Move the initialization of push_dir, which calls getcwd, to early in main.
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
CommitLineData
9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
94a7fce2 2manpage(rsync)(1)(7 Jan 1999)()()
41059f75
AT
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [options] [user@]host:path path
7
8rsync [options] path [user@]host:path
9
10rsync [options] path path
11
37863201 12rsync [options] [user@]host::module[/path] path
41059f75 13
37863201 14rsync [options] path [user@]host::module[/path]
41059f75 15
33e817e3 16rsync [options] rsync://[user@]host[:port]/module/path path
039faa86 17
41059f75
AT
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:
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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.
41059f75
AT
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.
039faa86
AT
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.
41059f75
AT
71)
72
14d43f1f
DD
73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
8e987130
AT
90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
14d43f1f
DD
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
41059f75
AT
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
14d43f1f 142Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
41059f75
AT
143that:
144
145itemize(
146 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
147 separate the hostname from the path.
148
149 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 150 connect.
41059f75
AT
151
152 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
153 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 154
f7632fc6 155 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 156 specified files on the remote server is provided.
41059f75
AT
157)
158
4c3d16be
AT
159Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
160you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
161password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
65575e96
AT
162the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
163may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 164
3bc67f0c 165WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 166users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 167
41059f75
AT
168manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
169
170An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
171called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
172information.
173
174manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
175
176Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
177
14d43f1f
DD
178To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
179files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
41059f75
AT
180
181quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
182
183each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
184"arvidsjaur".
185
186To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
187targets:
188
189quote( get:nl()
190 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
191
192 put:nl()
193 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
194
195 sync: get put)
196
197this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
198link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
199lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
200
201I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
202command
203
204quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
205
206this is launched from cron every few hours.
207
c95da96a
AT
208manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
209
14d43f1f 210Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
c95da96a
AT
211to the detailed description below for a complete description.
212
213verb(
d853783f
AT
214Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [USER@]HOST:DEST
215 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
216 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC DEST
14d43f1f 217 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
d853783f 218 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [USER@]HOST::DEST
14d43f1f 219 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
d853783f
AT
220
221Options
c95da96a
AT
222 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
223 -c, --checksum always checksum
224 -a, --archive archive mode
225 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
226 -R, --relative use relative path names
227 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
228 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
229 -l, --links preserve soft links
230 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
d853783f 231 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
c95da96a
AT
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
242 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size
243 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
244 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
245 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
246 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
247 --partial keep partially transferred files
248 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
249 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
250 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
251 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
252 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
375a4556 253 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
c95da96a 254 -z, --compress compress file data
2acf81eb
DD
255 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
256 --exclude-from=FILE exclude files listed in FILE
257 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
258 --include-from=FILE don't exclude files listed in FILE
c95da96a
AT
259 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
260 --version print version number
261 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
262 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
263 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
264 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 265 --progress show progress during transfer
65575e96 266 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
b6062654 267 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
c95da96a
AT
268 -h, --help show this help screen
269)
270
41059f75
AT
271manpageoptions()
272
273rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
274options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 275below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
41059f75
AT
276
277startdit()
278dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
279available in rsync
280
281dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
282
283dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 284are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
41059f75
AT
285single -v will give you information about what files are being
286transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
287information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
288information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 289you are debugging rsync.
41059f75
AT
290
291dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
292already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
293off this behavior.
294
295dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
296a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
297explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
298which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
299receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
300
5243c216 301dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
14d43f1f 302of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
41059f75 303
5243c216
AT
304Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
305uid) is also implied.
306
14d43f1f 307dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively.
41059f75
AT
308
309dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
310names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
311just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
14d43f1f
DD
312you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
313example, if you used the command
41059f75
AT
314
315verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
316
317then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
318machine. If instead you used
319
320verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
321
322then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
323machine. The full path name is preserved.
324
325dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
326renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
327control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
328
329dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
330destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
331file.
332
333dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
334remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
14d43f1f 335option, all symbolic links are skipped.
41059f75
AT
336
337dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
338like ordinary files.
339
d310a212
AT
340dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
341which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
342also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 343give unexpected results.
d310a212 344
41059f75
AT
345dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
346the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
347option hard links are treated like regular files.
348
349Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
350are in the list of files being sent.
351
352This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
353
354dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
355is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
356useful when using rsync with a local machine.
357
14d43f1f 358dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
c95da96a
AT
359transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
360it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
361--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
362make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
363
41059f75
AT
364dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
365permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
366
367dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
368of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
8bb5aa8f
DD
369to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
370the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
14d43f1f 371access to the usernames.
41059f75
AT
372
373dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
8bb5aa8f
DD
374of the file to be the same as the local group. Note that if the source
375system is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because
376the source system cannot get access to the group names.
41059f75
AT
377
378dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
379block device information to the remote system to recreate these
380devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
381
382dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
baf3e504
DD
383with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
384option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
385modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
386cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
387their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
388changed.
41059f75
AT
389
390dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
391instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
392
393dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
394up less space on the destination.
395
d310a212
AT
396NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
397filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
398correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
399
41059f75
AT
400dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
401boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
402contents of only one filesystem.
403
404dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
405side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
406used incorrectly!
407
408It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
409see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
410listed.
411
412rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
413dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
414that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
415these directories are deleted.
416
417Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
418of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
419behavior of --delete.
420
3e578a19
AT
421If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
422files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
423prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
424sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
425destination.
41059f75
AT
426
427dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
428they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
429cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
430contains a directory of the same name. Normally rsync will refuse to
431do a recursive directory deletion in such cases, by using --force
432the recursive deletion will be done.
433
434Use this option with caution!
435
436dit(bf(-B , --block_size BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
437the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
438
439dit(bf(-e, --rsh COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
440remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
14d43f1f 441remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
41059f75
AT
442like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
443
444You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
445environment variable.
446
447dit(bf(--rsync-path PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
14d43f1f 448rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path.
41059f75 449
43bd68e5 450dit(bf(--exclude pattern)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
41059f75
AT
451certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
452useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
453
41059f75
AT
454You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
455to build up the list of files to exclude.
456
14d43f1f 457See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
43bd68e5 458this option.
41059f75
AT
459
460dit(bf(--exclude-from FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
461option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
462the exclude list.
463
43bd68e5
AT
464dit(bf(--include pattern)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
465specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
466build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
467
468See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
469this option.
470
471dit(bf(--include-from FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
472from a file.
473
41059f75
AT
474dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
475broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
476systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
477a file should be ignored.
478
479The exclude list is initialized to:
480
481quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
482.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
483*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
484
485then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
486files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
487
488Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
489that directory are added to the list.
490
491dit(bf(--suffix SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
492backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
493
494dit(bf(--csum-length LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
495rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
496find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
497this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
de2fd20e 498making things faster.
41059f75
AT
499
500You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
501--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
502
503Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
504with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
505microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
506before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
507
de2fd20e
AT
508Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
509checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
510if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
511option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
512
375a4556
DD
513dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
514scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
41059f75
AT
515transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
516the temporary files in the receiving directory.
517
375a4556
DD
518dit(bf(--compare-dest DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
519additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
520transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
521leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
14d43f1f 522files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
baf3e504
DD
523around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
524the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
525option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
526files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
527to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
528destination directory.
375a4556 529
41059f75
AT
530dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
531the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
532option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
533same method that gzip uses.
534
535Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
536that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
537compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
538information sent for matching data blocks.
539
540dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
541and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
542at both ends.
543
544By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
545what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 5460 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
41059f75
AT
547option is not specified.
548
8bb5aa8f
DD
549If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
550does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
551source system is used instead.
41059f75 552
de2fd20e
AT
553dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
554timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
555then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75
AT
556
557dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
558daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
559is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
5315b793 560terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
41059f75
AT
561config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
562respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
563details.
564
565dit(bf(--config FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
5315b793 566the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
41059f75
AT
567specified.
568
569dit(bf(--port PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 570rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 571
3a64ad1f 572dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 573rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
3a64ad1f
DD
574specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
575rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 576
b72f24c7
AT
577dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
578on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
56cdbccb
AT
579algorithm is for your data. This option only works in conjunction with
580the -v (verbose) option.
b72f24c7 581
eb86d661
AT
582dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
583showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
584something to watch.
585
65575e96
AT
586dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
587in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
588is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
589transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
590must not be world readable.
591
41059f75
AT
592enddit()
593
43bd68e5
AT
594manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
595
596The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 597selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 598
14d43f1f
DD
599rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
600the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
43bd68e5
AT
601name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
602pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
603skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
604skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
605filename is not skipped.
606
14d43f1f 607The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
43bd68e5
AT
608
609itemize(
610 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
611 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
612 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
613 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
614 called foo anywhere in the tree.
615
616 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
617 directory, not a file, link or device.
618
619 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
620 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
621 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
622 match is used.
623
624 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
625 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
626 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
627 only against the final component of the filename.
628
629 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 630 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5
AT
631 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
632
633 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 634 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5 635 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
de2fd20e
AT
636
637 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
638 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
43bd68e5
AT
639)
640
641The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
642single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
643
644Here are some examples:
645
646itemize(
647 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
648 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
649 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
650 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
5d5811f7
DD
651 directories and C source files
652 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
653 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
654 it would be excluded by the "*")
43bd68e5
AT
655)
656
d310a212
AT
657manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
658
14d43f1f 659rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212
AT
660cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
661version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
662
663This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
664facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 665for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
666remote shell like this:
667
668verb(
669 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
670)
671
672then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 673should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
674rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
675data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 676it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
677scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
678for non-interactive logins.
679
de2fd20e
AT
680manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
681
682startdit()
683
684dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
685ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
686more details.
687
688dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
689override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
690be used instead of the -e option.
691
692dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
693password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
694daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
695password to a shell transport such as ssh.
696
697dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
698are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
699
14d43f1f 700dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e
AT
701default .cvsignore file.
702
703enddit()
704
41059f75
AT
705manpagefiles()
706
707/etc/rsyncd.conf
708
709manpageseealso()
710
711rsyncd.conf(5)
712
713manpagediagnostics()
714
715manpagebugs()
716
717times are transferred as unix time_t values
718
719file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
720values
721
a87b3b2a 722see also the comments on the --delete option
41059f75
AT
723
724Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
9e3c856a 725url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
41059f75
AT
726
727manpagesection(VERSION)
728This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
729
730manpagesection(CREDITS)
731
732rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
733COPYING for details.
734
41059f75 735A WEB site is available at
9e3c856a
AT
736url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
737
738The primary ftp site for rsync is
739url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
740
741We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
742
9e3c856a
AT
743This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
744Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
745
746manpagesection(THANKS)
747
748Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
749and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
750probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
751
752
753manpageauthor()
754
755rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
9e3c856a 756contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
41059f75
AT
757Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
758