261 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 262 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 263 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 264 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
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265 --version print version number
266 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
267 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
268 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
269 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 270 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 271 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 272 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
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273 -h, --help show this help screen
274)
275
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276manpageoptions()
277
278rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
279options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 280below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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281The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
282can be used instead.
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283
284startdit()
285dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
286available in rsync
287
288dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
289
290dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 291are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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292single -v will give you information about what files are being
293transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
294information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
295information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 296you are debugging rsync.
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298dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
299are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
300from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
301cron.
302
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303dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
304already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
305off this behavior.
306
307dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
308a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
309explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
310which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
311receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
312
5243c216 313dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
14d43f1f 314of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
41059f75 315
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316Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
317uid) is also implied.
318
14d43f1f 319dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively.
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320
321dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
322names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
323just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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324you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
325example, if you used the command
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326
327verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
328
329then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
330machine. If instead you used
331
332verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
333
334then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
335machine. The full path name is preserved.
336
337dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
338renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
339control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
340
b5679335 341dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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342backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
343
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344dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
345destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
346file.
347
348dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
349remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
14d43f1f 350option, all symbolic links are skipped.
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351
352dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
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353like ordinary files.
354
355dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
356point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
357also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
358path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 359
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360dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
361which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
362also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 363give unexpected results.
d310a212 364
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365dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
366the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
367option hard links are treated like regular files.
368
369Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
370are in the list of files being sent.
371
372This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
373
374dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
375is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
376useful when using rsync with a local machine.
377
14d43f1f 378dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
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379transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
380it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
381--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
382make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
383
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384dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
385permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
386
387dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
388of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
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389to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
390the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
14d43f1f 391access to the usernames.
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392
393dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
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394of the file to be the same as the local group. Note that if the source
395system is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because
396the source system cannot get access to the group names.
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397
398dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
399block device information to the remote system to recreate these
400devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
401
402dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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403with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
404option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
405modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
406cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
407their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
408changed.
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409
410dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
411instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
412
413dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
414up less space on the destination.
415
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416NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
417filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
418correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
419
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420dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
421boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
422contents of only one filesystem.
423
424dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
425side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
426used incorrectly!
427
428It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
429see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
430listed.
431
432rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
433dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
434that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
435these directories are deleted.
436
437Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
438of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
439behavior of --delete.
440
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441If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
442files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
443prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
444sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
445destination.
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446
447dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
448they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
449cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
15800c7e 450contains a directory of the same name.
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452Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
453so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
41059f75 454
b5679335 455dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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456the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
457
b5679335 458dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 459remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
14d43f1f 460remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
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461like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
462
463You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
464environment variable.
465
b5679335 466dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
14d43f1f 467rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path.
41059f75 468
b5679335 469dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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470certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
471useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
472
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473You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
474to build up the list of files to exclude.
475
14d43f1f 476See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
43bd68e5 477this option.
41059f75 478
b5679335 479dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
41059f75 480option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
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481the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
482are ignored.
41059f75 483
b5679335 484dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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485specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
486build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
487
488See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
489this option.
490
b5679335 491dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
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492from a file.
493
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494dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
495broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
496systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
497a file should be ignored.
498
499The exclude list is initialized to:
500
501quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
502.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
503*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
504
505then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
506files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
507
508Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
509that directory are added to the list.
510
b5679335 511dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
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512rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
513find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
514this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
de2fd20e 515making things faster.
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516
517You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
518--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
519
520Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
521with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
522microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
523before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
524
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525Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
526checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
527if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
528option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
529
b5679335 530dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 531scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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532transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
533the temporary files in the receiving directory.
534
b5679335 535dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
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536additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
537transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
538leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
14d43f1f 539files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
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540around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
541the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
542option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
543files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
544to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
545destination directory.
375a4556 546
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547dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
548the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
549option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
550same method that gzip uses.
551
552Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
553that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
554compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
555information sent for matching data blocks.
556
557dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
558and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
559at both ends.
560
561By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
562what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 5630 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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564option is not specified.
565
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566If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
567does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
568source system is used instead.
41059f75 569
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570dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
571timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
572then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
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573
574dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
575daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
576is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
5315b793 577terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
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578config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
579respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
580details.
581
b5679335 582dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
5315b793 583the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
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584specified.
585
b5679335 586dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 587rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 588
3a64ad1f 589dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 590rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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591specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
592rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 593
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594dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
595on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 596algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 597
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598dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
599showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
600something to watch.
601
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602dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
603in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
604is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
605transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
606must not be world readable.
607
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608enddit()
609
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610manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
611
612The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 613selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 614
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615rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
616the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
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617name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
618pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
619skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
620skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
621filename is not skipped.
622
14d43f1f 623The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
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624
625itemize(
626 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
627 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
628 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
629 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
630 called foo anywhere in the tree.
631
632 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
633 directory, not a file, link or device.
634
635 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
636 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
637 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
638 match is used.
639
640 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
641 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
642 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
643 only against the final component of the filename.
644
645 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 646 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
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647 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
648
649 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 650 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5 651 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
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652
653 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
654 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
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655)
656
657The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
658single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
659
660Here are some examples:
661
662itemize(
663 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
664 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
665 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
666 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
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667 directories and C source files
668 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
669 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
670 it would be excluded by the "*")
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671)
672
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673manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
674
14d43f1f 675rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
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676cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
677version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
678
679This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
680facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 681for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
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682remote shell like this:
683
684verb(
685 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
686)
687
688then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 689should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
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690rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
691data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 692it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
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693scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
694for non-interactive logins.
695
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696manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
697
698startdit()
699
700dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
701ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
702more details.
703
704dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
705override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
706be used instead of the -e option.
707
708dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
709password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
710daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
711password to a shell transport such as ssh.
712
713dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
714are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
715
14d43f1f 716dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
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717default .cvsignore file.
718
719enddit()
720
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721manpagefiles()
722
723/etc/rsyncd.conf
724
725manpageseealso()
726
727rsyncd.conf(5)
728
729manpagediagnostics()
730
731manpagebugs()
732
733times are transferred as unix time_t values
734
735file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
736values
737
a87b3b2a 738see also the comments on the --delete option
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739
740Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
9e3c856a 741url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
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742
743manpagesection(VERSION)
744This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
745
746manpagesection(CREDITS)
747
748rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
749COPYING for details.
750
41059f75 751A WEB site is available at
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752url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
753
754The primary ftp site for rsync is
755url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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756
757We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
758
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759This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
760Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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761
762manpagesection(THANKS)
763
764Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
765and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
766probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
767
768
769manpageauthor()
770
771rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
9e3c856a 772contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
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773Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
774