Moved where --chmod was listed.
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
9ec8bd87 2manpage(rsync)(1)(28 Jul 2005)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
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6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 9
868676dc 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 11
868676dc 12rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
41059f75 13
868676dc 14rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
41059f75 15
868676dc 16rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 17
9ef53907 18rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 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
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24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
25updated.
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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
d38772e0 39 it() does not require super-user privileges
41059f75 40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
5a727522 41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
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42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
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47Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
48current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
49
50There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
51remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
52rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
53the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
54a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
55source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
ba3542cf 56host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
754a080f 57"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
ba3542cf 58an exception to this latter rule).
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59
60As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
61the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
62
63As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
64host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
65
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66manpagesection(SETUP)
67
68See the file README for installation instructions.
69
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70Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
71a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 72daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 73for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 74different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 75
faa82484 76You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
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77command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
78
8e987130 79Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
faa82484 80machines.
8e987130 81
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82manpagesection(USAGE)
83
84You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
85and a destination, one of which may be remote.
86
4d888108 87Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
41059f75 88
faa82484 89quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
41059f75 90
8a97fc2e 91This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
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92current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
93the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
94remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
95differences. See the tech report for details.
96
faa82484 97quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
41059f75 98
8a97fc2e 99This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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100machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
101files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 102links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 103in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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104size of data portions of the transfer.
105
faa82484 106quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
41059f75 107
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108A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
109additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
110/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
111to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
112containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
113destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
114files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
115/dest/foo:
116
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117quote(
118tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
119tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
120)
41059f75 121
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122Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
123copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
124copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
125
126quote(
127tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
128tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
129)
130
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131You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
132destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
133an improved copy command.
134
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135Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
136particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
137
faa82484 138quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
14d43f1f 139
bb9bdba4 140See the following section for more details.
14d43f1f 141
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142manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
143
144The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
145quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
146
faa82484 147quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
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148
149This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
150additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
151and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
152to be a part of the filenames.
153
faa82484 154quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
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155
156This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
157word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
158that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
159whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
160a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
161whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
162in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
163
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164quote(
165tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
166tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
167)
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168
169This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
170wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
171
5a727522 172manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
41059f75 173
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174It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
175In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
176using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
177the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
178CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
4c3b4b25 179
1bbf83c0 180Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
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181that:
182
183itemize(
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184 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
185 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
2c64b258 186 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
5a727522 187 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 188 connect.
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189 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
190 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
f7632fc6 191 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
5a727522 192 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
2c64b258 193 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
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194)
195
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196An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
197
198verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
199
200Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
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201you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
202password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
faa82484 203the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
65575e96 204may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 205
3bc67f0c 206WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
faa82484 207users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
3bc67f0c 208
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209You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
210environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
211your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
212proxy connections to port 873.
bef49340 213
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214manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
215
216It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
217named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
218system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
219Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
220a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
221home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
222daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
223the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
224change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
225transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
226configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
227connections from "localhost".)
228
229From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
230connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
231rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
232explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
233bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
234will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
235
236verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
237
238If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
239user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
240module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
241give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
242
243verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
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244
245The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
754a080f 246used to log-in to the "module".
bef49340 247
754a080f 248manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
bef49340 249
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250In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
251daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
252to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
253For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
254socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
255file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
256daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
bef49340 257
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258If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
259no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
bef49340 260
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261manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
262
263Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
264
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265To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
266files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
41059f75 267
faa82484 268quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
41059f75 269
f39281ae 270each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
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271"arvidsjaur".
272
273To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
274targets:
275
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276verb( get:
277 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
278 put:
279 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
280 sync: get put)
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281
282this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
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283connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
284lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
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285
286I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
faa82484 287command:
41059f75 288
faa82484 289tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
41059f75 290
faa82484 291This is launched from cron every few hours.
41059f75 292
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293manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
294
14d43f1f 295Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
faa82484 296to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
c95da96a 297 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
44d98d61 298 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
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299 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
300 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
f40aa6fb 301 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
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302 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
303 -R, --relative use relative path names
f40aa6fb 304 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
915dd207 305 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
44d98d61 306 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
915dd207 307 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
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308 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
309 --inplace update destination files in-place
94f20a9f 310 --append append data onto shorter files
09ed3099 311 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
eb06fa95 312 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
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313 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
314 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
315 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
c95da96a 316 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
09ed3099 317 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
c95da96a 318 -p, --perms preserve permissions
2d5279ac 319 -E, --executability preserve executability
9f822556 320 --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
d38772e0 321 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
c95da96a 322 -g, --group preserve group
d38772e0 323 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
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324 --specials preserve special files
325 -D same as --devices --specials
c95da96a 326 -t, --times preserve times
54e66f1d 327 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
d38772e0 328 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
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329 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
330 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
98bf61c8 331 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
c95da96a 332 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
3ed8eb3f 333 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
44d98d61 334 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
68e169ab 335 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
9639c718 336 --existing ignore non-existing files on receiving side
915dd207 337 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
96110304 338 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
ae76a740 339 --del an alias for --delete-during
915dd207 340 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
598c409e 341 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
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342 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
343 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
866925bf 344 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
b5accaba 345 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
866925bf 346 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
0b73ca12 347 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
3610c458 348 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
59dd6786 349 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
c95da96a 350 --partial keep partially transferred files
44cad59f 351 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
44d98d61 352 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
a272ff8c 353 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
c95da96a 354 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 355 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
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356 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
357 --size-only skip files that match in size
358 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
abce74bb 359 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
5b483755 360 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
915dd207 361 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
2f03ce67 362 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
b127c1dc 363 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
32a5edf4 364 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
bad01106 365 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
44d98d61 366 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
16e5de84 367 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
8a6f3fea 368 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
16e5de84 369 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
2acf81eb 370 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
44d98d61 371 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
2acf81eb 372 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
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373 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
374 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
fa92818a 375 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
3ae5367f 376 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
c259892c 377 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
04f48837 378 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
b5accaba 379 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
44d98d61 380 --stats give some file-transfer stats
955c3145 381 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
3b4ecc6b 382 --si like human-readable, but use powers of 1000
eb86d661 383 --progress show progress during transfer
44d98d61 384 -P same as --partial --progress
b78296cb 385 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
81c453b1 386 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
44d98d61 387 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
09ed3099 388 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
44d98d61 389 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
faa82484 390 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
326bb56e 391 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
44d98d61 392 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
0b941479 393 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
44d98d61 394 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
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395 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
81c453b1 397 --version print version number
955c3145 398 --help show this help screen)
6902ed17 399
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400Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
401accepted: verb(
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402 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
403 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
44d98d61 404 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
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405 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
406 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
c259892c 407 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
04f48837 408 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
24b0922b 409 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
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410 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
411 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
955c3145 412 --help show this help screen)
c95da96a 413
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414manpageoptions()
415
416rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
417options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 418below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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419The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
420can be used instead.
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421
422startdit()
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423dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
424available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
425versions of rsync, the same help output can also be requested by using
426the bf(-h) option without any other args.
41059f75 427
bdf278f7 428dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
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429
430dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 431are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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432single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
433transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
41059f75 434information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
faa82484 435information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 436you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 437
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438Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
439a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
81c453b1 440file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
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441level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
442changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
443bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
444output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
445any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
446
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447dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
448are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
449from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
450cron.
451
41059f75 452dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
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453already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
454This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
41059f75 455
a03a9f4e 456dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
915dd207 457already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
faa82484 458bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
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459regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
460after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
461exactly.
462
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463dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
464timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
465value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
466to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
467transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
468times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
469(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
5b56cc19 470
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471dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
472a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
473explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
474which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
a03a9f4e 475receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
41059f75 476
faa82484 477dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
e7bf3e5e 478way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
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479everything (with -H being a notable omission).
480The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
5dd97ab9 481specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
e7bf3e5e 482
faa82484 483Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
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484finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
485specify bf(-H).
41059f75 486
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487dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
488the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
489only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
490bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
491(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
492specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
493(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
494
495For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
496bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
497could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
498
499The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
500bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
501Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
a9af5d8e 502positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
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503changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
504details).
505
24986abd 506dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
faa82484 507recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
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508
509dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
510names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
511just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
14d43f1f 512you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
1dc42d12 513example, if you used this command:
41059f75 514
1dc42d12 515quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
41059f75 516
1dc42d12 517... this would create a file called baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
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518machine. If instead you used
519
1dc42d12 520quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
41059f75 521
1dc42d12 522then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
9bef934c 523machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
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524path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
525a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
526insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
527
528quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
529
530That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
531dot dir must followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
532(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
533source path. For example, when pushing files:
534
53cf0b8b 535quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
1dc42d12 536
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537(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
538"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
539If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
540rsync daemon):
9bef934c 541
faa82484 542quote(
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543tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
544tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
faa82484 545)
9bef934c 546
faa82484 547dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
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548implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
549of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
550the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
faa82484 551path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
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552the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
553destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
faa82484 554the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
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555which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
556symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
41059f75 557
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558dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
559renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
560backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
faa82484 561bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
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562
563Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
564bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
2d5279ac 565also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
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566filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
567(e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
568deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
569need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
570in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
571your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
572rule would never be reached).
41059f75 573
faa82484 574dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
66203a98 575tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
759ac870 576very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
faa82484 577specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
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578(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
579will keep their original filenames).
66203a98 580
b5679335 581dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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582backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
583if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 584
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585dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
586the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
587file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
588source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
41059f75 589
faa82484 590In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
4539c0d7 591between the sender and receiver is always
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592considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
593is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
594symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
595regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
596free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
597
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598dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
599and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
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600file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
601network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
602to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
faa82484 603with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
eb162f3b 604basis file for the transfer.
a3221d2a 605
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606This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
607or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
608bound.
609
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610The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
611the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
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612Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
613and bf(--link-dest).
a3221d2a 614
399371e7 615WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 616transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 617should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
eb162f3b 618rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
75b243a5 619receiving user.
a3221d2a 620
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621dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
622the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
623the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
624side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
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625resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
626Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
627file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
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628Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
629bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
630data is required).
94f20a9f 631
09ed3099 632dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
faa82484 633are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
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WD
634unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
635(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
faa82484 636bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
f40aa6fb 637output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
6e6cc163 638bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
09ed3099 639
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MP
640dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
641symlink on the destination.
41059f75 642
eb06fa95 643dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
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644they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
645versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
646receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
faa82484 647modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
ef855d19 648to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
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649an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
650will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
b5313607 651
eb06fa95 652dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 653symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
eb06fa95 654are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
faa82484 655source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
41059f75 656
d310a212 657dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 658which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
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659also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
660give unexpected results.
d310a212 661
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662dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
663the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
664option hard links are treated like regular files.
665
666Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
667are in the list of files being sent.
668
669This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
670
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671dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
672pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
673from the sender.
674
41059f75 675dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
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676is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
677faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
6eb770bb 678destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
4d888108 679"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
6eb770bb 680the source and destination are specified as local paths.
41059f75 681
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682dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
683destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
684also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
685be the source permissions.)
8dc74608 686
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687When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
688
689quote(itemize(
690 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
691 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
692 the execute permission for the file.
693 it() Each new file gets its permissions set based on the source file's
694 permissions, but masked by the receiving end's umask setting (including
695 the stripping of the three special permission bits).
696))
697
698Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
699rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
700such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
701
702dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
703executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
704not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
705'x' is turned on in the source permissions.
706
707quote(itemize(
708 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
709 permissions.
710 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
711 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
712))
713
714If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
41059f75 715
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716dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
717comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
718transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
719that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
720can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
721
722In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
723manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
724prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
725file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
726
727quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
728
729It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
730additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
731
732See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
733permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
734
eb06fa95 735dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
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736destination file to be the same as the source file. By default, the
737preservation is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number
738in some circumstances (see the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full
739discussion).
740This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
741super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
41059f75 742
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MP
743dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
744destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
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745program is not running as the super-user (or with the bf(--no-super)
746option), only groups that the
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WD
747receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
748is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
faa82484 749circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
41059f75 750
4e7d07c8 751dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
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WD
752block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
753This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
754super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
41059f75 755
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WD
756dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
757such as named sockets and fifos.
758
759dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
760
41059f75 761dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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DD
762with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
763option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
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WD
764modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
765cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
d0bc3520 766updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
faa82484 767if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
41059f75 768
54e66f1d 769dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
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770it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
771the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
fbe5eeb8 772This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
54e66f1d 773
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WD
774dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
775activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
776activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
777all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
778option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
779for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
780also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
781being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
782super-user can use bf(--no-super).
783
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784dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
785instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
786
787dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
a8cbb57c
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788up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
789not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
41059f75 790
d310a212
AT
791NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
792filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
793correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
794
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WD
795dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
796filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
797to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
798through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
799the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
800in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
801same filesystem.
802
803If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
804the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
805encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
806the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
807
808If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
809bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
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WD
810treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
811by this option.
6d8c6bdb 812
9639c718
WD
813dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
814updating files that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is
815combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
816(which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete missing files).
817
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818dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
819already exist on the destination. See also bf(--ignore-non-existing).
1347d512 820
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WD
821dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
822side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
823updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
824nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
825
2c0fa6c5 826dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
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WD
827receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
828directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
829send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
830for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
ae76a740 831by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
e8b155a3 832the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
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WD
833also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
834option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
835include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
41059f75 836
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WD
837Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
838was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
57b66a24 839(bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
24986abd 840
b33b791e 841This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
faa82484 842to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
b33b791e 843deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 844
e8b155a3 845If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
3e578a19
AT
846files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
847prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
848sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
faa82484 849destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
41059f75 850
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WD
851The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
852without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
2c0fa6c5 853--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
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WD
854bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
855bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
2c0fa6c5
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856
857dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
faa82484
WD
858side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
859or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
860See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
2c0fa6c5
WD
861
862Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
aaca3daa 863and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
ae76a740 864However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
faa82484 865and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
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866specified).
867
2c0fa6c5
WD
868dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
869receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
ae283632 870a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
ae76a740 871but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
faa82484 872See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
aaca3daa 873
2c0fa6c5 874dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
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875side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
876are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
877you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
878current transfer.
faa82484 879See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
e8b155a3 880
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WD
881dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
882receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
faa82484 883delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
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WD
884See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
885this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
886bf(--delete-excluded).
faa82484 887See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
866925bf 888
faa82484 889dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 890even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 891
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WD
892dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
893when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
894deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
895
896Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
897using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
898bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
41059f75 899
e2124620 900dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
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901files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
902This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
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903
904dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
905file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
926d86d1 906suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
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907may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
908
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909The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
910"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
911gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
912If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
913"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
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914Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
915be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
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916
917Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
926d86d1
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9182147483649 bytes.
919
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920dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
921file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
922transferring small, junk files.
923See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
924
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925dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
926the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
927the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
41059f75 928
b5679335 929dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 930remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
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931remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
932default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 933
bef49340 934If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
5a727522 935remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
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936remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
937shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
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938running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
939RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
bef49340 940
ea7f8108 941Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
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942presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
943or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
944and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
945argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
946inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
947double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
948shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
98393ae2 949
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950quote(
951tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
952tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
953)
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954
955(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
956options in their .ssh/config file.)
957
41059f75 958You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
faa82484 959environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
41059f75 960
faa82484 961See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
735a816e 962
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963dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
964on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
965the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
966Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
967program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
968not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
969communicate.
970
971One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
972machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
973
974quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
41059f75 975
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976dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
977broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
978systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
979a file should be ignored.
980
981The exclude list is initialized to:
982
faa82484 983quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
2a383be0 984.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
faa82484 985.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
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986
987then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
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988files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
989are delimited by whitespace).
990
f177b7cc 991Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
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992.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
993rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
2a383be0 994See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 995
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996If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
997note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
3753975f 998regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
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999a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1000control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1001should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1002bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1003putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1004The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1005file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1006mentioned above.
1007
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1008dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1009exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1010most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
41059f75 1011
faa82484 1012You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
41059f75
AT
1013to build up the list of files to exclude.
1014
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1015See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1016
faa82484 1017dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
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1018your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1019
78be8e0f 1020quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
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1021
1022This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1023been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
faa82484 1024files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
16e5de84
WD
1025rule:
1026
78be8e0f 1027quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
1028
1029This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1030
1031See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1032work.
1033
1034dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 1035bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
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WD
1036the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1037
1038See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 1039
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1040dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1041option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1042Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1043If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 1044
16e5de84 1045dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 1046bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
16e5de84 1047the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
43bd68e5 1048
16e5de84 1049See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 1050
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WD
1051dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1052option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1053Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1054If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 1055
f177b7cc 1056dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
78be8e0f 1057exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
c769702f 1058for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
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1059transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1060
1061quote(itemize(
1062 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1063 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
f40aa6fb 1064 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
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WD
1065 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1066 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
f40aa6fb 1067 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
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WD
1068 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1069 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
f40aa6fb
WD
1070 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1071 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1072 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1073 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
faa82484 1074))
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1075
1076The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1077source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1078allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1079command:
1080
faa82484 1081quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
f177b7cc
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1082
1083If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
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1084directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1085contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1086the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1087mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1088if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1089also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1090explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1091Also note
faa82484 1092that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
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1093duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1094force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1095
faa82484 1096In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
f177b7cc
WD
1097instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1098(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1099specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1100transfer". For example:
1101
faa82484 1102quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
f177b7cc
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1103
1104This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1105was located on the remote "src" host.
1106
fa92818a 1107dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
f177b7cc 1108file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
faa82484
WD
1109This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1110merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1111It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
f01b6368 1112file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 1113
b5679335 1114dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
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1115scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1116on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1117file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
41059f75 1118
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WD
1119This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1120have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1121In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1122partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1123over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1124into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1125destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
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WD
1126truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1127the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1128temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1129it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1130someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1131new version on the disk at the same time.
9ec1ef25
WD
1132
1133If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1134space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
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WD
1135which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1136destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1137have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1138partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1139about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1140path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1141single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1142partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1143rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1144an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
9ec1ef25 1145
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1146dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1147basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1148looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1149has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1150found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1151
1152Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1153fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1154filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1155
b127c1dc 1156dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
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WD
1157the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1158files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1159directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1160sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1161directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1162have changed from an earlier backup.
1163
faa82484 1164Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
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WD
1165provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1166for an exact match.
2f03ce67
WD
1167If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1168and the attributes updated.
99eb41b2
WD
1169If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1170selected to try to speed up the transfer.
e49f61f5
WD
1171
1172If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2f03ce67 1173See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
b127c1dc 1174
2f03ce67
WD
1175dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1176rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1177directory using a local copy.
1178This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1179existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1180been successfully transferred.
1181
1182Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1183rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1184If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1185selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1186
1187If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1188See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1189
1190dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
e49f61f5
WD
1191unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1192The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1193possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
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WD
1194An example:
1195
faa82484 1196quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
59c95e42 1197
99eb41b2
WD
1198Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1199provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1200for an exact match.
2f03ce67
WD
1201If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1202and the attributes updated.
99eb41b2
WD
1203If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1204selected to try to speed up the transfer.
e49f61f5
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1205
1206If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2f03ce67 1207See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
b127c1dc 1208
e0204f56 1209Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
d38772e0
WD
1210bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1211specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1212the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
e0204f56 1213
32a5edf4
WD
1214dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1215as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1216being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
41059f75 1217
32a5edf4
WD
1218Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
1219be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1220because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1221blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
41059f75 1222
bad01106
WD
1223dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1224(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1225the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1226
41059f75 1227dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 1228and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
41059f75
AT
1229at both ends.
1230
4d888108 1231By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 1232what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
faa82484 12330 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
41059f75
AT
1234option is not specified.
1235
ec40899b
WD
1236If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1237on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1238from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
1239"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1240the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1241users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 1242
b5accaba 1243dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
de2fd20e
AT
1244timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1245then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 1246
3ae5367f
WD
1247dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1248connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1249specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1250option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1251
c259892c
WD
1252dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1253rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1254double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1255syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
faa82484 1256option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
c259892c 1257
04f48837
WD
1258dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1259who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1260sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1261slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
1262details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1263special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1264connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1265bf(--daemon) mode section.
1266
b5accaba 1267dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
314a74d7
WD
1268a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1269rsync defaults to using
b5accaba
WD
1270blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1271ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 1272
0cfdf226 1273dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
4f90eb43 1274changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
ea67c715 1275This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
14cbb645
WD
1276If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1277if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1278with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1279verbose messages).
ea67c715 1280
2d5279ac
WD
1281The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 8 letters long. The general
1282format is like the string bf(YXcstpog), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
a314f7c1
WD
1283kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1284other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
ee171c6d 1285modified.
ea67c715 1286
2d5279ac 1287The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
ea67c715 1288
a314f7c1 1289quote(itemize(
cc3e0770 1290 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
a314f7c1 1291 (sent).
cc3e0770
WD
1292 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1293 (received).
c48cff9f 1294 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
ee171c6d 1295 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
b4875de4
WD
1296 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
1297 bf(--hard-links)).
ee171c6d
WD
1298 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1299 have attributes that are being modified).
a314f7c1 1300))
ea67c715 1301
a314f7c1 1302The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
4e7d07c8
WD
1303directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1304special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
ea67c715 1305
a314f7c1 1306The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
ea67c715
WD
1307will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1308a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
b9f0ca72
WD
1309item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1310dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
81c453b1 1311a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
ea67c715
WD
1312
1313The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1314
1315quote(itemize(
1316 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
c48cff9f 1317 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
ea67c715
WD
1318 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1319 by the file transfer.
1320 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
5a727522 1321 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
ea67c715
WD
1322 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1323 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1324 without bf(--times).
1325 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
5a727522 1326 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
4dc67d5e 1327 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
d38772e0 1328 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
4dc67d5e 1329 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
5a727522 1330 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
ea67c715
WD
1331))
1332
1333One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
ee171c6d 1334the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
ea67c715
WD
1335you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1336outputting them as a verbose message).
dc0f2497 1337
3a64ad1f 1338dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
ea67c715
WD
1339rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1340string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1341a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1342the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1343option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1344
1345Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1346in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1347touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
1348the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
81c453b1 1349item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
7c6ea3d8 13502.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
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WD
1351output of "%i".
1352
1353The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
a9af5d8e 1354bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
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WD
1355the format of its per-file output using this option.
1356
1357Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1358one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1359logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1360is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1361the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1362(followed, of course, by the log-format output).
b6062654 1363
b72f24c7
AT
1364dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1365on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 1366algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 1367
955c3145 1368dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
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WD
1369Large numbers may be output in larger units, with a K (1024), M (1024*1024),
1370or G (1024*1024*1024) suffix.
1371
1372dit(bf(--si)) Similar to the bf(--human-readable) option, but using powers
1373of 1000 instead of 1024.
1374
d9fcc198
AT
1375dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1376transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1377it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
faa82484 1378bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
d9fcc198
AT
1379make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1380
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WD
1381dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1382bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1383partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1384On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
9ec1ef25 1385dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
c2582307 1386after it has served its purpose.
9ec1ef25 1387
c2582307
WD
1388Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1389file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1390(since
b90a6d9f 1391rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
44cad59f 1392
c2582307
WD
1393Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1394the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1395"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1396partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1397remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
44cad59f 1398
c2582307 1399If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
faa82484 1400bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
a33857da
WD
1401will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1402untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
faa82484 1403the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
16e5de84 1404rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
4c72f27d
WD
1405supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to manually insert your own
1406exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that
a33857da 1407it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
4c72f27d 1408a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added rule would never be
c2582307 1409reached).
44cad59f 1410
faa82484 1411IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
b4d1e854
WD
1412is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1413
1414You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
faa82484
WD
1415variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1416enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1417specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1418along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1419environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
9ec1ef25
WD
1420.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1421option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1422specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
faa82484 1423bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
01b835c2 1424
5a727522 1425For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
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WD
1426bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1427refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1428of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1429safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1430
01b835c2 1431dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
c2582307 1432updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
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WD
1433transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1434succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
c2582307 1435atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
64318670
WD
1436each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1437bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead.
1438Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
01b835c2
WD
1439
1440This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1441transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1442side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
5efbddba
WD
1443you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1444there is no
01b835c2
WD
1445chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1446the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
5efbddba
WD
1447absolute)
1448and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1449delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
01b835c2
WD
1450
1451See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
faa82484 1452update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
01b835c2 1453parallel hierarchy of files).
44cad59f 1454
a272ff8c 1455dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
fb72aaba
WD
1456rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1457that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1458creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1459recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
a272ff8c
WD
1460rules.
1461
1462Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1463what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1464mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1465being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1466destination files).
1467
1468You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1469by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1470that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1471
1472quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
fb72aaba
WD
1473
1474Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1475the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1476that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
a272ff8c
WD
1477(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1478
1479quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide! */' src/ dest)
fb72aaba 1480
a272ff8c
WD
1481If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1482time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
1483in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
fb72aaba 1484
eb86d661
AT
1485dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1486showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1487something to watch.
c2582307 1488Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
7b10f91d 1489
68f9910d
WD
1490When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1491
faa82484 1492verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
68f9910d
WD
1493
1494This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1495is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1496data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1497remaining in this transfer.
1498
c2c14fa2 1499After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
68f9910d 1500
faa82484 1501verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
68f9910d
WD
1502
1503This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1504transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1505the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1506These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1507what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1508
faa82484 1509dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
183150b7
WD
1510purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1511transfer that may be interrupted.
d9fcc198 1512
65575e96 1513dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
5a727522
WD
1514in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1515is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
65575e96 1516transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
fc7952e7
AT
1517must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1518single line.
65575e96 1519
09ed3099
WD
1520dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1521instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1522specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
15997547 1523come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
09ed3099 1524options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
15997547
WD
1525non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1526copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1527must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
09ed3099 1528
ef5d23eb
DD
1529dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1530transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1531using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1532of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1533transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 1534result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
ef5d23eb
DD
1535of zero specifies no limit.
1536
b9f592fb 1537dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
faa82484 1538another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
32c7f91a 1539section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
6902ed17 1540
326bb56e
WD
1541dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1542no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1543This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
32c7f91a
WD
1544other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1545
1546Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1547media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1548can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1549whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1550partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1551happening).
1552
1553Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1554system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1555into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1556(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
326bb56e 1557
b9f592fb 1558dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
faa82484 1559file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
78be8e0f 1560If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 1561See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 1562
0b941479
WD
1563dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1564is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1565version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1566bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
81c453b1
WD
1567bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1568batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1569file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
0b941479 1570
e40a46de
WD
1571dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1572when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1573control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
faa82484 1574rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
e40a46de 1575
c8d895de
WD
1576dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1577NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1578MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
b9f592fb 1579by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
c8d895de
WD
1580is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1581applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1582in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1583Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
b9f592fb 1584for checksum seed.
41059f75
AT
1585enddit()
1586
faa82484
WD
1587manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1588
bdf278f7
WD
1589The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1590
1591startdit()
bdf278f7 1592dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
62f27e3c
WD
1593daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1594the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
bdf278f7
WD
1595
1596If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1597run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1598become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1599(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1600requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1601details.
1602
3ae5367f
WD
1603dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1604run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1605allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1606makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1607See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 1608
1f69bec4
WD
1609dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1610transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
faa82484 1611The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1f69bec4
WD
1612requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1613client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1614
bdf278f7 1615dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
faa82484 1616the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
bdf278f7 1617The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
d38772e0 1618a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
bdf278f7
WD
1619the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1620
1621dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1622rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1623option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1624be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1625bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1626bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1627debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1628sshd.
1629
c259892c
WD
1630dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1631daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1632global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 1633
04f48837
WD
1634dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
1635rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
1636
24b0922b
WD
1637dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1638daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1639daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1640used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1641
bdf278f7
WD
1642dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1643when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1644listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1645versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1646an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
faa82484 1647try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
bdf278f7 1648
faa82484 1649dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
bdf278f7 1650page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
bdf278f7
WD
1651enddit()
1652
16e5de84 1653manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
43bd68e5 1654
16e5de84
WD
1655The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1656(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1657specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1658include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
43bd68e5 1659
16e5de84
WD
1660As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1661name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1662turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1663pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1664filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
43bd68e5
AT
1665filename is not skipped.
1666
16e5de84
WD
1667Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1668command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1669
faa82484 1670quote(
d91de046
WD
1671tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1672tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
16e5de84
WD
1673)
1674
d91de046
WD
1675You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1676below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1677MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1678must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1679Here are the available rule prefixes:
16e5de84 1680
faa82484 1681quote(
d91de046
WD
1682bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1683bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1684bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1685bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
0dfffb88
WD
1686bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1687bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1688bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1689bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
d91de046 1690bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
16e5de84
WD
1691)
1692
d91de046
WD
1693When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1694comment lines that start with a "#".
1695
faa82484 1696Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
16e5de84 1697full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
d91de046
WD
1698specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1699list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1700If a pattern
16e5de84
WD
1701does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1702rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
faa82484 1703an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
d91de046
WD
1704the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1705start of the rule.
16e5de84 1706
faa82484 1707Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
16e5de84 1708rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
faa82484
WD
1709the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1710the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
16e5de84 1711
16e5de84
WD
1712manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1713
0dfffb88
WD
1714You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1715"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
bb5f4e72
WD
1716The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1717the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1718can take several forms:
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1719
1720itemize(
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1721 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1722 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1723 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1724 regular expressions.
1725 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1726 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1727 per-directory rule).
1728 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1729 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1730 the
1731 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1732 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1733 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1734 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1735 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1736 of the transfer.
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1737 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1738 directory, not a file, link, or device.
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1739
1740 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
1741 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
1742 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
1743 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
1744 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
1745 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
1746 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
1747 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
1748 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
1749 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
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1750 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1751 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1752 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1753 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
ae283632 1754 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
16e5de84 1755 down.)
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1756 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
1757 "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
1758 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
1759 version 2.6.7.)
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1760)
1761
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1762Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1763bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
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1764include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1765full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1766"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1767The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1768when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1769parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1770because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1771hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1772For instance, this won't work:
1773
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1774quote(
1775tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1776tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1777tt(- *)nl()
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1778)
1779
1780This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1781rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1782directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
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1783to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1784"- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
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1785the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1786works fine:
1787
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1788quote(
1789tt(+ /some/)nl()
1790tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1791tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1792tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1793tt(- *)nl()
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1794)
1795
1796Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1797
1798itemize(
1799 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1800 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1801 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1802 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1803 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1804 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1805 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
faa82484 1806 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
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1807 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1808 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1809 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1810 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1811)
1812
1813manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1814
1815You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
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1816merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1817section above).
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1818
1819There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1820per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1821its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1822rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1823it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1824into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1825must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1826being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1827also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1828affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1829below).
1830
1831Some examples:
1832
faa82484 1833quote(
d91de046 1834tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
faa82484 1835tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
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1836tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1837tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
faa82484 1838tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
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1839)
1840
d91de046 1841The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
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1842
1843itemize(
62bf783f 1844 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
d91de046 1845 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
62bf783f 1846 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
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1847 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1848 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1849 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1850 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1851 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1852 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
a5a26484 1853 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
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1854 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1855 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
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1856 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1857 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
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1858 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1859 also disabled).
1860 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1861 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
a5a26484 1862 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
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1863 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1864 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
5a727522 1865 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
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1866)
1867
44d60d5f 1868The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
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1869
1870itemize(
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1871 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
1872 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
a5a26484 1873 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
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1874 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
1875 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
1876 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
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1877 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1878 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1879 non-directories.
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1880 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1881 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1882 follow.
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1883 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1884 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1885 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1886 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1887 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
5a727522 1888 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
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1889 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1890 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1891 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1892 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1893 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1894)
dc1488ae 1895
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1896Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1897where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1898subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1899from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
d91de046 1900inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
16e5de84 1901the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
d91de046 1902dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
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1903rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1904file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1905
d91de046 1906Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
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1907anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1908merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
d91de046 1909would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
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1910file was found.
1911
faa82484 1912Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
16e5de84 1913
faa82484 1914quote(
d91de046 1915tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
faa82484 1916tt(- *.gz)nl()
d91de046 1917tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
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1918tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1919tt(- *.o)nl()
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1920)
1921
1922This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1923start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1924filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1925follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1926of the transfer).
1927
1928If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1929directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1930dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
faa82484 1931per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
16e5de84 1932
faa82484 1933quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
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1934
1935That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1936directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1937transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1938the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1939rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1940
1941Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1942
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WD
1943quote(
1944tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1945tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1946tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
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1947)
1948
1949The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1950"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1951and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1952and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1953a part of the transfer.
1954
1955If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
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1956you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1957file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
faa82484 1958use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
d91de046 1959per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
16e5de84 1960":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
d91de046 1961add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
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1962rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1963example:
1964
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1965quote(
1966tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1967tt(+ foo.o)nl()
1968tt(:C)nl()
1969tt(- *.old)nl()
1970tt(EOT)nl()
1971tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
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1972)
1973
1974Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1975the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1976at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
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WD
1977that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1978affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1979the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1980omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1981your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
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1982
1983manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1984
1985You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1986rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1987list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1988parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1989inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1990out the parent's rules).
1991
1992manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1993
1994As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1995"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1996anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1997a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1998transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1999directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
a4b6f305
WD
2000
2001Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
faa82484 2002trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
a4b6f305
WD
2003option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2004changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
16e5de84 2005host). The following examples demonstrate this.
a4b6f305 2006
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WD
2007Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2008path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2009Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305 2010
faa82484
WD
2011quote(
2012 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2013 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2014 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2015 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2016 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2017)
2018
2019quote(
2020 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2021 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2022 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2023 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2024 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2025)
2026
2027quote(
2028 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2029 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2030 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2031 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2032 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2033)
2034
2035quote(
2036 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2037 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2038 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2039 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2040 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
a4b6f305
WD
2041)
2042
16e5de84 2043The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
faa82484
WD
2044look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2045(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 2046
16e5de84 2047manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
43bd68e5 2048
16e5de84
WD
2049Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2050sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2051without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2052this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
27b9a19b 2053
faa82484
WD
2054quote(
2055tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2056tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
43bd68e5
AT
2057)
2058
16e5de84
WD
2059However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2060files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2061receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
faa82484 2062the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
16e5de84
WD
2063because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2064rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
43bd68e5 2065
faa82484 2066quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
20af605e 2067
16e5de84
WD
2068However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2069either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2070line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2071the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2072remote .rules files exclude themselves):
20af605e 2073
faa82484
WD
2074verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2075 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
20af605e 2076
16e5de84
WD
2077In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2078transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2079merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2080per-directory merge rule.
43bd68e5 2081
16e5de84
WD
2082In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2083files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2084to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2085specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2086deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2087should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2088
faa82484
WD
2089verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2090 host:src/dir /dest
2091 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
43bd68e5 2092
6902ed17
MP
2093manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2094
088aac85
DD
2095Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2096identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2097number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2098source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2099hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2100write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2101of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
2102client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2103this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2104
2105To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2106with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2107file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2108using the information stored in the batch file.
2109
2110For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2111option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 2112".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb
WD
2113a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2114batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
2115passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2116instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2117path differs from the original destination tree path.
2118
2119Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2120status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 2121updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
2122be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2123at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 2124
4602eafa 2125Examples:
088aac85 2126
faa82484
WD
2127quote(
2128tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2129tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2130tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
4602eafa
WD
2131)
2132
faa82484
WD
2133quote(
2134tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2135tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
4602eafa
WD
2136)
2137
98f51bfb
WD
2138In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2139and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2140"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2141into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2142reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2143
2144itemize(
98f51bfb
WD
2145 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2146 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2147 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
98f51bfb
WD
2148 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2149 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
98f51bfb
WD
2150 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2151 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2152 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
faa82484 2153 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
98f51bfb 2154 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
faa82484 2155 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
98f51bfb 2156)
088aac85
DD
2157
2158Caveats:
2159
98f51bfb 2160The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
2161to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2162batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
0b941479 2163is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
7432ccf4
WD
2164appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2165and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2166error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
59d73bf3 2167if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
faa82484 2168always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
59d73bf3
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2169option (when reading the batch).
2170If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
7432ccf4 2171partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
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2172be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2173destination tree.
2174
b9f592fb 2175The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
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2176one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2177protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
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2178to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2179creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2180(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2181older than that with newer versions will not work.)
088aac85 2182
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2183When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2184to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2185as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
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2186For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2187bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2188bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2189one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
b9f592fb 2190
faa82484 2191The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
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2192options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2193shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
faa82484 2194list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
98f51bfb 2195user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
faa82484 2196to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
98f51bfb 2197
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2198The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2199version uses a new implementation.
6902ed17 2200
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2201manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2202
f28bd833 2203Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
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2204link in the source directory.
2205
2206By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2207"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2208
2209If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2210target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2211bf(--links).
2212
2213If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2214copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2215
2216rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2217example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2218ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2219bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2220bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2221they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
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2222unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2223bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
eb06fa95 2224
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2225Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2226(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
2227components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2228
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2229Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2230in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2231use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2232
2233dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2234symlinks for any other options to affect).
2235
2236dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2237and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2238
2239dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2240skip all safe symlinks.
2241
2242dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2243ones.
2244
2245dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2246
faa82484 2247manpagediagnostics()
d310a212 2248
14d43f1f 2249rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212 2250cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
faa82484 2251version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
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2252
2253This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2254facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 2255for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
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2256remote shell like this:
2257
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2258quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2259
d310a212 2260then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 2261should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
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2262rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2263data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 2264it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
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2265scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2266for non-interactive logins.
2267
16e5de84 2268If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
faa82484 2269try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
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2270show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2271
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2272manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2273
2274startdit()
a73de5f3 2275dit(bf(0)) Success
faa82484
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2276dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2277dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
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2278dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2279dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 2280was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 2281them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 2282not by the server.
a73de5f3 2283dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
124f349e 2284dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
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2285dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2286dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2287dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2288dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2289dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2290dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2291dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2292dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
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2293dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2294dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
124f349e 2295dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
faa82484 2296dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
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2297enddit()
2298
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2299manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2300
2301startdit()
de2fd20e 2302dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
faa82484 2303ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
de2fd20e 2304more details.
de2fd20e 2305dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108 2306override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
faa82484 2307options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
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2308dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2309redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2310rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
de2fd20e 2311dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 2312password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
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2313daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2314password to a shell transport such as ssh.
de2fd20e 2315dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
5a727522 2316are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
4b2f6a7c 2317If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
14d43f1f 2318dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e 2319default .cvsignore file.
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2320enddit()
2321
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2322manpagefiles()
2323
30e8c8e1 2324/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
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2325
2326manpageseealso()
2327
2328rsyncd.conf(5)
2329
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2330manpagebugs()
2331
2332times are transferred as unix time_t values
2333
f28bd833 2334When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171 2335unmodified files.
faa82484 2336See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
38843171 2337
b5accaba 2338file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
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2339values
2340
faa82484 2341see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
41059f75 2342
38843171
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2343Please report bugs! See the website at
2344url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75 2345
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2346manpagesection(VERSION)
2347
9ec8bd87 2348This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
15997547 2349
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2350manpagesection(CREDITS)
2351
2352rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2353COPYING for details.
2354
41059f75 2355A WEB site is available at
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2356url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2357includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2358manual page.
9e3c856a
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2359
2360The primary ftp site for rsync is
2361url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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2362
2363We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2364
9e3c856a
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2365This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2366Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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2367
2368manpagesection(THANKS)
2369
2370Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
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2371and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2372I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2373
ce5f2732 2374Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
98f51bfb 2375Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
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2376
2377manpageauthor()
2378
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2379rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2380Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 2381
a5d74a18 2382Mailing lists for support and development are available at
faa82484 2383url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)