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9e3c856a | 1 | mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org) |
460f6b99 | 2 | manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()() |
41059f75 AT |
3 | manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp) |
4 | manpagesynopsis() | |
5 | ||
9ef53907 | 6 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST |
41059f75 | 7 | |
9ef53907 | 8 | rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST |
41059f75 | 9 | |
9ef53907 | 10 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST |
41059f75 | 11 | |
9ef53907 | 12 | rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST] |
41059f75 | 13 | |
9ef53907 | 14 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST |
41059f75 | 15 | |
9ef53907 | 16 | rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST] |
039faa86 | 17 | |
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18 | manpagedescription() |
19 | ||
20 | rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does, | |
21 | but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to | |
22 | greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already | |
23 | exists. | |
24 | ||
25 | The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the | |
26 | differences between two sets of files across the network link, using | |
27 | an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical | |
28 | report that accompanies this package. | |
29 | ||
30 | Some of the additional features of rsync are: | |
31 | ||
32 | itemize( | |
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 | ||
43 | manpagesection(GENERAL) | |
44 | ||
039faa86 | 45 | There are six different ways of using rsync. They are: |
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46 | |
47 | itemize( | |
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. | |
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. | |
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71 | ) |
72 | ||
14d43f1f DD |
73 | Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source |
74 | and destination paths must be local. | |
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75 | |
76 | manpagesection(SETUP) | |
77 | ||
78 | See the file README for installation instructions. | |
79 | ||
80 | Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh | |
81 | to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and | |
82 | destination are local. | |
83 | ||
14d43f1f | 84 | You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e |
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85 | command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable. |
86 | ||
87 | One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of | |
88 | security. | |
89 | ||
8e987130 AT |
90 | Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination |
91 | machines. | |
92 | ||
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93 | manpagesection(USAGE) |
94 | ||
95 | You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source | |
96 | and a destination, one of which may be remote. | |
97 | ||
98 | Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples: | |
99 | ||
100 | quote(rsync *.c foo:src/) | |
101 | ||
102 | this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the | |
103 | current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of | |
104 | the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync | |
105 | remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the | |
106 | differences. See the tech report for details. | |
107 | ||
108 | quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp) | |
109 | ||
14d43f1f | 110 | this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the |
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111 | machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The |
112 | files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic | |
113 | links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved | |
14d43f1f | 114 | in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the |
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115 | size of data portions of the transfer. |
116 | ||
117 | quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp) | |
118 | ||
14d43f1f | 119 | a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer |
41059f75 | 120 | all 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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122 | contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy |
123 | the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when | |
124 | using the --delete option. | |
125 | ||
126 | You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and | |
127 | destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like | |
128 | an improved copy command. | |
129 | ||
14d43f1f DD |
130 | quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::) |
131 | ||
132 | this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host | |
133 | somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.) | |
134 | ||
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135 | |
136 | manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER) | |
137 | ||
138 | It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the | |
139 | transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server | |
140 | running on TCP port 873. | |
141 | ||
4c3b4b25 AT |
142 | You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the |
143 | environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to | |
144 | your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port | |
145 | 873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset. | |
146 | ||
14d43f1f | 147 | Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except |
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148 | that: |
149 | ||
150 | itemize( | |
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 | ||
4c3d16be AT |
164 | Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then |
165 | you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the | |
166 | password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to | |
65575e96 AT |
167 | the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This |
168 | may be useful when scripting rsync. | |
4c3d16be | 169 | |
3bc67f0c | 170 | WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all |
65575e96 | 171 | users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended. |
3bc67f0c | 172 | |
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173 | manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER) |
174 | ||
175 | An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is | |
176 | called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more | |
177 | information. | |
178 | ||
179 | manpagesection(EXAMPLES) | |
180 | ||
181 | Here are some examples of how I use rsync. | |
182 | ||
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183 | To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word |
184 | files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs | |
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185 | |
186 | quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup) | |
187 | ||
188 | each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine | |
189 | "arvidsjaur". | |
190 | ||
191 | To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile | |
192 | targets: | |
193 | ||
194 | quote( get:nl() | |
195 | rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ . | |
196 | ||
197 | put:nl() | |
198 | rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/ | |
199 | ||
200 | sync: get put) | |
201 | ||
202 | this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the | |
203 | link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a | |
204 | lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient. | |
205 | ||
206 | I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the | |
207 | command | |
208 | ||
209 | quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba") | |
210 | ||
211 | this is launched from cron every few hours. | |
212 | ||
c95da96a AT |
213 | manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY) |
214 | ||
14d43f1f | 215 | Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer |
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216 | to the detailed description below for a complete description. |
217 | ||
218 | verb( | |
219 | -v, --verbose increase verbosity | |
b86f0cef | 220 | -q, --quiet decrease verbosity |
c95da96a AT |
221 | -c, --checksum always checksum |
222 | -a, --archive archive mode | |
223 | -r, --recursive recurse into directories | |
224 | -R, --relative use relative path names | |
9ef53907 | 225 | -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix) |
5b56cc19 | 226 | --backup-dir make backups into this directory |
9ef53907 | 227 | --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix |
c95da96a AT |
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 | |
b5313607 | 231 | --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree |
d853783f | 232 | --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree |
c95da96a AT |
233 | -H, --hard-links preserve hard links |
234 | -p, --perms preserve permissions | |
235 | -o, --owner preserve owner (root only) | |
236 | -g, --group preserve group | |
237 | -D, --devices preserve devices (root only) | |
238 | -t, --times preserve times | |
239 | -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently | |
240 | -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred | |
241 | -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks | |
242 | -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries | |
9ef53907 | 243 | -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700) |
c95da96a | 244 | -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement |
d9fcc198 | 245 | --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine |
c95da96a | 246 | -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does |
1347d512 | 247 | --existing only update files that already exist |
c95da96a | 248 | --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side |
b33b791e | 249 | --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side |
1347d512 | 250 | --delete-after delete after transferring, not before |
ef55c686 | 251 | --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors |
0b73ca12 | 252 | --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files |
c95da96a AT |
253 | --partial keep partially transferred files |
254 | --force force deletion of directories even if not empty | |
255 | --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name | |
256 | --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds | |
257 | -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time | |
f83f0548 | 258 | --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred |
5b56cc19 | 259 | --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0) |
c95da96a | 260 | -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR |
375a4556 | 261 | --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR |
d9fcc198 | 262 | -P equivalent to --partial --progress |
c95da96a | 263 | -z, --compress compress file data |
2acf81eb | 264 | --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN |
9ef53907 | 265 | --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE |
2acf81eb | 266 | --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN |
9ef53907 | 267 | --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE |
c95da96a AT |
268 | --version print version number |
269 | --daemon run as a rsync daemon | |
5c9730a4 | 270 | --address bind to the specified address |
c95da96a AT |
271 | --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file |
272 | --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number | |
64c704f0 | 273 | --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell |
c95da96a | 274 | --stats give some file transfer stats |
eb86d661 | 275 | --progress show progress during transfer |
b6062654 | 276 | --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format |
9ef53907 | 277 | --password-file=FILE get password from FILE |
ef5d23eb | 278 | --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second |
c95da96a AT |
279 | -h, --help show this help screen |
280 | ) | |
281 | ||
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282 | manpageoptions() |
283 | ||
284 | rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line | |
285 | options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown | |
14d43f1f | 286 | below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant. |
b5679335 DD |
287 | The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace |
288 | can be used instead. | |
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289 | |
290 | startdit() | |
291 | dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options | |
292 | available in rsync | |
293 | ||
294 | dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit | |
295 | ||
296 | dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you | |
14d43f1f | 297 | are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A |
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298 | single -v will give you information about what files are being |
299 | transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you | |
300 | information on what files are being skipped and slightly more | |
301 | information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if | |
14d43f1f | 302 | you are debugging rsync. |
41059f75 | 303 | |
b86f0cef DD |
304 | dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you |
305 | are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages | |
306 | from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from | |
307 | cron. | |
308 | ||
41059f75 AT |
309 | dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are |
310 | already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns | |
311 | off this behavior. | |
312 | ||
a7d068ab | 313 | dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are |
f83f0548 AT |
314 | already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the |
315 | --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size, | |
316 | regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync | |
317 | after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps | |
318 | exactly. | |
319 | ||
5b56cc19 AT |
320 | dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats |
321 | the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of | |
322 | modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to | |
323 | set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when | |
324 | transferring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with | |
325 | a 1 second resolution this option is useful. | |
326 | ||
41059f75 AT |
327 | dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using |
328 | a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then | |
329 | explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name | |
330 | which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the | |
331 | receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow. | |
332 | ||
e20c5e95 | 333 | dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way |
14d43f1f | 334 | of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything. |
41059f75 | 335 | |
24986abd AT |
336 | dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories |
337 | recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy | |
338 | directories at all. | |
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339 | |
340 | dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path | |
341 | names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than | |
342 | just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when | |
14d43f1f DD |
343 | you want to send several different directories at the same time. For |
344 | example, if you used the command | |
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345 | |
346 | verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/) | |
347 | ||
348 | then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote | |
349 | machine. If instead you used | |
350 | ||
351 | verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/) | |
352 | ||
353 | then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote | |
354 | machine. The full path name is preserved. | |
355 | ||
356 | dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are | |
357 | renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can | |
358 | control the backup suffix using the --suffix option. | |
359 | ||
66203a98 AT |
360 | dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this |
361 | tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is | |
362 | very useful for incremental backups. | |
363 | ||
b5679335 | 364 | dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default |
9ef53907 DD |
365 | backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~. |
366 | ||
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367 | dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the |
368 | destination file already exists and has a date later than the source | |
369 | file. | |
370 | ||
371 | dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the | |
372 | remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this | |
14d43f1f | 373 | option, all symbolic links are skipped. |
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374 | |
375 | dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just | |
b5313607 DD |
376 | like ordinary files. |
377 | ||
378 | dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that | |
379 | point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are | |
380 | also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source | |
381 | path itself when --relative is used. | |
41059f75 | 382 | |
d310a212 AT |
383 | dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links |
384 | which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are | |
385 | also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may | |
14d43f1f | 386 | give unexpected results. |
d310a212 | 387 | |
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388 | dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on |
389 | the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this | |
390 | option hard links are treated like regular files. | |
391 | ||
392 | Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link | |
393 | are in the list of files being sent. | |
394 | ||
395 | This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it. | |
396 | ||
397 | dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm | |
398 | is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be | |
399 | useful when using rsync with a local machine. | |
400 | ||
401 | dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote | |
402 | permissions to be the same as the local permissions. | |
403 | ||
404 | dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner | |
405 | of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available | |
8bb5aa8f DD |
406 | to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot, |
407 | the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get | |
14d43f1f | 408 | access to the usernames. |
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409 | |
410 | dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group | |
460f6b99 DD |
411 | of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is |
412 | not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of | |
413 | will be preserved (by group name, not group id number). | |
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414 | |
415 | dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and | |
416 | block device information to the remote system to recreate these | |
417 | devices. This option is only available to the super-user. | |
418 | ||
419 | dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along | |
baf3e504 DD |
420 | with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this |
421 | option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been | |
422 | modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will | |
423 | cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have | |
424 | their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't | |
425 | changed. | |
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426 | |
427 | dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers, | |
428 | instead it will just report the actions it would have taken. | |
429 | ||
430 | dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take | |
431 | up less space on the destination. | |
432 | ||
d310a212 AT |
433 | NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs" |
434 | filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions | |
435 | correctly and ends up corrupting the files. | |
436 | ||
41059f75 AT |
437 | dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem |
438 | boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the | |
439 | contents of only one filesystem. | |
440 | ||
1347d512 AT |
441 | dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files - |
442 | only update files that already exist on the destination. | |
443 | ||
0b73ca12 AT |
444 | dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM |
445 | files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees | |
446 | to prevent disasters. | |
447 | ||
41059f75 | 448 | dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving |
b33b791e DD |
449 | side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from |
450 | transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded. | |
41059f75 | 451 | |
24986abd AT |
452 | This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected. |
453 | ||
b33b791e DD |
454 | This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea |
455 | to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be | |
456 | deleted to make sure important files aren't listed. | |
41059f75 | 457 | |
3e578a19 AT |
458 | If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any |
459 | files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to | |
460 | prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the | |
461 | sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the | |
462 | destination. | |
41059f75 | 463 | |
b33b791e DD |
464 | dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the |
465 | receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also | |
466 | delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude). | |
467 | ||
57df171b AT |
468 | dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before |
469 | transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on | |
470 | the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring | |
471 | then use the --delete-after switch. | |
472 | ||
41059f75 AT |
473 | dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if |
474 | they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to | |
475 | cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination | |
15800c7e | 476 | contains a directory of the same name. |
41059f75 | 477 | |
15800c7e DD |
478 | Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first |
479 | so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases. | |
41059f75 | 480 | |
b5679335 | 481 | dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in |
41059f75 AT |
482 | the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details. |
483 | ||
b5679335 | 484 | dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative |
41059f75 | 485 | remote shell program to use for communication between the local and |
14d43f1f | 486 | remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may |
41059f75 AT |
487 | like to instead use ssh because of its high security. |
488 | ||
489 | You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH | |
490 | environment variable. | |
491 | ||
b5679335 | 492 | dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of |
d73ee7b7 AT |
493 | rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note |
494 | that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that | |
495 | the binary is in. | |
41059f75 | 496 | |
b5679335 | 497 | dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude |
41059f75 AT |
498 | certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most |
499 | useful in combination with a recursive transfer. | |
500 | ||
41059f75 AT |
501 | You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like |
502 | to build up the list of files to exclude. | |
503 | ||
14d43f1f | 504 | See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of |
43bd68e5 | 505 | this option. |
41059f75 | 506 | |
b5679335 | 507 | dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude |
c48b22c8 AT |
508 | option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file |
509 | FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with | |
510 | ';' or '#' are ignored. | |
41059f75 | 511 | |
b5679335 | 512 | dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the |
43bd68e5 AT |
513 | specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to |
514 | build up quite complex exclude/include rules. | |
515 | ||
516 | See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of | |
517 | this option. | |
518 | ||
b5679335 | 519 | dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns |
43bd68e5 AT |
520 | from a file. |
521 | ||
41059f75 AT |
522 | dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a |
523 | broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between | |
524 | systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if | |
525 | a file should be ignored. | |
526 | ||
527 | The exclude list is initialized to: | |
528 | ||
529 | quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state | |
530 | .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-* | |
531 | *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core) | |
532 | ||
533 | then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any | |
534 | files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited). | |
535 | ||
536 | Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in | |
537 | that directory are added to the list. | |
538 | ||
b5679335 | 539 | dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in |
41059f75 AT |
540 | rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will |
541 | find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and | |
542 | this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link, | |
de2fd20e | 543 | making things faster. |
41059f75 AT |
544 | |
545 | You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the | |
546 | --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid. | |
547 | ||
548 | Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up | |
549 | with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is | |
550 | microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end | |
551 | before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher. | |
552 | ||
de2fd20e AT |
553 | Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the |
554 | checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine | |
555 | if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this | |
556 | option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing. | |
557 | ||
b5679335 | 558 | dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a |
375a4556 | 559 | scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files |
41059f75 AT |
560 | transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create |
561 | the temporary files in the receiving directory. | |
562 | ||
b5679335 | 563 | dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an |
375a4556 DD |
564 | additional directory to compare destination files against when doing |
565 | transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while | |
566 | leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all | |
14d43f1f | 567 | files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories |
baf3e504 DD |
568 | around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing |
569 | the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This | |
570 | option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred | |
571 | files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance | |
572 | to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the | |
573 | destination directory. | |
375a4556 | 574 | |
41059f75 AT |
575 | dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from |
576 | the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This | |
577 | option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the | |
578 | same method that gzip uses. | |
579 | ||
580 | Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios | |
581 | that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a | |
582 | compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit | |
583 | information sent for matching data blocks. | |
584 | ||
585 | dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group | |
586 | and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them | |
587 | at both ends. | |
588 | ||
589 | By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine | |
590 | what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group | |
14d43f1f | 591 | 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids |
41059f75 AT |
592 | option is not specified. |
593 | ||
8bb5aa8f DD |
594 | If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name |
595 | does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the | |
596 | source system is used instead. | |
41059f75 | 597 | |
de2fd20e AT |
598 | dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO |
599 | timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time | |
600 | then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout. | |
41059f75 AT |
601 | |
602 | dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync | |
603 | daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it | |
604 | is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current | |
5315b793 | 605 | terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the |
41059f75 AT |
606 | config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and |
607 | respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more | |
608 | details. | |
609 | ||
5c9730a4 | 610 | dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address |
e30f0657 AT |
611 | when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a |
612 | rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP | |
613 | address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible | |
614 | in conjunction with the --config option. | |
5c9730a4 | 615 | |
b5679335 | 616 | dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than |
5315b793 | 617 | the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is |
41059f75 AT |
618 | specified. |
619 | ||
b5679335 | 620 | dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use |
14d43f1f | 621 | rather than the default port 873. |
41059f75 | 622 | |
64c704f0 AT |
623 | dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This specifies whether rsync will use blocking |
624 | IO when launching a remote shell transport. You may find this is | |
625 | needed for some remote shells that can't handle the default | |
626 | non-blocking IO. | |
627 | ||
3a64ad1f | 628 | dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the |
14d43f1f | 629 | rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is |
3a64ad1f DD |
630 | specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in |
631 | rsyncd.conf. | |
b6062654 | 632 | |
b72f24c7 AT |
633 | dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics |
634 | on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync | |
e19452a9 | 635 | algorithm is for your data. |
b72f24c7 | 636 | |
d9fcc198 AT |
637 | dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially |
638 | transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances | |
639 | it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the | |
640 | --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should | |
641 | make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster. | |
642 | ||
eb86d661 AT |
643 | dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information |
644 | showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user | |
645 | something to watch. | |
646 | ||
7b10f91d AT |
647 | This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without |
648 | the -v option will produce weird results on your display. | |
649 | ||
d9fcc198 AT |
650 | dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I |
651 | found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an | |
652 | option to make it easier. | |
653 | ||
65575e96 AT |
654 | dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password |
655 | in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option | |
656 | is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in | |
657 | transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file | |
fc7952e7 AT |
658 | must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a |
659 | single line. | |
65575e96 | 660 | |
ef5d23eb DD |
661 | dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum |
662 | transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when | |
663 | using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature | |
664 | of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the | |
665 | transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The | |
666 | result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value | |
667 | of zero specifies no limit. | |
668 | ||
41059f75 AT |
669 | enddit() |
670 | ||
43bd68e5 AT |
671 | manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS) |
672 | ||
673 | The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible | |
14d43f1f | 674 | selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip. |
43bd68e5 | 675 | |
14d43f1f DD |
676 | rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on |
677 | the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the | |
43bd68e5 AT |
678 | name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching |
679 | pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is | |
680 | skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not | |
681 | skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the | |
682 | filename is not skipped. | |
683 | ||
27b9a19b DD |
684 | Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of |
685 | every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get | |
686 | applied recursively to each subcomponent. | |
687 | ||
688 | Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern | |
2fb139c1 AT |
689 | each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and |
690 | --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options. | |
691 | ||
14d43f1f | 692 | The patterns can take several forms. The rules are: |
43bd68e5 AT |
693 | |
694 | itemize( | |
695 | it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the | |
696 | start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of | |
27b9a19b DD |
697 | the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of |
698 | the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo" | |
699 | anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from | |
700 | top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the | |
701 | end of the file name. | |
43bd68e5 AT |
702 | |
703 | it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a | |
704 | directory, not a file, link or device. | |
705 | ||
706 | it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set | |
a8b9d4ed DD |
707 | *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename |
708 | matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used. | |
43bd68e5 | 709 | |
27b9a19b DD |
710 | it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in |
711 | the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes. | |
712 | ||
43bd68e5 AT |
713 | it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it |
714 | is matched against the full filename, including any leading | |
715 | directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched | |
27b9a19b DD |
716 | only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember |
717 | that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can | |
718 | actually be any portion of a path. | |
43bd68e5 AT |
719 | |
720 | it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space) | |
5a554d5b | 721 | then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as |
43bd68e5 AT |
722 | part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching. |
723 | ||
724 | it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space) | |
5a554d5b | 725 | then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as |
43bd68e5 | 726 | part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching. |
de2fd20e AT |
727 | |
728 | it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current | |
729 | exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns. | |
43bd68e5 AT |
730 | ) |
731 | ||
732 | The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a | |
733 | single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options. | |
27b9a19b DD |
734 | |
735 | If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the | |
736 | algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include | |
737 | parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm | |
738 | will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below | |
739 | them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the | |
740 | --exclude '*'. | |
43bd68e5 | 741 | |
328fcf11 | 742 | Here are some exclude/include examples: |
43bd68e5 AT |
743 | |
744 | itemize( | |
745 | it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o | |
746 | it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo | |
747 | it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo | |
a8b9d4ed DD |
748 | it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two |
749 | levels below a base directory called foo | |
750 | it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two | |
751 | or more levels below a base directory called foo | |
43bd68e5 | 752 | it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all |
5d5811f7 DD |
753 | directories and C source files |
754 | it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include | |
755 | only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or | |
756 | it would be excluded by the "*") | |
43bd68e5 AT |
757 | ) |
758 | ||
d310a212 AT |
759 | manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS) |
760 | ||
14d43f1f | 761 | rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little |
d310a212 AT |
762 | cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol |
763 | version mismatch - is your shell clean?". | |
764 | ||
765 | This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell | |
766 | facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using | |
14d43f1f | 767 | for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your |
d310a212 AT |
768 | remote shell like this: |
769 | ||
770 | verb( | |
771 | rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat | |
772 | ) | |
773 | ||
774 | then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat | |
2cfeab21 | 775 | should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from |
d310a212 AT |
776 | rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or |
777 | data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing | |
14d43f1f | 778 | it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup |
d310a212 AT |
779 | scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements |
780 | for non-interactive logins. | |
781 | ||
e6c64e79 MP |
782 | If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then |
783 | try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will | |
784 | show why each individual file is included or excluded. | |
785 | ||
de2fd20e AT |
786 | manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) |
787 | ||
788 | startdit() | |
789 | ||
790 | dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any | |
791 | ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for | |
792 | more details. | |
793 | ||
794 | dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to | |
795 | override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can | |
796 | be used instead of the -e option. | |
797 | ||
4c3b4b25 AT |
798 | dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to |
799 | redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a | |
800 | rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair. | |
801 | ||
de2fd20e AT |
802 | dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required |
803 | password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync | |
804 | daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a | |
805 | password to a shell transport such as ssh. | |
806 | ||
807 | dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables | |
808 | are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server. | |
809 | ||
14d43f1f | 810 | dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's |
de2fd20e AT |
811 | default .cvsignore file. |
812 | ||
813 | enddit() | |
814 | ||
41059f75 AT |
815 | manpagefiles() |
816 | ||
817 | /etc/rsyncd.conf | |
818 | ||
819 | manpageseealso() | |
820 | ||
821 | rsyncd.conf(5) | |
822 | ||
823 | manpagediagnostics() | |
824 | ||
825 | manpagebugs() | |
826 | ||
827 | times are transferred as unix time_t values | |
828 | ||
829 | file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical | |
830 | values | |
831 | ||
a87b3b2a | 832 | see also the comments on the --delete option |
41059f75 AT |
833 | |
834 | Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at | |
9e3c856a | 835 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/) |
41059f75 AT |
836 | |
837 | manpagesection(VERSION) | |
838 | This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync | |
839 | ||
840 | manpagesection(CREDITS) | |
841 | ||
842 | rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file | |
843 | COPYING for details. | |
844 | ||
41059f75 | 845 | A WEB site is available at |
9e3c856a AT |
846 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/) |
847 | ||
848 | The primary ftp site for rsync is | |
849 | url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync). | |
41059f75 AT |
850 | |
851 | We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. | |
852 | ||
9e3c856a AT |
853 | This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by |
854 | Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler. | |
41059f75 AT |
855 | |
856 | manpagesection(THANKS) | |
857 | ||
858 | Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell | |
859 | and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've | |
860 | probably missed some people, my apologies if I have. | |
861 | ||
862 | ||
863 | manpageauthor() | |
864 | ||
865 | rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be | |
9e3c856a | 866 | contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and |
41059f75 AT |
867 | Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au |
868 |