Check the error return of flush_write_file().
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
c8d771a0 2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
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20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
eb06fa95 24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
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25exists.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
f39281ae 28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
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29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
b9f592fb 35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
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36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
43cd760f 38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
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39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
bef49340 47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
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48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
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54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
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56 single : separator.
57
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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60 contains a : separator.
61
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
bb18e755 64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
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65
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
bb18e755 68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
039faa86 69
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70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
74 also provided.
75
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
4d888108 80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
bef49340 81
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82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
84 local destination.
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85)
86
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87Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88and destination paths must be local.
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89
90manpagesection(SETUP)
91
92See the file README for installation instructions.
93
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94Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 96daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 97for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 98different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 99
1bbf83c0 100You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
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101command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
102
103One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
104security.
105
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106Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
107machines.
108
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109manpagesection(USAGE)
110
111You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112and a destination, one of which may be remote.
113
4d888108 114Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
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115
116quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
117
8a97fc2e 118This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
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119current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122differences. See the tech report for details.
123
124quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
125
8a97fc2e 126This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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127machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 129links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 130in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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131size of data portions of the transfer.
132
133quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
134
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135A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
142/dest/foo:
143
144quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
145quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
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146
147You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149an improved copy command.
150
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151quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
152
8a97fc2e 153This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
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154somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
155
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156
157manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
158
1bbf83c0 159It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
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160transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
161running on TCP port 873.
162
eb06fa95 163You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
4c3b4b25 164environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
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165your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
166proxy connections to port 873.
4c3b4b25 167
1bbf83c0 168Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
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169that:
170
171itemize(
172 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
bb18e755 173 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
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174
175 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 176 connect.
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177
178 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
179 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 180
f7632fc6 181 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 182 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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183)
184
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185Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
186you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
187password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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188the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
189may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 190
3bc67f0c 191WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 192users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 193
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194manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
195
196It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
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197server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
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199to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
200firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
201features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
202below).
203
204From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
205using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
206explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
207--rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
208this functionality.)
209
210In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
211server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
212
213quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
214
215The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
216used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
217
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218manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
219
4d888108 220An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
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221rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
222file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
223shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
224is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
225(typically $HOME).
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227manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
228
229See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
230server configuration file.
231
232Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
233user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
234configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
235if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
236
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237To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
bef49340 239
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240manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
241
242Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
243
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244To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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246
247quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
248
f39281ae 249each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
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250"arvidsjaur".
251
252To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
253targets:
254
255quote( get:nl()
256 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
257
258 put:nl()
259 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
260
261 sync: get put)
262
263this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
f39281ae 264connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
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265lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
266
267I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
268command
269
270quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
271
272this is launched from cron every few hours.
273
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274manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
275
14d43f1f 276Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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277to the detailed description below for a complete description.
278
279verb(
280 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 281 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
c95da96a 282 -c, --checksum always checksum
06891710 283 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
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284 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
285 -R, --relative use relative path names
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286 --no-relative turn off --relative
287 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
915dd207 288 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
5b56cc19 289 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
915dd207 290 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
c95da96a 291 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
75b243a5 292 --inplace update the destination files inplace
716e73d4 293 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
eb06fa95 294 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
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295 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
296 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
297 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
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298 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
299 -p, --perms preserve permissions
300 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
301 -g, --group preserve group
302 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
303 -t, --times preserve times
304 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
305 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
306 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
93689aa5 307 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
c95da96a 308 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 309 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
915dd207 310 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
d9fcc198 311 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
1347d512 312 --existing only update files that already exist
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313 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
314 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
315 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
d48c8065 316 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
b5accaba 317 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
0b73ca12 318 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
c95da96a 319 --partial keep partially transferred files
915dd207 320 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
c95da96a 321 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 322 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
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323 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
324 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
f6aeaa74 325 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
c95da96a 326 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
915dd207 327 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
59c95e42 328 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
d9fcc198 329 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
c95da96a 330 -z, --compress compress file data
f177b7cc 331 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
2acf81eb 332 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 333 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 334 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 335 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
f177b7cc 336 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
915dd207 337 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
c95da96a 338 --version print version number
bb18e755 339 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
bbd6f4ba 340 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
2a951cd2 341 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
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342 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
343 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
b5accaba 344 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
93689aa5 345 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
c95da96a 346 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 347 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 348 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 349 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
ef5d23eb 350 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
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351 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
352 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
c8d895de 353 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
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354 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
355 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
c95da96a 356 -h, --help show this help screen
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357
358
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359)
360
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361manpageoptions()
362
363rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
364options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 365below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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366The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
367can be used instead.
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368
369startdit()
370dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
371available in rsync
372
373dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
374
375dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 376are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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377single -v will give you information about what files are being
378transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
379information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
380information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 381you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 382
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383dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
384are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
385from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
386cron.
387
41059f75 388dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
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389already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
390This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
41059f75 391
a03a9f4e 392dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
915dd207 393already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
a03a9f4e 394--size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
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395regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
396after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
397exactly.
398
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399dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
400the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
401modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
402set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
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403transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
404with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
5b56cc19 405
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406dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
407a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
408explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
409which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
a03a9f4e 410receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
41059f75 411
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412dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
413way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
414everything.
415
416Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
417finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
418specify bf(-H).
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420dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
421recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
422directories at all.
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423
424dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
425names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
426just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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427you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
428example, if you used the command
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429
430verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
431
432then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
433machine. If instead you used
434
435verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
436
437then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
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438machine -- the full path name is preserved.
439
440dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
441needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
442file processing.
443
444dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
445implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
446of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
447the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
448path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
449the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
450destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
451the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
452which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
453symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
41059f75 454
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455dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
456renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
457backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
458--backup-dir and --suffix options.
41059f75 459
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460dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
461tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
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462very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
463specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
464(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
465will keep their original filenames).
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466If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
467(which changes in a recursive transfer).
66203a98 468
b5679335 469dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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470backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
471if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 472
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473dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
474destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
475file.
476
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477In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
478considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
479is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
480symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
481regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
482free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
483
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484dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
485pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
486from the sender.
487
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488dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
489and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
98f51bfb 490file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
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491network reduction it might otherwise.
492
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493This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based change
494or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound not network bound.
a3221d2a 495
399371e7 496WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 497transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 498should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
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499rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
500receiving user.
a3221d2a 501
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502dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
503symlink on the destination.
41059f75 504
eb06fa95 505dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
7af4227a 506they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.
b5313607 507
eb06fa95 508dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 509symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
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510are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
511source path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 512
d310a212 513dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 514which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
d310a212 515also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 516give unexpected results.
d310a212 517
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518dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
519the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
520option hard links are treated like regular files.
521
522Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
523are in the list of files being sent.
524
525This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
526
527dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
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528is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
529faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
6eb770bb 530destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
4d888108 531"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
6eb770bb 532the source and destination are specified as local paths.
41059f75 533
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534dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
535default.
536
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537dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
538permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
539
540Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
541source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
542other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
543(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
41059f75 544
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545dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
546destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
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547only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
548is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
549circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
41059f75 550
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551dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
552destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
553program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
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554receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
555is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
556circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
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557
558dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
559block device information to the remote system to recreate these
560devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
561
562dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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563with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
564option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
565modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
566cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
567their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
568changed.
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569
570dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
571instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
572
573dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
574up less space on the destination.
575
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576NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
577filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
578correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
579
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580dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
581boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
582contents of only one filesystem.
583
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584dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
585only update files that already exist on the destination.
586
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587dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
588This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
589the destination.
590
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591dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
592files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
593to prevent disasters.
594
41059f75 595dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
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596side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
597transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 598
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599This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
600
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601This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
602to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
603deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 604
b5accaba 605If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
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606files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
607prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
608sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
2c5548d2 609destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
41059f75 610
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611dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
612receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
613delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
786c3687 614Implies --delete.
b33b791e 615
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616dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
617receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
618sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
619after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
57df171b 620
2c5548d2 621dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 622even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 623
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624dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
625they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
626is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
627Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
41059f75 628
e40a46de 629dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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630the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
631
b5679335 632dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 633remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
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634remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
635default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 636
bef49340 637If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
4d888108 638remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
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639remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
640shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
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641running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
642TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
bef49340 643
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644Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
645presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
98393ae2 646
ea7f8108 647quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
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648
649(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
650options in their .ssh/config file.)
651
41059f75 652You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
ea7f8108 653environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
41059f75 654
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655See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
656
b5679335 657dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
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658rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
659that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
660the binary is in.
41059f75 661
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662dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
663broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
664systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
665a file should be ignored.
666
667The exclude list is initialized to:
668
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669quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
670.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
671.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
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672
673then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
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674files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
675are delimited by whitespace).
676
f177b7cc 677Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
2a383be0 678.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
2a383be0 679See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 680
b5679335 681dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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682certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
683useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
684
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685You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
686to build up the list of files to exclude.
687
6156e72f 688See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 689
b5679335 690dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
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AT
691option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
692FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
693';' or '#' are ignored.
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694If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
695
b5679335 696dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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697specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
698build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
699
6156e72f 700See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 701
b5679335 702dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
43bd68e5 703from a file.
c769702f 704If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 705
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706dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
707exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
c769702f 708for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
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709transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
710instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
711is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
712directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
713than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
714behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
715you want it.
716
717The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
718source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
719allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
720command:
721
722quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
723
724If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
725directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
726contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
727or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
728that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
729duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
730force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
731
732In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
733instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
734(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
735specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
736transfer". For example:
737
738quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
739
740This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
741was located on the remote "src" host.
742
743dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
744file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
745This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
f01b6368
WD
746It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
747file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 748
b5679335 749dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 750scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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751transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
752the temporary files in the receiving directory.
753
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754dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
755the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
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756files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
757destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
758destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
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759flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
760example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
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DD
761although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
762This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
763transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
764have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 765to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
375a4556 766
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767dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
768also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
769unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
770linked.
d31c09c8 771Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 772to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
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WD
773An example:
774
775verb(
776 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
777)
59c95e42 778
41059f75 779dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
089e73f8 780the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
f39281ae 781option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
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782same method that gzip uses.
783
784Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
785that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
786compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
787information sent for matching data blocks.
788
789dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 790and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
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791at both ends.
792
4d888108 793By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 794what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 7950 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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796option is not specified.
797
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WD
798If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
799on the destination system, then the numeric ID
800from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
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WD
801"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
802the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
803users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 804
b5accaba 805dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
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AT
806timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
807then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 808
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MP
809dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
810daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
811bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
812
813If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
814run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
815become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
30e8c8e1 816(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
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MP
817requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
818details.
41059f75 819
bbd6f4ba
MP
820dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
821rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
822option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
823be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
824bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
825bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
826debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
827sshd.
828
5c9730a4 829dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
e30f0657
AT
830when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
831rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
832address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
833in conjunction with the --config option.
5c9730a4 834
b5679335 835dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
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DD
836the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
837The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
838a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
839the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
41059f75 840
b5679335 841dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 842rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 843
b5accaba 844dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
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WD
845a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
846rsync defaults to using
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WD
847blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
848ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 849
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850dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
851default.
852
3a64ad1f 853dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 854rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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DD
855specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
856rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 857
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AT
858dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
859on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 860algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 861
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AT
862dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
863transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
864it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
865--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
866make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
867
eb86d661
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868dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
869showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
870something to watch.
e2559dbe 871Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
7b10f91d 872
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WD
873When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
874
875verb(
876 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
877)
878
879This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
880is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
881data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
882remaining in this transfer.
883
884After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
885
886verb(
887 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
888)
889
890This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
891transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
892the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
893These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
894what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
895
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896dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
897found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
898option to make it easier.
899
65575e96
AT
900dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
901in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
bb18e755 902is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
65575e96 903transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
fc7952e7
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904must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
905single line.
65575e96 906
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907dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
908transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
909using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
910of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
911transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 912result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
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913of zero specifies no limit.
914
b9f592fb 915dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
98f51bfb 916another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
b9f592fb 917section for details.
6902ed17 918
b9f592fb 919dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
c769702f 920file previously generated by --write-batch.
399371e7 921If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 922See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 923
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WD
924dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
925when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
926control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
927rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
928listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
929versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
930an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
931try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
932
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WD
933dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
934NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
935MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
b9f592fb 936by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
c8d895de
WD
937is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
938applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
939in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
940Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
b9f592fb 941for checksum seed.
c8d895de 942
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943enddit()
944
43bd68e5
AT
945manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
946
947The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 948selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 949
be92ac6c 950Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
98606687 951the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
43bd68e5 952name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
23489269 953pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
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AT
954skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
955skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
956filename is not skipped.
957
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958The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
959to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
960subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
961is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
962This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
963
964Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
20af605e 965trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
a4b6f305
WD
966option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
967changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
968system). The following examples demonstrate this.
969
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WD
970Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
971path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
972Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305
WD
973
974verb(
b5ebe6d9 975 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
a4b6f305 976 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 977 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 978 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 979 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 980
b5ebe6d9 981 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
982 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
983 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
a4b6f305 984 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 985 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
a4b6f305 986
b5ebe6d9 987 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
988 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
989 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
a4b6f305 990 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 991 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
be92ac6c 992
b5ebe6d9 993 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
994 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
995 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
be92ac6c 996 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 997 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305
WD
998)
999
1000The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1001look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1002(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 1003
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WD
1004Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1005every subcomponent of
a4b6f305 1006every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
27b9a19b 1007applied recursively to each subcomponent.
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WD
1008The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1009when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1010parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1011because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1012hierarchy.
27b9a19b
DD
1013
1014Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
2fb139c1
AT
1015each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1016--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1017
14d43f1f 1018The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
43bd68e5
AT
1019
1020itemize(
d1cce1dd 1021
43bd68e5
AT
1022 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1023 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
d1cce1dd
S
1024 the filename.
1025 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
a4b6f305
WD
1026 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1027 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
d1cce1dd 1028 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
27b9a19b
DD
1029 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1030 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1031 end of the file name.
43bd68e5
AT
1032
1033 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
a4b6f305 1034 directory, not a file, link, or device.
43bd68e5
AT
1035
1036 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
a8b9d4ed
DD
1037 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1038 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
43bd68e5 1039
8a7846f9
WD
1040 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1041 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
27b9a19b 1042
38499c1a
WD
1043 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1044 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1045 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1046 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1047 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
8a7846f9 1048 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
43bd68e5
AT
1049
1050 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1051 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1052 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
43bd68e5
AT
1053
1054 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1055 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1056 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
de2fd20e
AT
1057
1058 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
eb06fa95 1059 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
43bd68e5
AT
1060)
1061
b7dc46c0
WD
1062The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1063you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
20af605e 1064options in the proper order.
27b9a19b 1065
20af605e
WD
1066Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1067directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1068the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1069important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
43bd68e5 1070
20af605e
WD
1071verb(
1072 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1073 + /file-is-included
1074 - *
1075)
1076
1077This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1078so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1079directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1080to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
f28bd833 1081before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
20af605e
WD
1082include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1083instance, this set of rules works fine:
1084
1085verb(
1086 + /some/
1087 + /some/path/
1088 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1089 + /file-also-included
1090 - *
1091)
1092
1093Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
43bd68e5
AT
1094
1095itemize(
1096 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
a4b6f305 1097 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1098 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
a8b9d4ed 1099 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1100 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
a8b9d4ed 1101 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1102 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1103 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
5d5811f7
DD
1104 directories and C source files
1105 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1106 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1107 it would be excluded by the "*")
43bd68e5
AT
1108)
1109
6902ed17
MP
1110manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1111
2e3c1417 1112bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
7432ccf4
WD
1113of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1114feel free to try this out.
088aac85
DD
1115
1116Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1117identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1118number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1119source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1120hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1121write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1122of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
1123client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1124this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1125
1126To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1127with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1128file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1129using the information stored in the batch file.
1130
1131For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1132option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 1133".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb
WD
1134a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1135batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1136passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1137instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1138path differs from the original destination tree path.
1139
1140Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1141status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 1142updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
1143be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1144at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 1145
4602eafa 1146Examples:
088aac85
DD
1147
1148verb(
98f51bfb
WD
1149 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1150 $ scp foo* remote:
1151 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4602eafa
WD
1152)
1153
1154verb(
98f51bfb
WD
1155 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1156 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4602eafa
WD
1157)
1158
98f51bfb
WD
1159In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1160and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1161"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1162into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1163reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1164
1165itemize(
1166
1167 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1168 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1169 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
6902ed17 1170
98f51bfb
WD
1171 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1172 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1173
1174 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1175 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1176 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1177 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1178 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1179 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1180
1181)
088aac85
DD
1182
1183Caveats:
1184
98f51bfb 1185The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
1186to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1187batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
7432ccf4
WD
1188is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1189appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1190and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1191error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1192if the command got updated. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1193always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1194option. If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1195partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
088aac85
DD
1196be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1197destination tree.
1198
b9f592fb
WD
1199The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1200one used to generate the batch file.
088aac85 1201
98f51bfb 1202The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
088aac85
DD
1203error.
1204
7432ccf4
WD
1205When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1206to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1207as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1208For instance
b9f592fb
WD
1209--write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1210--include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
7432ccf4 1211without --delete-excluded.
b9f592fb 1212
98f51bfb
WD
1213The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1214options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1215shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1216list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1217user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1218to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1219
6902ed17
MP
1220See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1221reports.
1222
eb06fa95
MP
1223manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1224
f28bd833 1225Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
1226link in the source directory.
1227
1228By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1229"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1230
1231If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1232target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1233bf(--links).
1234
1235If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1236copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1237
1238rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1239example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1240ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1241bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1242bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1243they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
4d888108 1244unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
eb06fa95 1245
7bd0cf5b
MP
1246Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1247(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1248components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1249
d310a212
AT
1250manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1251
14d43f1f 1252rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212
AT
1253cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1254version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1255
1256This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1257facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 1258for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
1259remote shell like this:
1260
1261verb(
43cd760f 1262 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
d310a212
AT
1263)
1264
1265then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 1266should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
1267rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1268data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 1269it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
1270scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1271for non-interactive logins.
1272
e6c64e79
MP
1273If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1274try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1275show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1276
55b64e4b
MP
1277manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1278
1279startdit()
a73de5f3
WD
1280dit(bf(0)) Success
1281dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1282dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1283dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1284dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 1285was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 1286them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 1287not by the server.
a73de5f3 1288dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
b5accaba
WD
1289dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1290dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
a73de5f3
WD
1291dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1292dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1293dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1294dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1295dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1296dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
1297dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1298dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
a73de5f3 1299dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
55b64e4b
MP
1300enddit()
1301
de2fd20e
AT
1302manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1303
1304startdit()
1305
1306dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1307ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1308more details.
1309
1310dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108
WD
1311override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1312options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
de2fd20e 1313
4c3b4b25
AT
1314dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1315redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1316rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1317
de2fd20e 1318dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 1319password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
de2fd20e
AT
1320daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1321password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1322
1323dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
bb18e755 1324are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
4b2f6a7c 1325If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
de2fd20e 1326
14d43f1f 1327dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e
AT
1328default .cvsignore file.
1329
1330enddit()
1331
41059f75
AT
1332manpagefiles()
1333
30e8c8e1 1334/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
41059f75
AT
1335
1336manpageseealso()
1337
1338rsyncd.conf(5)
1339
1340manpagediagnostics()
1341
1342manpagebugs()
1343
1344times are transferred as unix time_t values
1345
f28bd833 1346When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171
DD
1347unmodified files.
1348See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1349
b5accaba 1350file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
41059f75
AT
1351values
1352
a87b3b2a 1353see also the comments on the --delete option
41059f75 1354
38843171
DD
1355Please report bugs! See the website at
1356url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75
AT
1357
1358manpagesection(CREDITS)
1359
1360rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1361COPYING for details.
1362
41059f75 1363A WEB site is available at
3cd5eb3b
MP
1364url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1365includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1366manual page.
9e3c856a
AT
1367
1368The primary ftp site for rsync is
1369url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
1370
1371We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1372
9e3c856a
AT
1373This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1374Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
1375
1376manpagesection(THANKS)
1377
1378Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
7ff701e8
MP
1379and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1380I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1381
ce5f2732 1382Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
98f51bfb 1383Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
41059f75
AT
1384
1385manpageauthor()
1386
ce5f2732
MP
1387rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1388Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 1389
a5d74a18 1390Mailing lists for support and development are available at
7ff701e8 1391url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)