One call to link_stat() (in set_perms()) needed to honor the setting
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
c8d771a0 2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
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20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
eb06fa95 24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
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25exists.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
f39281ae 28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
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29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
b9f592fb 35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
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36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
43cd760f 38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
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39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
bef49340 47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
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48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
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54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
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56 single : separator.
57
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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60 contains a : separator.
61
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
bb18e755 64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
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65
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
bb18e755 68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
039faa86 69
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70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
74 also provided.
75
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
4d888108 80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
bef49340 81
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82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
84 local destination.
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85)
86
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87Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88and destination paths must be local.
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89
90manpagesection(SETUP)
91
92See the file README for installation instructions.
93
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94Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 96daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 97for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 98different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 99
1bbf83c0 100You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
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101command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
102
103One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
104security.
105
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106Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
107machines.
108
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109manpagesection(USAGE)
110
111You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112and a destination, one of which may be remote.
113
4d888108 114Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
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115
116quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
117
8a97fc2e 118This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
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119current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122differences. See the tech report for details.
123
124quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
125
8a97fc2e 126This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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127machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 129links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 130in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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131size of data portions of the transfer.
132
133quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
134
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135A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
142/dest/foo:
143
144quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
145quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
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146
147You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149an improved copy command.
150
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151quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
152
8a97fc2e 153This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
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154somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
155
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156
157manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
158
1bbf83c0 159It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
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160transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
161running on TCP port 873.
162
eb06fa95 163You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
4c3b4b25 164environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
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165your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
166proxy connections to port 873.
4c3b4b25 167
1bbf83c0 168Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
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169that:
170
171itemize(
172 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
bb18e755 173 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
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174
175 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 176 connect.
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177
178 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
179 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 180
f7632fc6 181 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 182 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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183)
184
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185Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
186you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
187password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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188the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
189may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 190
3bc67f0c 191WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 192users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 193
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194manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
195
196It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
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197server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
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199to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
200firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
201features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
202below).
203
204From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
205using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
206explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
207--rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
208this functionality.)
209
210In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
211server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
212
213quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
214
215The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
216used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
217
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218manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
219
4d888108 220An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
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221rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
222file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
223shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
224is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
225(typically $HOME).
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227manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
228
229See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
230server configuration file.
231
232Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
233user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
234configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
235if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
236
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237To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
bef49340 239
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240manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
241
242Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
243
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244To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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246
247quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
248
f39281ae 249each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
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250"arvidsjaur".
251
252To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
253targets:
254
255quote( get:nl()
256 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
257
258 put:nl()
259 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
260
261 sync: get put)
262
263this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
f39281ae 264connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
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265lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
266
267I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
268command
269
270quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
271
272this is launched from cron every few hours.
273
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274manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
275
14d43f1f 276Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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277to the detailed description below for a complete description.
278
279verb(
280 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 281 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
c95da96a 282 -c, --checksum always checksum
06891710 283 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
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284 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
285 -R, --relative use relative path names
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286 --no-relative turn off --relative
287 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
915dd207 288 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
5b56cc19 289 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
915dd207 290 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
c95da96a 291 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
75b243a5 292 --inplace update the destination files inplace
716e73d4 293 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
eb06fa95 294 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
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295 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
296 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
297 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
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298 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
299 -p, --perms preserve permissions
300 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
301 -g, --group preserve group
302 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
303 -t, --times preserve times
304 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
305 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
306 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
93689aa5 307 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
c95da96a 308 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 309 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
915dd207 310 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
d9fcc198 311 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
1347d512 312 --existing only update files that already exist
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313 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
314 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
315 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
d48c8065 316 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
b5accaba 317 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
0b73ca12 318 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
c95da96a 319 --partial keep partially transferred files
44cad59f 320 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
915dd207 321 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
c95da96a 322 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 323 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
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324 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
325 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
f6aeaa74 326 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
c95da96a 327 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
915dd207 328 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
59c95e42 329 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
d9fcc198 330 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
c95da96a 331 -z, --compress compress file data
f177b7cc 332 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
2acf81eb 333 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 334 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 335 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 336 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
f177b7cc 337 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
915dd207 338 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
c95da96a 339 --version print version number
bb18e755 340 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
bbd6f4ba 341 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
2a951cd2 342 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
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343 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
344 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
b5accaba 345 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
93689aa5 346 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
c95da96a 347 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 348 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 349 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 350 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
ef5d23eb 351 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
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352 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
353 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
c8d895de 354 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
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355 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
356 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
c95da96a 357 -h, --help show this help screen
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358
359
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360)
361
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362manpageoptions()
363
364rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
365options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 366below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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367The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
368can be used instead.
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369
370startdit()
371dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
372available in rsync
373
374dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
375
376dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 377are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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378single -v will give you information about what files are being
379transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
380information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
381information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 382you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 383
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384dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
385are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
386from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
387cron.
388
41059f75 389dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
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390already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
391This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
41059f75 392
a03a9f4e 393dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
915dd207 394already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
a03a9f4e 395--size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
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396regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
397after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
398exactly.
399
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400dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
401the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
402modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
403set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
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404transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
405with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
5b56cc19 406
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407dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
408a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
409explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
410which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
a03a9f4e 411receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
41059f75 412
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413dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
414way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
415everything.
416
417Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
418finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
419specify bf(-H).
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421dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
422recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
423directories at all.
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424
425dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
426names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
427just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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428you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
429example, if you used the command
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430
431verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
432
433then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
434machine. If instead you used
435
436verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
437
438then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
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439machine -- the full path name is preserved.
440
441dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
442needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
443file processing.
444
445dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
446implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
447of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
448the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
449path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
450the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
451destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
452the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
453which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
454symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
41059f75 455
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456dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
457renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
458backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
459--backup-dir and --suffix options.
41059f75 460
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461dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
462tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
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463very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
464specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
465(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
466will keep their original filenames).
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467If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
468(which changes in a recursive transfer).
66203a98 469
b5679335 470dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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471backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
472if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 473
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474dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
475destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
476file.
477
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478In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
479considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
480is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
481symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
482regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
483free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
484
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485dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
486pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
487from the sender.
488
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489dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
490and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
98f51bfb 491file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
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492network reduction it might otherwise.
493
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494This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based change
495or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound not network bound.
a3221d2a 496
399371e7 497WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 498transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 499should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
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500rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
501receiving user.
a3221d2a 502
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503dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
504symlink on the destination.
41059f75 505
eb06fa95 506dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
7af4227a 507they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.
b5313607 508
eb06fa95 509dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 510symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
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511are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
512source path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 513
d310a212 514dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 515which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
d310a212 516also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 517give unexpected results.
d310a212 518
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519dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
520the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
521option hard links are treated like regular files.
522
523Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
524are in the list of files being sent.
525
526This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
527
528dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
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529is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
530faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
6eb770bb 531destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
4d888108 532"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
6eb770bb 533the source and destination are specified as local paths.
41059f75 534
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535dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
536default.
537
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538dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
539permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
540
541Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
542source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
543other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
544(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
41059f75 545
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546dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
547destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
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548only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
549is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
550circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
41059f75 551
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552dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
553destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
554program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
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555receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
556is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
557circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
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558
559dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
560block device information to the remote system to recreate these
561devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
562
563dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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564with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
565option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
566modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
567cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
568their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
569changed.
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570
571dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
572instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
573
574dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
575up less space on the destination.
576
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577NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
578filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
579correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
580
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581dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
582boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
583contents of only one filesystem.
584
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585dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
586only update files that already exist on the destination.
587
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588dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
589This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
590the destination.
591
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592dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
593files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
594to prevent disasters.
595
41059f75 596dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
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597side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
598transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 599
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600This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
601
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602This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
603to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
604deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 605
b5accaba 606If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
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607files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
608prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
609sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
2c5548d2 610destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
41059f75 611
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612dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
613receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
614delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
786c3687 615Implies --delete.
b33b791e 616
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617dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
618receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
619sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
620after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
57df171b 621
2c5548d2 622dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 623even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 624
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625dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
626they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
627is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
628Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
41059f75 629
e40a46de 630dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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631the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
632
b5679335 633dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 634remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
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635remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
636default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 637
bef49340 638If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
4d888108 639remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
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640remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
641shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
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642running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
643TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
bef49340 644
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645Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
646presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
98393ae2 647
ea7f8108 648quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
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649
650(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
651options in their .ssh/config file.)
652
41059f75 653You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
ea7f8108 654environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
41059f75 655
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656See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
657
b5679335 658dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
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659rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
660that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
661the binary is in.
41059f75 662
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663dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
664broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
665systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
666a file should be ignored.
667
668The exclude list is initialized to:
669
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670quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
671.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
672.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
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673
674then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
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675files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
676are delimited by whitespace).
677
f177b7cc 678Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
2a383be0 679.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
2a383be0 680See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 681
b5679335 682dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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683certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
684useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
685
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686You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
687to build up the list of files to exclude.
688
6156e72f 689See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 690
b5679335 691dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
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692option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
693FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
694';' or '#' are ignored.
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695If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
696
b5679335 697dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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698specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
699build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
700
6156e72f 701See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 702
b5679335 703dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
43bd68e5 704from a file.
c769702f 705If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 706
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707dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
708exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
c769702f 709for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
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710transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
711instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
712is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
713directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
714than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
715behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
716you want it.
717
718The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
719source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
720allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
721command:
722
723quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
724
725If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
726directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
727contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
728or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
729that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
730duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
731force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
732
733In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
734instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
735(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
736specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
737transfer". For example:
738
739quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
740
741This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
742was located on the remote "src" host.
743
744dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
745file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
746This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
f01b6368
WD
747It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
748file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 749
b5679335 750dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 751scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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752transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
753the temporary files in the receiving directory.
754
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755dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
756the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
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DD
757files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
758destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
759destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
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760flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
761example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
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DD
762although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
763This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
764transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
765have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 766to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
375a4556 767
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768dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
769also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
770unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
771linked.
d31c09c8 772Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 773to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
8429aa9e
WD
774An example:
775
776verb(
777 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
778)
59c95e42 779
41059f75 780dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
089e73f8 781the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
f39281ae 782option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
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783same method that gzip uses.
784
785Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
786that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
787compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
788information sent for matching data blocks.
789
790dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 791and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
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792at both ends.
793
4d888108 794By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 795what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 7960 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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797option is not specified.
798
ec40899b
WD
799If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
800on the destination system, then the numeric ID
801from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
802"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
803the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
804users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 805
b5accaba 806dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
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AT
807timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
808then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 809
eb06fa95
MP
810dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
811daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
812bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
813
814If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
815run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
816become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
30e8c8e1 817(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
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MP
818requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
819details.
41059f75 820
bbd6f4ba
MP
821dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
822rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
823option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
824be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
825bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
826bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
827debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
828sshd.
829
5c9730a4 830dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
e30f0657
AT
831when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
832rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
833address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
834in conjunction with the --config option.
5c9730a4 835
b5679335 836dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
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DD
837the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
838The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
839a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
840the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
41059f75 841
b5679335 842dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 843rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 844
b5accaba 845dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
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WD
846a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
847rsync defaults to using
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WD
848blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
849ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 850
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DD
851dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
852default.
853
3a64ad1f 854dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 855rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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DD
856specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
857rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 858
b72f24c7
AT
859dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
860on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 861algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 862
d9fcc198
AT
863dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
864transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
865it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
866--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
867make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
868
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WD
869dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
870put a partially transferred file into DIR instead of writing out the
871file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
872dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
873rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
874its purpose.
875
876Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
877whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
878"--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
879in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the DIR
880if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
881DIR was specified as a relative path).
882
883If you are deleting files on the destination and your partial-dir is
884inside the destination hierarchy, make sure you specify an exclude to
885prevent the partial file from being deleted (it could get deleted at the
886end of the transfer when using --delete-after, or at the beginning of the
887transfer when using --delete). E.g. "--exclude=.rsync-partial/".
888
889IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users to
890avoid a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
891
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892dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
893showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
894something to watch.
e2559dbe 895Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
7b10f91d 896
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WD
897When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
898
899verb(
900 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
901)
902
903This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
904is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
905data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
906remaining in this transfer.
907
908After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
909
910verb(
911 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
912)
913
914This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
915transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
916the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
917These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
918what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
919
d9fcc198
AT
920dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
921found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
922option to make it easier.
923
65575e96
AT
924dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
925in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
bb18e755 926is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
65575e96 927transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
fc7952e7
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928must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
929single line.
65575e96 930
ef5d23eb
DD
931dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
932transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
933using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
934of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
935transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 936result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
ef5d23eb
DD
937of zero specifies no limit.
938
b9f592fb 939dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
98f51bfb 940another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
b9f592fb 941section for details.
6902ed17 942
b9f592fb 943dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
c769702f 944file previously generated by --write-batch.
399371e7 945If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 946See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 947
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WD
948dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
949when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
950control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
951rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
952listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
953versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
954an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
955try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
956
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WD
957dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
958NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
959MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
b9f592fb 960by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
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WD
961is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
962applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
963in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
964Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
b9f592fb 965for checksum seed.
c8d895de 966
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AT
967enddit()
968
43bd68e5
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969manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
970
971The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 972selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 973
be92ac6c 974Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
98606687 975the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
43bd68e5 976name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
23489269 977pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
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AT
978skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
979skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
980filename is not skipped.
981
a4b6f305
WD
982The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
983to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
984subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
985is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
986This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
987
988Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
20af605e 989trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
a4b6f305
WD
990option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
991changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
992system). The following examples demonstrate this.
993
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WD
994Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
995path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
996Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305
WD
997
998verb(
b5ebe6d9 999 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
a4b6f305 1000 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1001 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 1002 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1003 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 1004
b5ebe6d9 1005 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
1006 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1007 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
a4b6f305 1008 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1009 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
a4b6f305 1010
b5ebe6d9 1011 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
1012 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1013 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
a4b6f305 1014 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1015 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
be92ac6c 1016
b5ebe6d9 1017 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
1018 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1019 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
be92ac6c 1020 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 1021 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305
WD
1022)
1023
1024The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1025look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1026(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 1027
be92ac6c
WD
1028Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1029every subcomponent of
a4b6f305 1030every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
27b9a19b 1031applied recursively to each subcomponent.
20af605e
WD
1032The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1033when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1034parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1035because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1036hierarchy.
27b9a19b
DD
1037
1038Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
2fb139c1
AT
1039each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1040--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1041
14d43f1f 1042The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
43bd68e5
AT
1043
1044itemize(
d1cce1dd 1045
43bd68e5
AT
1046 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1047 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
d1cce1dd
S
1048 the filename.
1049 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
a4b6f305
WD
1050 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1051 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
d1cce1dd 1052 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
27b9a19b
DD
1053 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1054 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1055 end of the file name.
43bd68e5
AT
1056
1057 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
a4b6f305 1058 directory, not a file, link, or device.
43bd68e5
AT
1059
1060 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
a8b9d4ed
DD
1061 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1062 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
43bd68e5 1063
8a7846f9
WD
1064 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1065 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
27b9a19b 1066
38499c1a
WD
1067 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1068 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1069 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1070 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1071 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
8a7846f9 1072 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
43bd68e5
AT
1073
1074 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1075 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1076 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
43bd68e5
AT
1077
1078 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1079 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1080 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
de2fd20e
AT
1081
1082 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
eb06fa95 1083 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
43bd68e5
AT
1084)
1085
b7dc46c0
WD
1086The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1087you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
20af605e 1088options in the proper order.
27b9a19b 1089
20af605e
WD
1090Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1091directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1092the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1093important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
43bd68e5 1094
20af605e
WD
1095verb(
1096 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1097 + /file-is-included
1098 - *
1099)
1100
1101This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1102so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1103directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1104to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
f28bd833 1105before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
20af605e
WD
1106include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1107instance, this set of rules works fine:
1108
1109verb(
1110 + /some/
1111 + /some/path/
1112 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1113 + /file-also-included
1114 - *
1115)
1116
1117Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
43bd68e5
AT
1118
1119itemize(
1120 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
a4b6f305 1121 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1122 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
a8b9d4ed 1123 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1124 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
a8b9d4ed 1125 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1126 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1127 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
5d5811f7
DD
1128 directories and C source files
1129 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1130 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1131 it would be excluded by the "*")
43bd68e5
AT
1132)
1133
6902ed17
MP
1134manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1135
2e3c1417 1136bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
7432ccf4
WD
1137of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1138feel free to try this out.
088aac85
DD
1139
1140Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1141identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1142number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1143source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1144hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1145write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1146of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
1147client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1148this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1149
1150To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1151with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1152file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1153using the information stored in the batch file.
1154
1155For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1156option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 1157".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb
WD
1158a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1159batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1160passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1161instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1162path differs from the original destination tree path.
1163
1164Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1165status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 1166updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
1167be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1168at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 1169
4602eafa 1170Examples:
088aac85
DD
1171
1172verb(
98f51bfb
WD
1173 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1174 $ scp foo* remote:
1175 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4602eafa
WD
1176)
1177
1178verb(
98f51bfb
WD
1179 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1180 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4602eafa
WD
1181)
1182
98f51bfb
WD
1183In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1184and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1185"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1186into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1187reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1188
1189itemize(
1190
1191 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1192 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1193 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
6902ed17 1194
98f51bfb
WD
1195 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1196 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1197
1198 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1199 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1200 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1201 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1202 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1203 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1204
1205)
088aac85
DD
1206
1207Caveats:
1208
98f51bfb 1209The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
1210to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1211batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
7432ccf4
WD
1212is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1213appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1214and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1215error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1216if the command got updated. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1217always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1218option. If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1219partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
088aac85
DD
1220be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1221destination tree.
1222
b9f592fb
WD
1223The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1224one used to generate the batch file.
088aac85 1225
98f51bfb 1226The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
088aac85
DD
1227error.
1228
7432ccf4
WD
1229When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1230to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1231as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1232For instance
b9f592fb
WD
1233--write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1234--include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
7432ccf4 1235without --delete-excluded.
b9f592fb 1236
98f51bfb
WD
1237The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1238options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1239shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1240list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1241user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1242to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1243
6902ed17
MP
1244See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1245reports.
1246
eb06fa95
MP
1247manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1248
f28bd833 1249Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
1250link in the source directory.
1251
1252By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1253"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1254
1255If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1256target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1257bf(--links).
1258
1259If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1260copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1261
1262rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1263example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1264ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1265bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1266bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1267they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
4d888108 1268unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
eb06fa95 1269
7bd0cf5b
MP
1270Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1271(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1272components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1273
d310a212
AT
1274manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1275
14d43f1f 1276rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212
AT
1277cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1278version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1279
1280This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1281facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 1282for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
1283remote shell like this:
1284
1285verb(
43cd760f 1286 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
d310a212
AT
1287)
1288
1289then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 1290should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
1291rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1292data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 1293it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
1294scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1295for non-interactive logins.
1296
e6c64e79
MP
1297If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1298try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1299show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1300
55b64e4b
MP
1301manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1302
1303startdit()
a73de5f3
WD
1304dit(bf(0)) Success
1305dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1306dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1307dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1308dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 1309was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 1310them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 1311not by the server.
a73de5f3 1312dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
b5accaba
WD
1313dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1314dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
a73de5f3
WD
1315dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1316dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1317dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1318dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1319dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1320dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
1321dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1322dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
a73de5f3 1323dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
55b64e4b
MP
1324enddit()
1325
de2fd20e
AT
1326manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1327
1328startdit()
1329
1330dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1331ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1332more details.
1333
1334dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108
WD
1335override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1336options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
de2fd20e 1337
4c3b4b25
AT
1338dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1339redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1340rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1341
de2fd20e 1342dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 1343password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
de2fd20e
AT
1344daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1345password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1346
1347dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
bb18e755 1348are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
4b2f6a7c 1349If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
de2fd20e 1350
14d43f1f 1351dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e
AT
1352default .cvsignore file.
1353
1354enddit()
1355
41059f75
AT
1356manpagefiles()
1357
30e8c8e1 1358/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
41059f75
AT
1359
1360manpageseealso()
1361
1362rsyncd.conf(5)
1363
1364manpagediagnostics()
1365
1366manpagebugs()
1367
1368times are transferred as unix time_t values
1369
f28bd833 1370When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171
DD
1371unmodified files.
1372See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1373
b5accaba 1374file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
41059f75
AT
1375values
1376
a87b3b2a 1377see also the comments on the --delete option
41059f75 1378
38843171
DD
1379Please report bugs! See the website at
1380url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75
AT
1381
1382manpagesection(CREDITS)
1383
1384rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1385COPYING for details.
1386
41059f75 1387A WEB site is available at
3cd5eb3b
MP
1388url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1389includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1390manual page.
9e3c856a
AT
1391
1392The primary ftp site for rsync is
1393url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
1394
1395We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1396
9e3c856a
AT
1397This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1398Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
1399
1400manpagesection(THANKS)
1401
1402Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
7ff701e8
MP
1403and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1404I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1405
ce5f2732 1406Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
98f51bfb 1407Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
41059f75
AT
1408
1409manpageauthor()
1410
ce5f2732
MP
1411rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1412Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 1413
a5d74a18 1414Mailing lists for support and development are available at
7ff701e8 1415url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)