removed Daves include-only optimisation. One of the bug reports turned
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
460f6b99 2manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18manpagedescription()
19
20rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23exists.
24
25The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28report that accompanies this package.
29
30Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31
32itemize(
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
40 mirroring)
41)
42
43manpagesection(GENERAL)
44
039faa86 45There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
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46
47itemize(
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
50
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 single : separator.
55
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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58 contains a : separator.
59
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
946347b8 62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
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63
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
66 separator.
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67
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
70 local destination.
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71)
72
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73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
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75
76manpagesection(SETUP)
77
78See the file README for installation instructions.
79
80Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82destination are local.
83
14d43f1f 84You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
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85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
87One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
88security.
89
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90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
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93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
99
100quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
101
102this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
109
14d43f1f 110this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
14d43f1f 114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
118
14d43f1f 119a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
41059f75 120all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
14d43f1f 121/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
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122contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124using the --delete option.
125
126You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128an improved copy command.
129
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130quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
131
132this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
134
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135
136manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
137
138It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140running on TCP port 873.
141
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142You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
146
14d43f1f 147Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
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148that:
149
150itemize(
151 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
152 separate the hostname from the path.
153
154 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 155 connect.
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156
157 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
158 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 159
f7632fc6 160 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 161 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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162)
163
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164Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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167the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 169
3bc67f0c 170WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 171users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 172
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173manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
174
175An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
177information.
178
179manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
180
181Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
182
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183To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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185
186quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
187
188each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
189"arvidsjaur".
190
191To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
192targets:
193
194quote( get:nl()
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
196
197 put:nl()
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
199
200 sync: get put)
201
202this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
205
206I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
207command
208
209quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
210
211this is launched from cron every few hours.
212
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213manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
214
14d43f1f 215Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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216to the detailed description below for a complete description.
217
218verb(
219 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 220 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
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221 -c, --checksum always checksum
222 -a, --archive archive mode
223 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
224 -R, --relative use relative path names
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225 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
226 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
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227 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
228 -l, --links preserve soft links
229 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
b5313607 230 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
d853783f 231 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
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232 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
233 -p, --perms preserve permissions
234 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
235 -g, --group preserve group
236 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
237 -t, --times preserve times
238 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
239 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
240 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
241 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 242 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
c95da96a 243 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
d9fcc198 244 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
c95da96a 245 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
1347d512 246 --existing only update files that already exist
c95da96a 247 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
b33b791e 248 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
1347d512 249 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
0b73ca12 250 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
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251 --partial keep partially transferred files
252 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
253 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
254 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
255 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
f83f0548 256 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
c95da96a 257 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
375a4556 258 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
d9fcc198 259 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
c95da96a 260 -z, --compress compress file data
2acf81eb 261 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 262 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 263 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 264 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
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265 --version print version number
266 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
5c9730a4 267 --address bind to the specified address
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268 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
269 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
270 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 271 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 272 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 273 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
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274 -h, --help show this help screen
275)
276
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277manpageoptions()
278
279rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
280options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 281below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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282The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
283can be used instead.
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284
285startdit()
286dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
287available in rsync
288
289dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
290
291dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 292are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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293single -v will give you information about what files are being
294transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
295information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
296information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 297you are debugging rsync.
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299dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
300are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
301from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
302cron.
303
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304dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
305already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
306off this behavior.
307
a7d068ab 308dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
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309already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
310--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
311regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
312after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
313exactly.
314
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315dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
316a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
317explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
318which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
319receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
320
460f6b99 321dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptg. It is a quick way
14d43f1f 322of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
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324Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o (preserve
325uid) and -D (preserve devices) options are also implied.
5243c216 326
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327dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
328recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
329directories at all.
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330
331dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
332names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
333just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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334you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
335example, if you used the command
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336
337verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
338
339then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
340machine. If instead you used
341
342verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
343
344then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
345machine. The full path name is preserved.
346
347dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
348renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
349control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
350
b5679335 351dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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352backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
353
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354dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
355destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
356file.
357
358dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
359remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
14d43f1f 360option, all symbolic links are skipped.
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361
362dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
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363like ordinary files.
364
365dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
366point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
367also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
368path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 369
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370dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
371which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
372also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 373give unexpected results.
d310a212 374
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375dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
376the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
377option hard links are treated like regular files.
378
379Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
380are in the list of files being sent.
381
382This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
383
384dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
385is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
386useful when using rsync with a local machine.
387
388dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
389permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
390
391dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
392of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
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393to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
394the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
14d43f1f 395access to the usernames.
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396
397dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
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398of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
399not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
400will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
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401
402dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
403block device information to the remote system to recreate these
404devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
405
406dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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407with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
408option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
409modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
410cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
411their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
412changed.
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413
414dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
415instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
416
417dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
418up less space on the destination.
419
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420NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
421filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
422correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
423
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424dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
425boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
426contents of only one filesystem.
427
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428dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
429only update files that already exist on the destination.
430
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431dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
432files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
433to prevent disasters.
434
41059f75 435dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
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436side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
437transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 438
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439This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
440
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441This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
442to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
443deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 444
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445If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
446files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
447prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
448sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
449destination.
41059f75 450
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451dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
452receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
453delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
454
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455dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
456transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
457the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
458then use the --delete-after switch.
459
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460dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
461they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
462cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
15800c7e 463contains a directory of the same name.
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465Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
466so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
41059f75 467
b5679335 468dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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469the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
470
b5679335 471dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 472remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
14d43f1f 473remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
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474like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
475
476You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
477environment variable.
478
b5679335 479dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
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480rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
481that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
482the binary is in.
41059f75 483
b5679335 484dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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485certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
486useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
487
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488You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
489to build up the list of files to exclude.
490
14d43f1f 491See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
43bd68e5 492this option.
41059f75 493
b5679335 494dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
41059f75 495option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
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496the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
497are ignored.
41059f75 498
b5679335 499dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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500specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
501build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
502
503See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
504this option.
505
b5679335 506dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
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507from a file.
508
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509dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
510broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
511systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
512a file should be ignored.
513
514The exclude list is initialized to:
515
516quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
517.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
518*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
519
520then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
521files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
522
523Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
524that directory are added to the list.
525
b5679335 526dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
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527rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
528find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
529this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
de2fd20e 530making things faster.
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531
532You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
533--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
534
535Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
536with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
537microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
538before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
539
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540Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
541checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
542if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
543option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
544
b5679335 545dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 546scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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547transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
548the temporary files in the receiving directory.
549
b5679335 550dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
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551additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
552transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
553leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
14d43f1f 554files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
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555around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
556the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
557option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
558files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
559to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
560destination directory.
375a4556 561
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562dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
563the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
564option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
565same method that gzip uses.
566
567Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
568that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
569compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
570information sent for matching data blocks.
571
572dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
573and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
574at both ends.
575
576By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
577what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 5780 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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579option is not specified.
580
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581If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
582does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
583source system is used instead.
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585dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
586timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
587then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
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588
589dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
590daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
591is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
5315b793 592terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
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593config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
594respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
595details.
596
5c9730a4 597dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
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598when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
599rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
600address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
601in conjunction with the --config option.
5c9730a4 602
b5679335 603dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
5315b793 604the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
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605specified.
606
b5679335 607dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 608rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 609
3a64ad1f 610dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 611rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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612specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
613rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 614
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615dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
616on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 617algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 618
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619dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
620transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
621it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
622--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
623make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
624
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625dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
626showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
627something to watch.
628
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629This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
630the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
631
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632dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
633found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
634option to make it easier.
635
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636dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
637in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
638is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
639transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
640must not be world readable.
641
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642enddit()
643
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644manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
645
646The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 647selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 648
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649rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
650the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
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651name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
652pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
653skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
654skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
655filename is not skipped.
656
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657Note that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
658each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
659--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
660
14d43f1f 661The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
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662
663itemize(
664 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
665 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
666 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
667 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
668 called foo anywhere in the tree.
669
670 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
671 directory, not a file, link or device.
672
673 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
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674 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
675 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
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676
677 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
678 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
679 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
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680 only against the final component of the filename. Furthermore, if
681 the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
682 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
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683
684 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 685 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
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686 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
687
688 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 689 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5 690 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
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691
692 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
693 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
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694)
695
696The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
697single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
698
699Here are some examples:
700
701itemize(
702 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
703 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
704 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
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705 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
706 levels below a base directory called foo
707 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
708 or more levels below a base directory called foo
43bd68e5 709 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
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710 directories and C source files
711 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
712 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
713 it would be excluded by the "*")
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714)
715
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716manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
717
14d43f1f 718rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
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719cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
720version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
721
722This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
723facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 724for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
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725remote shell like this:
726
727verb(
728 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
729)
730
731then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 732should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
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733rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
734data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 735it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
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736scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
737for non-interactive logins.
738
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739manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
740
741startdit()
742
743dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
744ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
745more details.
746
747dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
748override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
749be used instead of the -e option.
750
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751dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
752redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
753rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
754
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755dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
756password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
757daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
758password to a shell transport such as ssh.
759
760dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
761are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
762
14d43f1f 763dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
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764default .cvsignore file.
765
766enddit()
767
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768manpagefiles()
769
770/etc/rsyncd.conf
771
772manpageseealso()
773
774rsyncd.conf(5)
775
776manpagediagnostics()
777
778manpagebugs()
779
780times are transferred as unix time_t values
781
782file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
783values
784
a87b3b2a 785see also the comments on the --delete option
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786
787Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
9e3c856a 788url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
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789
790manpagesection(VERSION)
791This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
792
793manpagesection(CREDITS)
794
795rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
796COPYING for details.
797
41059f75 798A WEB site is available at
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799url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
800
801The primary ftp site for rsync is
802url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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803
804We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
805
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806This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
807Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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808
809manpagesection(THANKS)
810
811Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
812and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
813probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
814
815
816manpageauthor()
817
818rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
9e3c856a 819contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
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820Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
821