Minor change suggesting people put in the right path in inetd.conf.
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
460f6b99 2manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18manpagedescription()
19
20rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23exists.
24
25The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28report that accompanies this package.
29
30Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31
32itemize(
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
40 mirroring)
41)
42
43manpagesection(GENERAL)
44
039faa86 45There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
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46
47itemize(
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
50
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 single : separator.
55
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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58 contains a : separator.
59
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
946347b8 62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
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63
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
66 separator.
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67
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
70 local destination.
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71)
72
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73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
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75
76manpagesection(SETUP)
77
78See the file README for installation instructions.
79
80Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82destination are local.
83
14d43f1f 84You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
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85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
87One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
88security.
89
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90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
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93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
99
100quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
101
102this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
109
14d43f1f 110this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
14d43f1f 114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
118
14d43f1f 119a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
41059f75 120all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
14d43f1f 121/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
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122contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124using the --delete option.
125
126You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128an improved copy command.
129
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130quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
131
132this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
134
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135
136manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
137
138It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140running on TCP port 873.
141
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142You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
146
14d43f1f 147Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
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148that:
149
150itemize(
151 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
152 separate the hostname from the path.
153
154 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 155 connect.
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156
157 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
158 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 159
f7632fc6 160 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 161 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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162)
163
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164Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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167the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 169
3bc67f0c 170WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 171users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 172
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173manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
174
175An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
177information.
178
179manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
180
181Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
182
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183To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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185
186quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
187
188each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
189"arvidsjaur".
190
191To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
192targets:
193
194quote( get:nl()
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
196
197 put:nl()
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
199
200 sync: get put)
201
202this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
205
206I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
207command
208
209quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
210
211this is launched from cron every few hours.
212
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213manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
214
14d43f1f 215Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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216to the detailed description below for a complete description.
217
218verb(
9ef53907 219Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
d853783f 220 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9ef53907 221 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
14d43f1f 222 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
9ef53907 223 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
14d43f1f 224 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
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225SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
226SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
227 sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
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228
229Options
c95da96a 230 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 231 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
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232 -c, --checksum always checksum
233 -a, --archive archive mode
234 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
235 -R, --relative use relative path names
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236 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
237 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
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238 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
239 -l, --links preserve soft links
240 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
b5313607 241 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
d853783f 242 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
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243 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
244 -p, --perms preserve permissions
245 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
246 -g, --group preserve group
247 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
248 -t, --times preserve times
249 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
250 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
251 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
252 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 253 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
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254 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
255 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
256 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
257 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
b33b791e 258 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
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259 --partial keep partially transferred files
260 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
261 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
262 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
263 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
f83f0548 264 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
c95da96a 265 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
375a4556 266 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
c95da96a 267 -z, --compress compress file data
2acf81eb 268 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 269 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 270 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 271 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
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272 --version print version number
273 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
274 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
275 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
276 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 277 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 278 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 279 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
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280 -h, --help show this help screen
281)
282
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283manpageoptions()
284
285rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
286options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 287below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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288The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
289can be used instead.
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290
291startdit()
292dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
293available in rsync
294
295dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
296
297dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 298are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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299single -v will give you information about what files are being
300transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
301information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
302information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 303you are debugging rsync.
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305dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
306are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
307from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
308cron.
309
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310dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
311already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
312off this behavior.
313
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314dit(bf(-I, --size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
315already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
316--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
317regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
318after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
319exactly.
320
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321dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
322a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
323explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
324which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
325receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
326
460f6b99 327dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptg. It is a quick way
14d43f1f 328of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
41059f75 329
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330Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o (preserve
331uid) and -D (preserve devices) options are also implied.
5243c216 332
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333dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
334recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
335directories at all.
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336
337dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
338names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
339just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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340you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
341example, if you used the command
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342
343verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
344
345then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
346machine. If instead you used
347
348verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
349
350then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
351machine. The full path name is preserved.
352
353dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
354renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
355control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
356
b5679335 357dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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358backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
359
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360dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
361destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
362file.
363
364dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
365remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
14d43f1f 366option, all symbolic links are skipped.
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367
368dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
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369like ordinary files.
370
371dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
372point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
373also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
374path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 375
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376dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
377which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
378also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 379give unexpected results.
d310a212 380
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381dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
382the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
383option hard links are treated like regular files.
384
385Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
386are in the list of files being sent.
387
388This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
389
390dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
391is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
392useful when using rsync with a local machine.
393
14d43f1f 394dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
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395transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
396it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
397--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
398make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
399
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400dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
401permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
402
403dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
404of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
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405to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
406the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
14d43f1f 407access to the usernames.
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408
409dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
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410of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
411not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
412will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
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413
414dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
415block device information to the remote system to recreate these
416devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
417
418dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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419with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
420option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
421modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
422cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
423their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
424changed.
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425
426dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
427instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
428
429dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
430up less space on the destination.
431
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432NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
433filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
434correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
435
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436dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
437boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
438contents of only one filesystem.
439
440dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
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441side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
442transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 443
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444This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
445
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446This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
447to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
448deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 449
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450If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
451files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
452prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
453sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
454destination.
41059f75 455
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456dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
457receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
458delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
459
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460dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
461they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
462cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
15800c7e 463contains a directory of the same name.
41059f75 464
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465Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
466so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
41059f75 467
b5679335 468dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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469the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
470
b5679335 471dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 472remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
14d43f1f 473remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
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474like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
475
476You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
477environment variable.
478
b5679335 479dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
14d43f1f 480rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path.
41059f75 481
b5679335 482dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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483certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
484useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
485
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486You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
487to build up the list of files to exclude.
488
14d43f1f 489See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
43bd68e5 490this option.
41059f75 491
b5679335 492dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
41059f75 493option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
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494the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
495are ignored.
41059f75 496
b5679335 497dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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498specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
499build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
500
501See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
502this option.
503
b5679335 504dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
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505from a file.
506
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507dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
508broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
509systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
510a file should be ignored.
511
512The exclude list is initialized to:
513
514quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
515.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
516*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
517
518then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
519files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
520
521Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
522that directory are added to the list.
523
b5679335 524dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
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525rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
526find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
527this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
de2fd20e 528making things faster.
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529
530You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
531--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
532
533Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
534with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
535microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
536before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
537
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538Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
539checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
540if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
541option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
542
b5679335 543dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 544scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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545transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
546the temporary files in the receiving directory.
547
b5679335 548dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
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549additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
550transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
551leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
14d43f1f 552files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
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553around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
554the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
555option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
556files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
557to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
558destination directory.
375a4556 559
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560dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
561the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
562option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
563same method that gzip uses.
564
565Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
566that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
567compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
568information sent for matching data blocks.
569
570dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
571and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
572at both ends.
573
574By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
575what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 5760 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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577option is not specified.
578
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579If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
580does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
581source system is used instead.
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583dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
584timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
585then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
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586
587dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
588daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
589is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
5315b793 590terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
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591config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
592respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
593details.
594
b5679335 595dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
5315b793 596the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
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597specified.
598
b5679335 599dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 600rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 601
3a64ad1f 602dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 603rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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604specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
605rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 606
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607dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
608on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 609algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 610
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611dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
612showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
613something to watch.
614
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615This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
616the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
617
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618dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
619in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
620is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
621transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
622must not be world readable.
623
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624enddit()
625
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626manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
627
628The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 629selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 630
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631rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
632the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
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633name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
634pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
635skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
636skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
637filename is not skipped.
638
14d43f1f 639The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
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640
641itemize(
642 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
643 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
644 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
645 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
646 called foo anywhere in the tree.
647
648 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
649 directory, not a file, link or device.
650
651 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
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652 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
653 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
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654
655 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
656 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
657 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
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658 only against the final component of the filename. Furthermore, if
659 the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
660 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
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661
662 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 663 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
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664 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
665
666 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 667 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5 668 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
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669
670 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
671 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
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672)
673
674The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
675single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
676
677Here are some examples:
678
679itemize(
680 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
681 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
682 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
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683 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
684 levels below a base directory called foo
685 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
686 or more levels below a base directory called foo
43bd68e5 687 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
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688 directories and C source files
689 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
690 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
691 it would be excluded by the "*")
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692)
693
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694manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
695
14d43f1f 696rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
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697cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
698version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
699
700This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
701facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 702for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
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703remote shell like this:
704
705verb(
706 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
707)
708
709then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 710should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
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711rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
712data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 713it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
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714scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
715for non-interactive logins.
716
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717manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
718
719startdit()
720
721dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
722ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
723more details.
724
725dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
726override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
727be used instead of the -e option.
728
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729dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
730redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
731rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
732
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733dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
734password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
735daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
736password to a shell transport such as ssh.
737
738dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
739are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
740
14d43f1f 741dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
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742default .cvsignore file.
743
744enddit()
745
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746manpagefiles()
747
748/etc/rsyncd.conf
749
750manpageseealso()
751
752rsyncd.conf(5)
753
754manpagediagnostics()
755
756manpagebugs()
757
758times are transferred as unix time_t values
759
760file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
761values
762
a87b3b2a 763see also the comments on the --delete option
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764
765Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
9e3c856a 766url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
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767
768manpagesection(VERSION)
769This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
770
771manpagesection(CREDITS)
772
773rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
774COPYING for details.
775
41059f75 776A WEB site is available at
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777url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
778
779The primary ftp site for rsync is
780url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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781
782We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
783
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784This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
785Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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786
787manpagesection(THANKS)
788
789Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
790and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
791probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
792
793
794manpageauthor()
795
796rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
9e3c856a 797contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
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798Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
799