Improved the chdir() code:
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
CommitLineData
9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
05805cd6 2manpage(rsync)(1)(26 Mar 2008)()()
ddf8c2b0 3manpagename(rsync)(a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool)
41059f75
AT
4manpagesynopsis()
5
ddf8c2b0 6verb(Local: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
868676dc 7
8f61dfdb 8Access via remote shell:
ddf8c2b0
WD
9 Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
10 Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 11
8f61dfdb 12Access via rsync daemon:
ddf8c2b0
WD
13 Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
15 Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
41059f75 17
a6fa5bde
WD
18Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files
19instead of copying.
039faa86 20
41059f75
AT
21manpagedescription()
22
a6fa5bde
WD
23Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can
24copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a
25remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control
26every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the
27set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm,
28which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the
29differences between the source files and the existing files in the
30destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an
31improved copy command for everyday use.
32
33Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check"
34algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or
35in last-modified time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as
36requested by options) are made on the destination file directly when the
37quick check indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
1874f7e2 38
41059f75
AT
39Some of the additional features of rsync are:
40
b8a6dae0 41itemization(
b9f592fb 42 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
41059f75
AT
43 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
44 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
43cd760f 45 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
d38772e0 46 it() does not require super-user privileges
41059f75 47 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
5a727522 48 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
41059f75
AT
49 mirroring)
50)
51
52manpagesection(GENERAL)
53
15997547
WD
54Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
55current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
56
57There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
58remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
59rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
60the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
61a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
62source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
ba3542cf 63host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
754a080f 64"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
ba3542cf 65an exception to this latter rule).
15997547 66
c897f711
WD
67As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
68destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
15997547
WD
69
70As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
71host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
72
41059f75
AT
73manpagesection(SETUP)
74
75See the file README for installation instructions.
76
1bbf83c0
WD
77Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
78a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 79daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 80for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 81different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 82
faa82484 83You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
41059f75
AT
84command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
85
8e987130 86Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
faa82484 87machines.
8e987130 88
41059f75
AT
89manpagesection(USAGE)
90
91You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
92and a destination, one of which may be remote.
93
4d888108 94Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
41059f75 95
faa82484 96quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
41059f75 97
8a97fc2e 98This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
41059f75
AT
99current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
100the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
101remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
102differences. See the tech report for details.
103
faa82484 104quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
41059f75 105
8a97fc2e 106This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
41059f75
AT
107machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
108files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 109links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 110in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
41059f75
AT
111size of data portions of the transfer.
112
faa82484 113quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
41059f75 114
8a97fc2e
WD
115A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
116additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
117/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
118to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
119containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
120destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
121files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
122/dest/foo:
123
faa82484
WD
124quote(
125tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
126tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
127)
41059f75 128
c4833b02
WD
129Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
130copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
131copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
132
133quote(
134tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
135tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
136)
137
41059f75
AT
138You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
139destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
140an improved copy command.
141
bb9bdba4
WD
142Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
143particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
144
faa82484 145quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
14d43f1f 146
bb9bdba4 147See the following section for more details.
14d43f1f 148
675ef1aa
WD
149manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
150
f92e15ef
WD
151The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
152specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first,
153or with the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
675ef1aa 154
f92e15ef
WD
155quote(tt(rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/)nl()
156tt(rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/)nl()
157tt(rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}))
675ef1aa 158
f92e15ef
WD
159Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
160examples:
675ef1aa 161
f92e15ef
WD
162quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)nl()
163tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
675ef1aa 164
f92e15ef
WD
165This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is
166not as easy to use as the first method.
675ef1aa 167
f92e15ef
WD
168If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
169specify the bf(--protect-args) (bf(-s)) option, or you'll need to escape
170the whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For
171instance:
675ef1aa 172
f92e15ef 173quote(tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest))
675ef1aa 174
5a727522 175manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
41059f75 176
754a080f
WD
177It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
178In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
179using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
180the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
181CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
4c3b4b25 182
1bbf83c0 183Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
41059f75
AT
184that:
185
b8a6dae0 186itemization(
62f27e3c
WD
187 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
188 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
2c64b258 189 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
5a727522 190 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 191 connect.
5a727522
WD
192 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
193 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
f7632fc6 194 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
5a727522 195 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
2c64b258 196 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
41059f75
AT
197)
198
754a080f
WD
199An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
200
201verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
202
203Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
4c3d16be
AT
204you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
205password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
faa82484 206the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
65575e96 207may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 208
3bc67f0c 209WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
faa82484 210users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
3bc67f0c 211
754a080f
WD
212You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
213environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
214your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
215proxy connections to port 873.
bef49340 216
b553a3dd
WD
217You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
218setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you
219wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
220contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
221command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For
222example:
223
224verb( export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
225 rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
226 rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/ )
227
84e1a34e 228The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost,
b553a3dd
WD
229which forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost
230(%H).
231
754a080f
WD
232manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
233
234It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
235named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
236system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
237Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
238a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
239home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
240daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
241the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
242change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
243transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
244configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
245connections from "localhost".)
246
247From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
248connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
249rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
250explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
251bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
252will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
253
254verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
255
256If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
257user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
258module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
f2ebbebe
WD
259give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
260this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
754a080f
WD
261
262verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
bef49340
WD
263
264The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
754a080f 265used to log-in to the "module".
bef49340 266
754a080f 267manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
bef49340 268
754a080f
WD
269In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
270daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
271to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
272For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
49f4cfdf 273socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
754a080f
WD
274file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
275daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
bef49340 276
754a080f
WD
277If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
278no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
bef49340 279
41059f75
AT
280manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
281
282Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
283
14d43f1f
DD
284To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
285files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
41059f75 286
faa82484 287quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
41059f75 288
f39281ae 289each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
41059f75
AT
290"arvidsjaur".
291
292To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
293targets:
294
faa82484
WD
295verb( get:
296 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
297 put:
298 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
299 sync: get put)
41059f75
AT
300
301this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
ae283632
WD
302connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
303lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
41059f75
AT
304
305I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
faa82484 306command:
41059f75 307
faa82484 308tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
41059f75 309
faa82484 310This is launched from cron every few hours.
41059f75 311
c95da96a
AT
312manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
313
14d43f1f 314Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
faa82484 315to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
c95da96a 316 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
44d98d61 317 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
1de02c27 318 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
44d98d61 319 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
16edf865 320 -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
f40aa6fb 321 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
c95da96a
AT
322 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
323 -R, --relative use relative path names
f40aa6fb 324 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
915dd207 325 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
44d98d61 326 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
915dd207 327 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
44d98d61
WD
328 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
329 --inplace update destination files in-place
94f20a9f 330 --append append data onto shorter files
84e1a34e 331 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
09ed3099 332 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
eb06fa95 333 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
44d98d61
WD
334 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
335 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
336 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
f2ebbebe 337 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
09ed3099 338 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
f2ebbebe 339 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
c95da96a 340 -p, --perms preserve permissions
2d5279ac 341 -E, --executability preserve executability
dfe1ed5e 342 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
1c3344a1 343 -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
eb7e7b24 344 -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
d38772e0 345 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
c95da96a 346 -g, --group preserve group
d38772e0 347 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
4e7d07c8
WD
348 --specials preserve special files
349 -D same as --devices --specials
42b06481
WD
350 -t, --times preserve modification times
351 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
d38772e0 352 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
9439c0cb 353 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
c95da96a 354 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
d100e733 355 -n, --dry-run perform a trial run with no changes made
f7a2ac07 356 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
c95da96a 357 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
3ed8eb3f 358 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
44d98d61 359 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
68e169ab 360 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
8517e9c1
WD
361 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
362 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
47c11975 363 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
ae76a740 364 --del an alias for --delete-during
8517e9c1 365 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
598c409e 366 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
ae76a740 367 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
fd0a130c 368 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
ae76a740 369 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
8517e9c1 370 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
b5accaba 371 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
866925bf 372 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
0b73ca12 373 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
3610c458 374 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
59dd6786 375 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
c95da96a 376 --partial keep partially transferred files
44cad59f 377 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
44d98d61 378 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
a272ff8c 379 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
c95da96a 380 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
ba22c9e2
WD
381 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
382 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
44d98d61
WD
383 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
384 --size-only skip files that match in size
385 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
abce74bb 386 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
5b483755 387 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
915dd207 388 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
2f03ce67 389 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
b127c1dc 390 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
32a5edf4 391 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
bad01106 392 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
2b967218 393 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
44d98d61 394 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
16e5de84 395 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
8a6f3fea 396 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
16e5de84 397 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
2acf81eb 398 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
44d98d61 399 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
2acf81eb 400 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
44d98d61
WD
401 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
402 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
fa92818a 403 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
82f37486 404 -s, --protect-args no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
3ae5367f 405 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
c259892c 406 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
04f48837 407 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
b5accaba 408 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
44d98d61 409 --stats give some file-transfer stats
a6a27602 410 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
955c3145 411 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
eb86d661 412 --progress show progress during transfer
44d98d61 413 -P same as --partial --progress
b78296cb 414 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
c000002f
WD
415 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
416 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
417 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
09a54c39 418 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
09ed3099 419 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
44d98d61 420 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
faa82484 421 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
326bb56e 422 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
44d98d61 423 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
0b941479 424 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
84e1a34e 425 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
44d98d61 426 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
abce74bb
WD
427 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
428 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
81c453b1 429 --version print version number
b8a6dae0 430(-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
6902ed17 431
faa82484
WD
432Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
433accepted: verb(
bdf278f7
WD
434 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
435 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
44d98d61 436 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
bdf278f7
WD
437 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
438 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
c259892c 439 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
a2ed5801 440 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
4b90820d 441 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
04f48837 442 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
24b0922b 443 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
abce74bb
WD
444 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
445 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
b8a6dae0 446 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
c95da96a 447
41059f75
AT
448manpageoptions()
449
450rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
451options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 452below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
b5679335
DD
453The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
454can be used instead.
41059f75
AT
455
456startdit()
955c3145
WD
457dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
458available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
467688dc
WD
459versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
460option without any other args.
41059f75 461
bdf278f7 462dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
41059f75
AT
463
464dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 465are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
faa82484
WD
466single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
467transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
41059f75 468information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
faa82484 469information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 470you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 471
4f90eb43 472Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
4b90820d 473a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
81c453b1 474file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
4f90eb43
WD
475level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
476changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
4b90820d 477bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
4f90eb43 478output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
4b90820d 479any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
4f90eb43 480
b86f0cef
DD
481dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
482are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
483from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
484cron.
485
1de02c27
WD
486dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
487by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
488message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
489that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
490a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
c5b6e57a 491request the list of modules from the daemon.
1de02c27 492
41059f75 493dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
1874f7e2 494already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
d04e95e9
WD
495This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
496be updated.
41059f75 497
1874f7e2
WD
498dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
499finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
500transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
d15f2ff0 501time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
1874f7e2
WD
502when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
503not preserve timestamps exactly.
f83f0548 504
4f1f94d1
WD
505dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
506timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
507value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
508to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
509transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
510times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
511(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
5b56cc19 512
c64ff141
WD
513dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
514been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
515uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
516of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
517changes this to compare a 128-bit MD4 checksum for each file that has a
518matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
519a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
520this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
521so this can slow things down significantly.
522
523The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
524scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
525its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
526file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
527either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
528
529Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
530correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
f96bac84 531checksum that is generated as the file is transferred, but that
c64ff141 532automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
2a24b4bd 533option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
41059f75 534
faa82484 535dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
e7bf3e5e 536way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
f40aa6fb
WD
537everything (with -H being a notable omission).
538The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
5dd97ab9 539specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
e7bf3e5e 540
faa82484 541Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
e7bf3e5e
MP
542finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
543specify bf(-H).
41059f75 544
f40aa6fb
WD
545dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
546the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
547only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
548bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
549(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
550specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
551(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
552
553For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
554bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
555could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
556
557The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
558bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
559Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
a9af5d8e 560positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
f40aa6fb
WD
561changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
562details).
563
24986abd 564dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
faa82484 565recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
41059f75 566
d9f46544
WD
567Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
568incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
569transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
570completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
ba2d43d7
WD
571does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
572both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
d9f46544
WD
573
574Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
1e05b590 575disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
ba2d43d7 576bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), and bf(--delay-updates).
d9f46544 577Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
1e05b590
WD
578bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
579(use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
d9f46544
WD
580explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
581than using bf(--delete-after).
582
ba2d43d7 583Incremental recursion can be disabled using the bf(--no-inc-recursive)
27999aba 584option or its shorter bf(--no-i-r) alias.
ba2d43d7 585
41059f75
AT
586dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
587names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
588just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
14d43f1f 589you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
1dc42d12 590example, if you used this command:
41059f75 591
1dc42d12 592quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
41059f75 593
58718881 594... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
41059f75
AT
595machine. If instead you used
596
1dc42d12 597quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
41059f75 598
58718881 599then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
0758b2db
WD
600machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
601"implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
602above example).
603
604Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
605real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
606symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected
607behaviors when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had
608a symlink in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink,
609include both the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real
610path. If you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may
611need to use the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option.
612
613It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
614implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
615sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
616the source path, like this:
1dc42d12
WD
617
618quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
619
620That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
f2ebbebe 621dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
1dc42d12
WD
622(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
623source path. For example, when pushing files:
624
53cf0b8b 625quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
1dc42d12 626
53cf0b8b
WD
627(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
628"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
0758b2db
WD
629If you're pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only
630for a non-daemon transfer):
9bef934c 631
faa82484 632quote(
1dc42d12
WD
633tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
634tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
faa82484 635)
9bef934c 636
f2ebbebe
WD
637dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
638bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
639directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
640means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
641left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
642created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
643elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
0758b2db 644the receiving side.
f2ebbebe
WD
645
646For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
647transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
648are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
649"bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
650delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
651the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
652"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
653ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
654preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
655affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
656
0758b2db
WD
657When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
658option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
659wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
41059f75 660
b19fd07c
WD
661dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
662renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
663backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
faa82484 664bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
4c72f27d
WD
665
666Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
667bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
2d5279ac 668also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
4c72f27d 669filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
f49c8376 670(e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
4c72f27d
WD
671deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
672need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
673in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
674your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
675rule would never be reached).
41059f75 676
faa82484 677dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
ad75d18d
WD
678tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
679side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
faa82484 680specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
759ac870
DD
681(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
682will keep their original filenames).
66203a98 683
b5679335 684dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
faa82484
WD
685backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
686if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 687
4539c0d7
WD
688dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
689the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
42b06481 690file. (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to the
4539c0d7 691source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
41059f75 692
4a4622bb
WD
693Note that this does not affect the copying of symlinks or other special
694files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and receiver
695is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what
696date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory
697where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
698the timestamps.
adddd075 699
a3221d2a
WD
700dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
701and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
eb162f3b
WD
702file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
703network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
704to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
faa82484 705with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
eb162f3b 706basis file for the transfer.
a3221d2a 707
183150b7
WD
708This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
709or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
710bound.
711
faa82484
WD
712The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
713the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
b7c24819
WD
714Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
715and bf(--link-dest).
a3221d2a 716
399371e7 717WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 718transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 719should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
eb162f3b 720rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
75b243a5 721receiving user.
a3221d2a 722
94f20a9f
WD
723dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
724the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
725the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
022dec7a
WD
726side. If a file needs to be transferred and its size on the receiver is
727the same or longer than the size on the sender, the file is skipped. This
728does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content attributes
729(e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need to be
730transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any non-regular files.
731Implies bf(--inplace),
07bbf870
WD
732but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
733file's length).
734
735dit(bf(--append-verify)) This works just like the bf(--append) option, but
736the existing data on the receiving side is included in the full-file
737checksum verification step, which will cause a file to be resent if the
738final verification step fails (rsync uses a normal, non-appending
739bf(--inplace) transfer for the resend).
740
741Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the bf(--append) option worked like
742bf(--append-verify), so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
743transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
744will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
94f20a9f 745
09ed3099 746dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
faa82484 747are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
57b66a24
WD
748unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
749(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
faa82484 750bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
f40aa6fb 751output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
6e6cc163 752bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
09ed3099 753
73cb6738
WD
754The bf(--dirs) option is implied by the bf(--files-from) option
755or the bf(--list-only) option (including an implied
32b9011a
WD
756bf(--list-only) usage) if bf(--recursive) wasn't specified (so that
757directories are seen in the listing). Specify bf(--no-dirs) (or bf(--no-d))
73cb6738
WD
758if you want to turn this off.
759
760There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, bf(--old-dirs) (or
761bf(--old-d)) that tells rsync to use a hack of "-r --exclude='/*/*'" to get
762an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
32b9011a 763
eb06fa95
MP
764dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
765symlink on the destination.
41059f75 766
f2ebbebe 767dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
ef855d19
WD
768they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
769versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
770receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
faa82484 771modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
ef855d19 772to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
faa82484
WD
773an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
774will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
b5313607 775
eb06fa95 776dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 777symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
eb06fa95 778are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
f2ebbebe
WD
779source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
780additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
41059f75 781
d310a212 782dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 783which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
faa82484
WD
784also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
785give unexpected results.
d310a212 786
1a515b49 787dit(bf(-k, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
f2ebbebe
WD
788a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
789useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
790they would be using bf(--copy-links).
41059f75 791
f2ebbebe
WD
792Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
793symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
794the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
795bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
41059f75 796
f2ebbebe
WD
797See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
798side.
41059f75 799
f2ebbebe
WD
800dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
801a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
802matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
803receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
09ed3099 804
f2ebbebe
WD
805For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
806"file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
807bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
808directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
809bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
810"bar".
811
ce055e86
WD
812One note of caution: if you use bf(--keep-dirlinks), you must trust all
813the symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to
814create their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a
815subsequent copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the
816content of whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies,
817you are better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink
818to modify your receiving hierarchy.
819
f2ebbebe
WD
820See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
821
822dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
823the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
824side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
825as though they were separate files.
826
5f0f2e08
WD
827When you are updating a non-empty destination, this option only ensures
828that files that are hard-linked together on the source are hard-linked
829together on the destination. It does NOT currently endeavor to break
830already existing hard links on the destination that do not exist between
831the source files. Note, however, that if one or more extra-linked files
832have content changes, they will become unlinked when updated (assuming you
833are not using the bf(--inplace) option).
834
835Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
836the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
837connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
838you are tempted to use the bf(--inplace) option to avoid this breakage, be
839very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
840certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
841see the bf(--inplace) option for more caveats).
41059f75 842
ba2d43d7 843If incremental recursion is active (see bf(--recursive)), rsync may transfer
5f0f2e08 844a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that contents
968061bb
WD
845exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
846the transfer, just its efficiency. One way to avoid this is to disable
27999aba 847incremental recursion using the bf(--no-inc-recursive) option.
ba2d43d7 848
2d5279ac
WD
849dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
850destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
851also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
852be the source permissions.)
8dc74608 853
2d5279ac
WD
854When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
855
b8a6dae0 856quote(itemization(
2d5279ac
WD
857 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
858 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
859 the execute permission for the file.
77ed253c 860 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
1c3344a1
WD
861 file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
862 permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
863 specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
77ed253c
WD
864 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
865 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
2d5279ac 866))
77ed253c 867
2d5279ac
WD
868Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
869rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
870such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
871
77ed253c
WD
872In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
873permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
1f77038e 874permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
77ed253c
WD
875bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
876all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
877behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
58b7b3d6 878putting this line in the file ~/.popt (the following defines the bf(-Z) option,
662127e6 879and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
77ed253c 880
58b7b3d6 881quote(tt( rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
77ed253c
WD
882
883You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
884
58b7b3d6 885quote(tt( rsync -avZ src/ dest/))
77ed253c 886
58b7b3d6
WD
887(Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-Z), or it will re-enable
888the two "--no-*" options mentioned above.)
662127e6 889
77ed253c
WD
890The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
891directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
892versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
893newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
1c3344a1
WD
894destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
895observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
896non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
897(Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
898these behaviors.)
77ed253c 899
2d5279ac
WD
900dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
901executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
902not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
77ed253c
WD
903'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
904executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
905modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
2d5279ac 906
b8a6dae0 907quote(itemization(
2d5279ac
WD
908 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
909 permissions.
910 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
911 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
912))
913
914If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
41059f75 915
1c3344a1 916dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
0f6b4909
WD
917ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs.
918The option also implies bf(--perms).
919
920The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for this
921option to work properly. See the bf(--fake-super) option for a way to backup
922and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1c3344a1 923
16edf865 924dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
0f6b4909
WD
925extended attributes to be the same as the local ones.
926
927For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done by a
928super-user copies all namespaces except system.*. A normal user only copies
929the user.* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user namespaces as
930a normal user, see the bf(--fake-super) option.
16edf865 931
9f822556
WD
932dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
933comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
934transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
935that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
936can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
937
938In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
939manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
940prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
941file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
942
943quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
944
945It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
946additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
947
948See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
949permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
950
eb06fa95 951dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
8641d287
WD
952destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
953receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
9439c0cb 954and bf(--fake-super) options).
0f6b4909
WD
955Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to
956the invoking user on the receiving side.
8641d287
WD
957
958The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
959may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
960bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
41059f75 961
eb06fa95
MP
962dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
963destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
8641d287
WD
964program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
965specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
966is a member of will be preserved.
967Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
968user on the receiving side.
969
970The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
971default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
972(see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
41059f75 973
4e7d07c8 974dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
d38772e0
WD
975block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
976This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
9439c0cb 977super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
41059f75 978
4e7d07c8
WD
979dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
980such as named sockets and fifos.
981
982dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
983
41059f75 984dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
baf3e504
DD
985with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
986option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
faa82484
WD
987modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
988cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
d0bc3520 989updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
faa82484 990if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
41059f75 991
54e66f1d 992dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
faa82484
WD
993it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
994the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
fbe5eeb8 995This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
54e66f1d 996
d38772e0
WD
997dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
998activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
999activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
1000all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
1001option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
1002for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
1003also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
1004being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
1005super-user can use bf(--no-super).
1006
9439c0cb 1007dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
0f6b4909
WD
1008super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via
1009special extended attributes that are attached to each file (as needed). This
9439c0cb
WD
1010includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
1011device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
1012any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
1013the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
809724d7
WD
1014access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file, the
1015files we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating user).
0f6b4909
WD
1016This option also handles ACLs (if bf(--acls) was specified) and non-user
1017extended attributes (if bf(--xattrs) was specified).
1018
84e1a34e 1019This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
0f6b4909 1020ACLs from incompatible systems.
9439c0cb
WD
1021
1022The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
1023To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync
1024path:
1025
1026quote(tt( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/))
1027
1028Since there is only one "side" in a local copy, this option affects both
84e1a34e 1029the sending and receiving of files. You'll need to specify a copy using
0f6b4909
WD
1030"localhost" if you need to avoid this, possibly using the "lsh" shell
1031script (from the support directory) as a substitute for an actual remote
1032shell (see bf(--rsh)).
9439c0cb
WD
1033
1034This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
1035
1036See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1037
41059f75 1038dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
a8cbb57c
WD
1039up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
1040not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
41059f75 1041
d310a212
AT
1042NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
1043filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
1044correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
1045
d100e733
WD
1046dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't
1047make any changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real run). It
1048is most commonly used in combination with the bf(-v, --verbose) and/or
1049bf(-i, --itemize-changes) options to see what an rsync command is going
1050to do before one actually runs it.
1051
1052The output of bf(--itemize-changes) is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1053dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1054call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output is the same to the
1055extent practical, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
1056send the actual data for file transfers, so bf(--progress) has no effect,
1057the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1058statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1059where no file transfers are needed.
f2ebbebe 1060
f7a2ac07 1061dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the delta-transfer algorithm
f2ebbebe
WD
1062is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
1063faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
1064destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
1065"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
1066the source and destination are specified as local paths.
1067
4e5baafe
WD
1068dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
1069filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
1070to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
1071through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
1072the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
1073in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
77ed253c 1074same filesystem.
4e5baafe
WD
1075
1076If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1077the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1078encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1079the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1080
1081If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
1082bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
49140b27
WD
1083treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1084by this option.
6d8c6bdb 1085
9639c718 1086dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
58a06312
WD
1087creating files (including directories) that do not exist
1088yet on the destination. If this option is
9639c718 1089combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
8e3b627d 1090(which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
9639c718 1091
58a06312
WD
1092dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
1093already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
c5b6e57a 1094directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
1347d512 1095
8e3b627d
WD
1096This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
1097option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1098a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1099used properly), using bf(--ignore existing) will ensure that the
1100already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1101permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option
1102is only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1103
47c11975 1104dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
fb41a3c6
WD
1105side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
1106and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
96110304 1107
2c0fa6c5 1108dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
e8b155a3
WD
1109receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
1110directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
1111send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
1112for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
ae76a740 1113by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
e8b155a3 1114the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
0dfffb88
WD
1115also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
1116option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1117include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
41059f75 1118
505ada14 1119Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
d9f46544
WD
1120was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
1121(bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
24986abd 1122
32b9011a
WD
1123This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1124first try a run using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files are
1125going to be deleted.
41059f75 1126
e8b155a3 1127If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
3e578a19
AT
1128files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
1129prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
1130sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
faa82484 1131destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
41059f75 1132
faa82484
WD
1133The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1134without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
d9f46544
WD
1135--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
1136bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
1137the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1138bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
2c0fa6c5
WD
1139
1140dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
d9f46544 1141side be done before the transfer starts.
faa82484 1142See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
2c0fa6c5
WD
1143
1144Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
aaca3daa 1145and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
ae76a740 1146However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
faa82484 1147and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
d9f46544
WD
1148specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
1149algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
1150memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
ae76a740 1151
2c0fa6c5
WD
1152dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
1153receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
ae283632 1154a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
ae76a740 1155but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
faa82484 1156See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
aaca3daa 1157
fd0a130c 1158dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
d9f46544
WD
1159side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
1160completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1161temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1162is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1163the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1164using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1165incremental scan).
fd0a130c 1166
2c0fa6c5 1167dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
ae76a740
WD
1168side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1169are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1170you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
d9f46544
WD
1171current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1172recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1173transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
faa82484 1174See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
e8b155a3 1175
866925bf
WD
1176dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1177receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
faa82484 1178delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
0dfffb88
WD
1179See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1180this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1181bf(--delete-excluded).
faa82484 1182See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
866925bf 1183
faa82484 1184dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 1185even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 1186
b3964d1d
WD
1187dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1188when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1189deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1190
1191Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1192using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1193bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
41059f75 1194
e2124620 1195dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
e6109f49
WD
1196files or directories. If that limit is exceeded, a warning is output
1197and rsync exits with an error code of 25 (new for 3.0.0).
1198
1199Also new for version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to be warned
1200about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1201Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1202version the client is, you can use the less obvious bf(--max-delete=-1) as
1203a backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1204older versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
e2124620
WD
1205
1206dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1207file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
926d86d1 1208suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
e2124620
WD
1209may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1210
bee9df73
WD
1211The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1212"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1213gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1214If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1215"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
926d86d1
WD
1216Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1217be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
bee9df73
WD
1218
1219Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
926d86d1
WD
12202147483649 bytes.
1221
59dd6786
WD
1222dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1223file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1224transferring small, junk files.
1225See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
1226
3ed8eb3f
WD
1227dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1228the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1229the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
41059f75 1230
b5679335 1231dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 1232remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
43cd760f
WD
1233remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1234default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 1235
bef49340 1236If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
5a727522 1237remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
bef49340
WD
1238remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1239shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
754a080f
WD
1240running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1241RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
bef49340 1242
ea7f8108 1243Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
5d9530fe
WD
1244presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1245or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1246and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1247argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1248inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1249double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1250shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
98393ae2 1251
5d9530fe
WD
1252quote(
1253tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1254tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1255)
98393ae2
WD
1256
1257(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1258options in their .ssh/config file.)
1259
41059f75 1260You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
faa82484 1261environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
41059f75 1262
faa82484 1263See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
735a816e 1264
68e169ab
WD
1265dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1266on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1267the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1268Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1269program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1270not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1271communicate.
1272
1273One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1274machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1275
c5b6e57a 1276quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
41059f75 1277
f177b7cc
WD
1278dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1279broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
c575f8ce 1280systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
f177b7cc
WD
1281a file should be ignored.
1282
c575f8ce
WD
1283The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1284initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
f177b7cc 1285
faa82484 1286quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
9520ce4b
WD
1287.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
1288*.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .git/ .bzr/)))
f177b7cc 1289
c575f8ce 1290then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2a383be0
WD
1291files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1292are delimited by whitespace).
1293
f177b7cc 1294Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
bafa4875
WD
1295.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1296rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
49f4cfdf 1297See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 1298
bafa4875
WD
1299If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1300note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
3753975f 1301regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
bafa4875
WD
1302a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1303control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1304should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1305bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1306putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1307The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1308file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1309mentioned above.
1310
16e5de84
WD
1311dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1312exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1313most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
41059f75 1314
faa82484 1315You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
5f0f2e08
WD
1316to build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
1317be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
1318argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
1319replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
41059f75 1320
16e5de84
WD
1321See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1322
faa82484 1323dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
16e5de84
WD
1324your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1325
78be8e0f 1326quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
1327
1328This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1329been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
faa82484 1330files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
16e5de84
WD
1331rule:
1332
78be8e0f 1333quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
1334
1335This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1336
1337See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1338work.
1339
1340dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 1341bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
16e5de84
WD
1342the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1343
1344See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 1345
78be8e0f
WD
1346dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1347option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1348Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1349If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 1350
16e5de84 1351dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 1352bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
16e5de84 1353the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
43bd68e5 1354
16e5de84 1355See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 1356
78be8e0f
WD
1357dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1358option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1359Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1360If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 1361
f177b7cc 1362dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
78be8e0f 1363exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
c769702f 1364for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
faa82484
WD
1365transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1366
b8a6dae0 1367quote(itemization(
faa82484
WD
1368 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1369 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
f40aa6fb 1370 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
faa82484
WD
1371 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1372 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
f40aa6fb 1373 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
faa82484
WD
1374 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1375 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
f40aa6fb
WD
1376 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1377 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1378 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1379 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
faa82484 1380))
f177b7cc 1381
809724d7 1382The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
f177b7cc
WD
1383source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1384allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1385command:
1386
faa82484 1387quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
f177b7cc
WD
1388
1389If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
51cc96e4
WD
1390directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1391contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1392the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1393mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1394if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1395also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1396explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1397Also note
faa82484 1398that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
f177b7cc
WD
1399duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1400force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1401
faa82484 1402In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
f177b7cc
WD
1403instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1404(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1405specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1406transfer". For example:
1407
faa82484 1408quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
f177b7cc
WD
1409
1410This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1411was located on the remote "src" host.
1412
fa92818a 1413dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
f177b7cc 1414file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
faa82484
WD
1415This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1416merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1417It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
f01b6368 1418file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 1419
82f37486
WD
1420If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
1421bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
1422filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
1423receiving host's charset.
1424
1425dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and some options to
1426the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
1427means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
1428characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
1429expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
1430
1431If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args will also be translated
0b52f94d 1432from the local to the remote character-set. The translation happens before
82f37486
WD
1433wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
1434
b5679335 1435dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
a9af5d8e
WD
1436scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1437on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1438file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
41059f75 1439
9ec1ef25
WD
1440This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1441have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
d770837e 1442In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
9ec1ef25
WD
1443partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1444over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1445into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1446destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
a9af5d8e
WD
1447truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1448the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1449temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1450it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1451someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1452new version on the disk at the same time.
9ec1ef25
WD
1453
1454If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1455space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
a0d9819f
WD
1456which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1457destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1458have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1459partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1460about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1461path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1462single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1463partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1464rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1465an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
9ec1ef25 1466
5b483755
WD
1467dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1468basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1469looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1470has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1471found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1472
1473Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1474fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1475filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1476
b127c1dc 1477dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
e49f61f5
WD
1478the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1479files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1480directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1481sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1482directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1483have changed from an earlier backup.
1484
faa82484 1485Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
99eb41b2
WD
1486provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1487for an exact match.
2f03ce67
WD
1488If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1489and the attributes updated.
99eb41b2
WD
1490If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1491selected to try to speed up the transfer.
e49f61f5
WD
1492
1493If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2f03ce67 1494See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
b127c1dc 1495
2f03ce67
WD
1496dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1497rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1498directory using a local copy.
1499This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1500existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1501been successfully transferred.
1502
1503Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1504rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1505If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1506selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1507
1508If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1509See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1510
1511dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
e49f61f5
WD
1512unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1513The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1514possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
8429aa9e
WD
1515An example:
1516
faa82484 1517quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
59c95e42 1518
99eb41b2
WD
1519Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1520provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1521for an exact match.
2f03ce67
WD
1522If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1523and the attributes updated.
99eb41b2
WD
1524If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1525selected to try to speed up the transfer.
e49f61f5 1526
33689f48
WD
1527This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1528rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
1529dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
1530change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
1531versions).
1532
d04e95e9
WD
1533Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1534link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1535substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1536file is updated.
1537
e49f61f5 1538If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2f03ce67 1539See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
b127c1dc 1540
e0204f56 1541Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
d38772e0
WD
1542bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1543specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1544the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
e0204f56 1545
32a5edf4
WD
1546dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1547as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1548being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
41059f75 1549
02184920 1550Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
32a5edf4
WD
1551be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1552because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1553blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
41059f75 1554
2b967218
WD
1555See the bf(--skip-compress) option for the default list of file suffixes
1556that will not be compressed.
1557
bad01106
WD
1558dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1559(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1560the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1561
2b967218
WD
1562dit(bf(--skip-compress=LIST)) Override the list of file suffixes that will
1563not be compressed. The bf(LIST) should be one or more file suffixes
1564(without the dot) separated by slashes (/).
1565
1566You may specify an empty string to indicate that no file should be skipped.
1567
1568Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
1569of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
1570"[:alpha:]", are supported).
1571
1572The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
1573
1574Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
1575matches 2 suffixes):
1576
1577verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
1578
1579The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (several
1580of these are newly added for 3.0.0):
1581
1582verb( gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg)
1583
1584This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
1585situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
1586its list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
1587different default).
1588
41059f75 1589dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 1590and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
41059f75
AT
1591at both ends.
1592
4d888108 1593By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 1594what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
faa82484 15950 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
41059f75
AT
1596option is not specified.
1597
ec40899b
WD
1598If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1599on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1600from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
1601"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1602the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1603users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 1604
b5accaba 1605dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
de2fd20e
AT
1606timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1607then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 1608
ba22c9e2
WD
1609dit(bf(--contimeout)) This option allows you to set the amount of time
1610that rsync will wait for its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed.
1611If the timeout is reached, rsync exits with an error.
1612
3ae5367f
WD
1613dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1614connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1615specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1616option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1617
c259892c
WD
1618dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1619rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1620double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1621syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
faa82484 1622option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
c259892c 1623
04f48837
WD
1624dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1625who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1626sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
49f4cfdf 1627slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
04f48837
WD
1628details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1629special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1630connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1631bf(--daemon) mode section.
1632
b5accaba 1633dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
314a74d7
WD
1634a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1635rsync defaults to using
b5accaba
WD
1636blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1637ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 1638
0cfdf226 1639dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
4f90eb43 1640changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
4b90820d 1641This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
14cbb645
WD
1642If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1643if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1644with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1645verbose messages).
ea67c715 1646
1c3344a1
WD
1647The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
1648format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
4f417448 1649type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
a314f7c1 1650other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
ee171c6d 1651modified.
ea67c715 1652
2d5279ac 1653The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
ea67c715 1654
b8a6dae0 1655quote(itemization(
cc3e0770 1656 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
a314f7c1 1657 (sent).
cc3e0770
WD
1658 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1659 (received).
c48cff9f 1660 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
ee171c6d 1661 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
02184920 1662 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
b4875de4 1663 bf(--hard-links)).
ee171c6d
WD
1664 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1665 have attributes that are being modified).
59658acf
WD
1666 it() A bf(*) means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains
1667 a message (e.g. "deleting").
a314f7c1 1668))
ea67c715 1669
a314f7c1 1670The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
4e7d07c8
WD
1671directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1672special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
ea67c715 1673
a314f7c1 1674The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
ea67c715
WD
1675will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1676a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
b9f0ca72
WD
1677item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1678dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
81c453b1 1679a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
ea67c715
WD
1680
1681The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1682
b8a6dae0 1683quote(itemization(
1ed9018e
WD
1684 it() A bf(c) means either that a regular file has a different checksum
1685 (requires bf(--checksum)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has
1686 a changed value.
600b56b3 1687 Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1, this
11faa893
WD
1688 change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular files.
1689 it() A bf(s) means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
ea67c715
WD
1690 by the file transfer.
1691 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
5a727522 1692 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
42b06481 1693 means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1ed56a05
WD
1694 when a file/symlink/device is updated without bf(--times) and when a
1695 symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time.
1ed9018e
WD
1696 (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the bf(s) flag combined
1697 with bf(t) instead of the proper bf(T) flag for this time-setting failure.)
ea67c715 1698 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
5a727522 1699 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
4dc67d5e 1700 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
d38772e0 1701 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
4dc67d5e 1702 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
5a727522 1703 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
7869953b 1704 it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for future use.
1c3344a1 1705 it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
7869953b 1706 it() The bf(x) means that the extended attribute information changed.
ea67c715
WD
1707))
1708
1709One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
ee171c6d 1710the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
ea67c715
WD
1711you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1712outputting them as a verbose message).
dc0f2497 1713
4b90820d
WD
1714dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1715rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
ea67c715
WD
1716string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1717a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
4b90820d 1718the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
ea67c715
WD
1719
1720Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1721in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
4b90820d
WD
1722touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
1723included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
81c453b1 1724item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
7c6ea3d8 17252.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
ea67c715
WD
1726output of "%i".
1727
1728The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
4b90820d 1729bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
ea67c715
WD
1730the format of its per-file output using this option.
1731
4b90820d 1732Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
ea67c715
WD
1733one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1734logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1735is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1736the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
4b90820d
WD
1737(followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1738
1739dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1740to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1741requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1742transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1743enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1744option if you wish to override this.
1745
1746Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1747happening:
1748
1749verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1750
1751This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1752unexpectedly.
1753
1754dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1755per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1756(which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1757specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1758For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1759in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
b6062654 1760
b72f24c7
AT
1761dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1762on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 1763algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 1764
b8a6dae0 1765The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
7b13ff97
WD
1766 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1767 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1768 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1769 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1770 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1771 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1772 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1773 include the size of symlinks.
1774 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1775 for just the transferred files.
1776 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1777 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1778 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1779 recreating the updated files.
1780 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1781 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1782 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1783 list.
1784 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1785 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1786 sending side for this to be present.
1787 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1788 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1789 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1790 from the client side to the server side.
1791 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1792 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1793 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1794 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
38a4b9c2 1795))
7b13ff97 1796
a6a27602 1797dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
d0022dd9
WD
1798unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1799valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1800characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1801setting.
1802
1803The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1804and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1805would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1806escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1807
955c3145 1808dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
4c248a36
WD
1809This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1810this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1811G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1812instead of 1000.
3b4ecc6b 1813
d9fcc198
AT
1814dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1815transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1816it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
faa82484 1817bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
d9fcc198
AT
1818make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1819
c2582307
WD
1820dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1821bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1822partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1823On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
9ec1ef25 1824dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
c2582307 1825after it has served its purpose.
9ec1ef25 1826
c2582307
WD
1827Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1828file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1829(since
26ac1812 1830rsync is sending files without using the delta transfer algorithm).
44cad59f 1831
c2582307
WD
1832Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1833the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1834"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1835partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1836remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
44cad59f 1837
ee554411
WD
1838If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1839rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1840sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1841will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1842receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
f49c8376 1843the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
ee554411
WD
1844filter rules.
1845
1846If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1847exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1848rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1849to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1850rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1851should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1852bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1853bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1854left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
44cad59f 1855
faa82484 1856IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
b4d1e854
WD
1857is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1858
1859You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
faa82484 1860variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
02184920 1861enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
faa82484
WD
1862specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1863along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1864environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
9ec1ef25
WD
1865.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1866option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1867specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
faa82484 1868bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
01b835c2 1869
5a727522 1870For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
c2582307
WD
1871bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1872refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1873of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1874safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1875
01b835c2 1876dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
c2582307 1877updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
01b835c2
WD
1878transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1879succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
c2582307 1880atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
64318670 1881each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
ee554411
WD
1882bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1883comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1884".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
c5b6e57a 1885you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
64318670 1886Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
01b835c2
WD
1887
1888This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1889transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1890side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
5efbddba
WD
1891you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1892there is no
01b835c2
WD
1893chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1894the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
5efbddba
WD
1895absolute)
1896and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1897delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
01b835c2
WD
1898
1899See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
faa82484 1900update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
01b835c2 1901parallel hierarchy of files).
44cad59f 1902
a272ff8c 1903dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
fb72aaba
WD
1904rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1905that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1906creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1907recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
a272ff8c
WD
1908rules.
1909
1910Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1911what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1912mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1913being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1914destination files).
1915
1916You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1917by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1918that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1919
1920quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
fb72aaba
WD
1921
1922Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1923the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1924that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
a272ff8c
WD
1925(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1926
58718881 1927quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
fb72aaba 1928
a272ff8c 1929If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
4743f0f4 1930time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
a272ff8c 1931in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
fb72aaba 1932
eb86d661
AT
1933dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1934showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1935something to watch.
c2582307 1936Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
7b10f91d 1937
5e1f082d
WD
1938While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
1939looks like this:
68f9910d 1940
faa82484 1941verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
68f9910d 1942
5e1f082d
WD
1943In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
1944sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
1945per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
1946is maintained until the end.
1947
26ac1812 1948These statistics can be misleading if the delta transfer algorithm is
5e1f082d
WD
1949in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
1950followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
1951dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
1952will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
1953was finishing the matched part of the file.
1954
1955When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
1956summary line that looks like this:
1957
1958verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
1959
1960In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
1961of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
1962seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
1963during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
1964receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
1965the 396 total files in the file-list.
68f9910d 1966
faa82484 1967dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
183150b7
WD
1968purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1969transfer that may be interrupted.
d9fcc198 1970
9586e593
WD
1971dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
1972file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
1973It should contain just the password as a single line.
1974
b2057d38
WD
1975This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
1976ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
9586e593
WD
1977When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
1978option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
1979authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
1980config file).
65575e96 1981
09ed3099 1982dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
b4c7c1ca
WD
1983instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
1984arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
1985command that includes a
32b9011a
WD
1986destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be able to specify
1987more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the destination).
1988Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
1989shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
b4c7c1ca
WD
1990without using this option. For example:
1991
1992verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
09ed3099 1993
32b9011a
WD
1994Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
1995that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
1996non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the bf(--dirs)
1997option w/o bf(--recursive), and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
1998avoid this problem, either specify the bf(--no-dirs) option (if you don't
1999need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude
2000the content of subdirectories: bf(-r --exclude='/*/*').
2001
ef5d23eb
DD
2002dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2003transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
2004using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
2005of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
2006transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 2007result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
ef5d23eb
DD
2008of zero specifies no limit.
2009
b9f592fb 2010dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
faa82484 2011another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
32c7f91a 2012section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
6902ed17 2013
326bb56e
WD
2014dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
2015no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
2016This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
32c7f91a
WD
2017other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
2018
2019Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
2020media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
2021can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
2022whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
2023partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
2024happening).
2025
2026Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
2027system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
2028into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
2029(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
326bb56e 2030
b9f592fb 2031dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
faa82484 2032file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
78be8e0f 2033If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 2034See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 2035
0b941479
WD
2036dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
2037is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
2038version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
2039bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
81c453b1
WD
2040bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
2041batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
2042file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
0b941479 2043
332cf6df
WD
2044dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
2045sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
2046the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
2047fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
0b52f94d
WD
2048separated by a comma in the order bf(--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE), e.g.
2049bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591). This order ensures that the option
2050will stay the same whether you're pushing or pulling files.
2051Finally, you can specify either bf(--no-iconv) or a CONVERT_SPEC of "-"
2052to turn off any conversion.
332cf6df
WD
2053The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
2054affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
2055
0b52f94d
WD
2056For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
2057run "iconv --list".
2058
82f37486
WD
2059If you specify the bf(--protect-args) option (bf(-s)), rsync will translate
2060the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the
2061remote host. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
2062
332cf6df 2063Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
82f37486
WD
2064(including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
2065specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
2066For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
2067filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
332cf6df 2068
0b52f94d
WD
2069When you pass an bf(--iconv) option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
2070daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
2071regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel free to
2072specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8)).
2073
e40a46de
WD
2074dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2075when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
2076control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
faa82484 2077rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
e40a46de 2078
24d677fc
WD
2079If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2080will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2081is the case.
2082
c8d895de
WD
2083dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
2084NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
2085MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
49f4cfdf 2086by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
c8d895de
WD
2087is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
2088applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
2089in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
49f4cfdf 2090Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
b9f592fb 2091for checksum seed.
41059f75
AT
2092enddit()
2093
faa82484
WD
2094manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
2095
bdf278f7
WD
2096The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
2097
2098startdit()
bdf278f7 2099dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
62f27e3c
WD
2100daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
2101the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
bdf278f7
WD
2102
2103If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
2104run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
2105become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
2106(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
49f4cfdf 2107requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
bdf278f7
WD
2108details.
2109
3ae5367f
WD
2110dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2111run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
2112allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
2113makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
2114See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 2115
1f69bec4
WD
2116dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2117transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
faa82484 2118The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1f69bec4
WD
2119requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
2120client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
2121
bdf278f7 2122dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
faa82484 2123the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
bdf278f7 2124The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
d38772e0 2125a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
bdf278f7
WD
2126the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
2127
2128dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
2129rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
2130option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
2131be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
2132bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
2133bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
2134debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
2135sshd.
2136
c259892c
WD
2137dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
2138daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
2139global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 2140
a2ed5801
WD
2141dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2142given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
2143file.
2144
4b90820d
WD
2145dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2146given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
2147file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
2148case transfer logging is turned off.
2149
04f48837
WD
2150dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
2151rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
2152
24b0922b
WD
2153dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
2154daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
2155daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
2156used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
2157
bdf278f7
WD
2158dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2159when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
2160listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
2161versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
2162an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
faa82484 2163try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
bdf278f7 2164
24d677fc
WD
2165If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2166will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2167is the case.
2168
faa82484 2169dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
bdf278f7 2170page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
bdf278f7
WD
2171enddit()
2172
16e5de84 2173manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
43bd68e5 2174
16e5de84
WD
2175The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
2176(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
2177specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
2178include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
43bd68e5 2179
16e5de84
WD
2180As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
2181name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
2182turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
2183pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
2184filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
43bd68e5
AT
2185filename is not skipped.
2186
16e5de84
WD
2187Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
2188command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
2189
faa82484 2190quote(
d91de046
WD
2191tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2192tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
16e5de84
WD
2193)
2194
d91de046
WD
2195You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
2196below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
2197MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
2198must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
2199Here are the available rule prefixes:
16e5de84 2200
faa82484 2201quote(
d91de046
WD
2202bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
2203bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
2204bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
2205bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
0dfffb88
WD
2206bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
2207bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
2208bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
2209bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
d91de046 2210bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
16e5de84
WD
2211)
2212
d91de046
WD
2213When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
2214comment lines that start with a "#".
2215
faa82484 2216Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
16e5de84 2217full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
d91de046
WD
2218specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
2219list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
2220If a pattern
16e5de84
WD
2221does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
2222rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
faa82484 2223an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
d91de046
WD
2224the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
2225start of the rule.
16e5de84 2226
faa82484 2227Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
16e5de84 2228rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
faa82484
WD
2229the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
2230the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
16e5de84 2231
16e5de84
WD
2232manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
2233
0dfffb88
WD
2234You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
2235"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
bb5f4e72
WD
2236The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
2237the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
2238can take several forms:
16e5de84 2239
b8a6dae0 2240itemization(
16e5de84
WD
2241 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
2242 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
2243 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
2244 regular expressions.
809724d7 2245 Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the
16e5de84
WD
2246 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
2247 per-directory rule).
809724d7
WD
2248 An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the
2249 tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the
16e5de84 2250 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
809724d7 2251 end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
16e5de84
WD
2252 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
2253 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
2254 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
2255 of the transfer.
16e5de84 2256 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
809724d7 2257 directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.
9639c718
WD
2258 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
2259 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
2260 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
2261 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
2262 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
2263 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
2264 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
2265 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2266 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2267 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
16e5de84
WD
2268 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2269 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2270 matched only against the final component of the filename.
2271 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
ae283632 2272 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
16e5de84 2273 down.)
d3db3eef 2274 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
809724d7 2275 "dir_name/" had been specified) and everything in the directory
c575f8ce
WD
2276 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2277 version 2.6.7.
16e5de84
WD
2278)
2279
faa82484
WD
2280Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2281bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
16e5de84
WD
2282include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2283full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2284"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2285The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2286when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2287parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2288because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2289hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2290For instance, this won't work:
2291
faa82484
WD
2292quote(
2293tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2294tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2295tt(- *)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2296)
2297
2298This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2299rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2300directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
a5a26484 2301to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
58718881
WD
2302"- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2303solution is to add specific include rules for all
16e5de84
WD
2304the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2305works fine:
2306
faa82484
WD
2307quote(
2308tt(+ /some/)nl()
2309tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2310tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2311tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2312tt(- *)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2313)
2314
2315Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2316
b8a6dae0 2317itemization(
809724d7 2318 it() "- *.o" would exclude all names matching *.o
58718881
WD
2319 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2320 transfer-root directory
2321 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2322 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2323 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2324 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2325 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
faa82484 2326 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
58718881
WD
2327 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2328 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
16e5de84
WD
2329 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2330 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2331 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2332)
2333
2334manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2335
2336You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
d91de046
WD
2337merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2338section above).
16e5de84
WD
2339
2340There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2341per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2342its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2343rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2344it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2345into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2346must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2347being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2348also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2349affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2350below).
2351
2352Some examples:
2353
faa82484 2354quote(
d91de046 2355tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
faa82484 2356tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
d91de046
WD
2357tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2358tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
faa82484 2359tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2360)
2361
d91de046 2362The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
16e5de84 2363
b8a6dae0 2364itemization(
62bf783f 2365 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
d91de046 2366 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
62bf783f 2367 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
d91de046
WD
2368 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2369 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2370 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2371 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2372 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2373 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
a5a26484 2374 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
62bf783f
WD
2375 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2376 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
16e5de84
WD
2377 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2378 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
d91de046
WD
2379 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2380 also disabled).
2381 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
467688dc 2382 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
a5a26484 2383 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
0dfffb88
WD
2384 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2385 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
5a727522 2386 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
16e5de84
WD
2387)
2388
44d60d5f 2389The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
dc1488ae 2390
b8a6dae0 2391itemization(
c575f8ce 2392 it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
82360c6b 2393 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
a5a26484 2394 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
82360c6b
WD
2395 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2396 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2397 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
c575f8ce 2398 it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
44d60d5f
WD
2399 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2400 non-directories.
397a3443
WD
2401 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2402 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2403 follow.
0dfffb88
WD
2404 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2405 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2406 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2407 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2408 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
5a727522 2409 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
0dfffb88
WD
2410 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2411 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2412 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2413 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2414 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
c575f8ce
WD
2415 it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2416 ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2417 option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2418 marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2419 on the source from being deleted on the destination.
0dfffb88 2420)
dc1488ae 2421
16e5de84
WD
2422Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2423where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2424subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2425from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
d91de046 2426inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
16e5de84 2427the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
d91de046 2428dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
16e5de84
WD
2429rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2430file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2431
d91de046 2432Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
16e5de84
WD
2433anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2434merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
d91de046 2435would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
16e5de84
WD
2436file was found.
2437
faa82484 2438Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
16e5de84 2439
faa82484 2440quote(
d91de046 2441tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
faa82484 2442tt(- *.gz)nl()
d91de046 2443tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
faa82484
WD
2444tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
2445tt(- *.o)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2446)
2447
2448This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2449start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
467688dc 2450filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
16e5de84
WD
2451follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2452of the transfer).
2453
2454If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2455directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2456dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
faa82484 2457per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
16e5de84 2458
faa82484 2459quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
2460
2461That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2462directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2463transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2464the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2465rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2466
2467Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2468
faa82484
WD
2469quote(
2470tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2471tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2472tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2473)
2474
2475The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2476"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2477and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2478and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2479a part of the transfer.
2480
2481If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
d91de046
WD
2482you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2483file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
faa82484 2484use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
d91de046 2485per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
16e5de84 2486":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
d91de046 2487add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
16e5de84
WD
2488rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2489example:
2490
faa82484
WD
2491quote(
2492tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2493tt(+ foo.o)nl()
2494tt(:C)nl()
2495tt(- *.old)nl()
2496tt(EOT)nl()
2497tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2498)
2499
2500Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2501the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2502at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
bafa4875
WD
2503that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2504affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2505the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2506omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
4743f0f4 2507your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
16e5de84
WD
2508
2509manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2510
2511You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2512rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2513list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2514parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2515inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2516out the parent's rules).
2517
2518manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2519
2520As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2521"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2522anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2523a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2524transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2525directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
a4b6f305
WD
2526
2527Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
faa82484 2528trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
a4b6f305
WD
2529option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2530changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
16e5de84 2531host). The following examples demonstrate this.
a4b6f305 2532
b5ebe6d9
WD
2533Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2534path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2535Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305 2536
faa82484
WD
2537quote(
2538 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2539 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2540 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2541 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2542 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2543)
2544
2545quote(
2546 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2547 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2548 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2549 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2550 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2551)
2552
2553quote(
2554 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2555 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2556 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2557 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2558 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2559)
2560
2561quote(
2562 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2563 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2564 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2565 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2566 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
a4b6f305
WD
2567)
2568
16e5de84 2569The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
faa82484
WD
2570look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2571(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 2572
16e5de84 2573manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
43bd68e5 2574
16e5de84
WD
2575Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2576sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2577without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2578this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
27b9a19b 2579
faa82484
WD
2580quote(
2581tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2582tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
43bd68e5
AT
2583)
2584
16e5de84
WD
2585However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2586files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2587receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
faa82484 2588the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
16e5de84
WD
2589because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2590rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
43bd68e5 2591
faa82484 2592quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
20af605e 2593
16e5de84
WD
2594However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2595either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2596line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2597the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2598remote .rules files exclude themselves):
20af605e 2599
faa82484
WD
2600verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2601 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
20af605e 2602
16e5de84
WD
2603In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2604transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2605merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2606per-directory merge rule.
43bd68e5 2607
16e5de84
WD
2608In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2609files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2610to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2611specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2612deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2613should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2614
faa82484
WD
2615verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2616 host:src/dir /dest
2617 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
43bd68e5 2618
6902ed17
MP
2619manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2620
088aac85
DD
2621Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2622identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2623number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2624source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2625hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2626write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2627of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
2628client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2629this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2630
2631To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2632with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2633file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2634using the information stored in the batch file.
2635
2636For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2637option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 2638".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb 2639a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
49f4cfdf
WD
2640batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
2641optionally
b9f592fb
WD
2642passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2643instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2644path differs from the original destination tree path.
2645
2646Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2647status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 2648updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
2649be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2650at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 2651
4602eafa 2652Examples:
088aac85 2653
faa82484
WD
2654quote(
2655tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2656tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2657tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
4602eafa
WD
2658)
2659
faa82484
WD
2660quote(
2661tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2662tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
4602eafa
WD
2663)
2664
98f51bfb
WD
2665In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2666and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2667"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2668into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2669reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2670
b8a6dae0 2671itemization(
98f51bfb
WD
2672 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2673 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2674 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
98f51bfb
WD
2675 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2676 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
98f51bfb
WD
2677 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2678 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2679 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
faa82484 2680 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
98f51bfb 2681 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
faa82484 2682 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
98f51bfb 2683)
088aac85
DD
2684
2685Caveats:
2686
98f51bfb 2687The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
2688to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2689batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
0b941479 2690is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
7432ccf4
WD
2691appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2692and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2693error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
59d73bf3 2694if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
faa82484 2695always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
59d73bf3
WD
2696option (when reading the batch).
2697If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
7432ccf4 2698partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
088aac85
DD
2699be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2700destination tree.
2701
b9f592fb 2702The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
59d73bf3
WD
2703one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2704protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
0b941479
WD
2705to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2706creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2707(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2708older than that with newer versions will not work.)
088aac85 2709
7432ccf4
WD
2710When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2711to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2712as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
bb5f4e72
WD
2713For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2714bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2715bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2716one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
b9f592fb 2717
faa82484 2718The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
98f51bfb
WD
2719options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2720shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
faa82484 2721list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
98f51bfb 2722user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
faa82484 2723to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
98f51bfb 2724
59d73bf3
WD
2725The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2726version uses a new implementation.
6902ed17 2727
eb06fa95
MP
2728manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2729
f28bd833 2730Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
2731link in the source directory.
2732
2733By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2734"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2735
2736If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2737target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2738bf(--links).
2739
2740If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2741copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2742
2743rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2744example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2745ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2746bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2747bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2748they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
6efe9416
WD
2749unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2750bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
eb06fa95 2751
7bd0cf5b 2752Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
4743f0f4 2753(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
7bd0cf5b
MP
2754components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2755
6efe9416
WD
2756Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2757in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2758use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2759
2760dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2761symlinks for any other options to affect).
2762
2763dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2764and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2765
2766dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2767skip all safe symlinks.
2768
02184920 2769dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
6efe9416
WD
2770ones.
2771
2772dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2773
faa82484 2774manpagediagnostics()
d310a212 2775
14d43f1f 2776rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212 2777cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
faa82484 2778version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
d310a212
AT
2779
2780This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2781facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 2782for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
2783remote shell like this:
2784
faa82484
WD
2785quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2786
d310a212 2787then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 2788should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
2789rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2790data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 2791it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
2792scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2793for non-interactive logins.
2794
16e5de84 2795If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
faa82484 2796try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
e6c64e79
MP
2797show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2798
55b64e4b
MP
2799manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2800
2801startdit()
a73de5f3 2802dit(bf(0)) Success
faa82484
WD
2803dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2804dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
a73de5f3
WD
2805dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2806dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 2807was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 2808them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 2809not by the server.
a73de5f3 2810dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
124f349e 2811dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
faa82484
WD
2812dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2813dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2814dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2815dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2816dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2817dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
49f4cfdf 2818dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
faa82484 2819dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
2820dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2821dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
124f349e 2822dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
faa82484 2823dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
ba22c9e2 2824dit(bf(35)) Timeout waiting for daemon connection
55b64e4b
MP
2825enddit()
2826
de2fd20e
AT
2827manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2828
2829startdit()
de2fd20e 2830dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
faa82484 2831ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
de2fd20e 2832more details.
332cf6df
WD
2833dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
2834environment variable.
de2fd20e 2835dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108 2836override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
faa82484 2837options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
4c3b4b25
AT
2838dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2839redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2840rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
de2fd20e 2841dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 2842password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
de2fd20e 2843daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
b2057d38
WD
2844password to a remote shell transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that,
2845consult the remote shell's documentation.
de2fd20e 2846dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
5a727522 2847are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
4b2f6a7c 2848If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
14d43f1f 2849dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e 2850default .cvsignore file.
de2fd20e
AT
2851enddit()
2852
41059f75
AT
2853manpagefiles()
2854
30e8c8e1 2855/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
41059f75
AT
2856
2857manpageseealso()
2858
49f4cfdf 2859bf(rsyncd.conf)(5)
41059f75 2860
41059f75
AT
2861manpagebugs()
2862
02184920 2863times are transferred as *nix time_t values
41059f75 2864
f28bd833 2865When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171 2866unmodified files.
faa82484 2867See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
38843171 2868
b5accaba 2869file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
41059f75
AT
2870values
2871
faa82484 2872see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
41059f75 2873
b553a3dd 2874Please report bugs! See the web site at
38843171 2875url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75 2876
15997547
WD
2877manpagesection(VERSION)
2878
05805cd6 2879This man page is current for version 3.0.1pre2 of rsync.
15997547 2880
4e0bf977
WD
2881manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
2882
2883The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
2884and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
2885awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
2886when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
2887the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
2888named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
2889ssh login.
2890
41059f75
AT
2891manpagesection(CREDITS)
2892
2893rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2894COPYING for details.
2895
41059f75 2896A WEB site is available at
3cd5eb3b
MP
2897url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2898includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2899manual page.
9e3c856a
AT
2900
2901The primary ftp site for rsync is
2902url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
2903
2904We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
03646b49 2905Please contact the mailing-list at rsync@lists.samba.org.
41059f75 2906
9e3c856a
AT
2907This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2908Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
2909
2910manpagesection(THANKS)
2911
03646b49
WD
2912Especial thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
2913David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
2914gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
7ff701e8 2915
03646b49
WD
2916Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2917and David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
41059f75
AT
2918
2919manpageauthor()
2920
ce5f2732 2921rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
03646b49
WD
2922Many people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained
2923by Wayne Davison.
3cd5eb3b 2924
a5d74a18 2925Mailing lists for support and development are available at
faa82484 2926url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)