Added the --checksum-seed option.
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
CommitLineData
9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
c8d771a0 2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()()
41059f75
AT
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
8d69d571
WD
18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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(
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
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
41059f75
AT
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:
41059f75
AT
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
43cd760f
WD
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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.
41059f75
AT
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
bef49340
WD
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
039faa86
AT
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.
41059f75
AT
85)
86
14d43f1f
DD
87Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88and destination paths must be local.
41059f75
AT
89
90manpagesection(SETUP)
91
92See the file README for installation instructions.
93
1bbf83c0
WD
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
41059f75
AT
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
8e987130
AT
106Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
107machines.
108
41059f75
AT
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:
41059f75
AT
115
116quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
117
8a97fc2e 118This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
131size of data portions of the transfer.
132
133quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
134
8a97fc2e
WD
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)
41059f75
AT
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
14d43f1f
DD
151quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
152
8a97fc2e 153This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
14d43f1f
DD
154somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
155
41059f75
AT
156
157manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
158
1bbf83c0 159It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
41059f75
AT
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
4d888108
WD
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
41059f75
AT
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.
41059f75
AT
174
175 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 176 connect.
41059f75
AT
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.
41059f75
AT
183)
184
4c3d16be
AT
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
65575e96
AT
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
bef49340
WD
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
43cd760f
WD
197server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
bef49340
WD
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
41059f75
AT
218manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
219
4d888108 220An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
30e8c8e1
DD
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).
41059f75 226
bef49340
WD
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
e6f9e388
WD
237To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
bef49340 239
41059f75
AT
240manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
241
242Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
243
14d43f1f
DD
244To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
41059f75
AT
246
247quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
248
f39281ae 249each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
41059f75
AT
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
41059f75
AT
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
c95da96a
AT
274manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
275
14d43f1f 276Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
c95da96a
AT
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
c95da96a
AT
284 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
285 -R, --relative use relative path names
f177b7cc
WD
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)
eb06fa95 292 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
7af4227a
WD
293 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
294 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
295 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
c95da96a
AT
296 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
297 -p, --perms preserve permissions
298 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
299 -g, --group preserve group
300 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
301 -t, --times preserve times
302 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
303 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
304 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
93689aa5 305 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
c95da96a 306 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 307 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
915dd207 308 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
d9fcc198 309 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
1347d512 310 --existing only update files that already exist
915dd207
WD
311 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
312 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
313 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
d48c8065 314 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
b5accaba 315 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
0b73ca12 316 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
c95da96a 317 --partial keep partially transferred files
915dd207 318 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
c95da96a 319 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 320 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
915dd207
WD
321 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
322 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
f6aeaa74 323 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
c95da96a 324 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
915dd207 325 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
59c95e42 326 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
d9fcc198 327 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
c95da96a 328 -z, --compress compress file data
f177b7cc 329 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
2acf81eb 330 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 331 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 332 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 333 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
f177b7cc 334 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
915dd207 335 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
c95da96a 336 --version print version number
bb18e755 337 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
bbd6f4ba 338 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
2a951cd2 339 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
c95da96a
AT
340 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
341 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
b5accaba 342 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
93689aa5 343 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
c95da96a 344 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 345 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 346 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 347 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
ef5d23eb 348 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
088aac85 349 --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
915dd207 350 --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
c8d895de 351 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
e40a46de
WD
352 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
353 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
c95da96a 354 -h, --help show this help screen
6902ed17
MP
355
356
c95da96a
AT
357)
358
41059f75
AT
359manpageoptions()
360
361rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
362options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 363below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
b5679335
DD
364The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
365can be used instead.
41059f75
AT
366
367startdit()
368dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
369available in rsync
370
371dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
372
373dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 374are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
41059f75
AT
375single -v will give you information about what files are being
376transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
377information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
378information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 379you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 380
b86f0cef
DD
381dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
382are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
383from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
384cron.
385
41059f75 386dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
915dd207
WD
387already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
388This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
41059f75 389
a03a9f4e 390dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
915dd207 391already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
a03a9f4e 392--size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
f83f0548
AT
393regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
394after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
395exactly.
396
5b56cc19
AT
397dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
398the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
399modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
400set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
38843171
DD
401transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
402with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
5b56cc19 403
41059f75
AT
404dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
405a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
406explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
407which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
a03a9f4e 408receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
41059f75 409
e7bf3e5e
MP
410dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
411way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
412everything.
413
414Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
415finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
416specify bf(-H).
41059f75 417
24986abd
AT
418dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
419recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
420directories at all.
41059f75
AT
421
422dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
423names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
424just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
14d43f1f
DD
425you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
426example, if you used the command
41059f75
AT
427
428verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
429
430then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
431machine. If instead you used
432
433verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
434
435then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
f177b7cc
WD
436machine -- the full path name is preserved.
437
438dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
439needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
440file processing.
441
442dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
443implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
444of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
445the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
446path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
447the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
448destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
449the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
450which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
451symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
41059f75 452
b19fd07c
WD
453dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
454renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
455backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
456--backup-dir and --suffix options.
41059f75 457
66203a98
AT
458dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
459tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
759ac870
DD
460very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
461specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
462(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
463will keep their original filenames).
0b79c324
WD
464If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
465(which changes in a recursive transfer).
66203a98 466
b5679335 467dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
b19fd07c
WD
468backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
469if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 470
41059f75
AT
471dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
472destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
473file.
474
adddd075
WD
475In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
476considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
477is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
478symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
479regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
480free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
481
eb06fa95
MP
482dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
483symlink on the destination.
41059f75 484
eb06fa95 485dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
7af4227a 486they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.
b5313607 487
eb06fa95 488dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 489symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
eb06fa95
MP
490are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
491source path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 492
d310a212 493dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 494which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
d310a212 495also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 496give unexpected results.
d310a212 497
41059f75
AT
498dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
499the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
500option hard links are treated like regular files.
501
502Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
503are in the list of files being sent.
504
505This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
506
507dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
a1a440c2
DD
508is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
509faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
510target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
4d888108 511"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
a1a440c2 512the source and target are on the local machine.
41059f75 513
93689aa5
DD
514dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
515default.
516
8dc74608
WD
517dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
518permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
519
520Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
521source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
522other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
523(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
41059f75 524
eb06fa95
MP
525dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
526destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
a2b0471f
WD
527only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
528is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
529circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
41059f75 530
eb06fa95
MP
531dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
532destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
533program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
a2b0471f
WD
534receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
535is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
536circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
41059f75
AT
537
538dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
539block device information to the remote system to recreate these
540devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
541
542dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
baf3e504
DD
543with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
544option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
545modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
546cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
547their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
548changed.
41059f75
AT
549
550dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
551instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
552
553dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
554up less space on the destination.
555
d310a212
AT
556NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
557filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
558correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
559
41059f75
AT
560dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
561boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
562contents of only one filesystem.
563
1347d512
AT
564dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
565only update files that already exist on the destination.
566
3d6feada
MP
567dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
568This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
569the destination.
570
0b73ca12
AT
571dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
572files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
573to prevent disasters.
574
41059f75 575dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
b33b791e
DD
576side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
577transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 578
24986abd
AT
579This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
580
b33b791e
DD
581This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
582to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
583deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 584
b5accaba 585If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
3e578a19
AT
586files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
587prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
588sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
2c5548d2 589destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
41059f75 590
b33b791e
DD
591dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
592receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
593delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
786c3687 594Implies --delete.
b33b791e 595
d48c8065
WD
596dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
597receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
598sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
599after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
57df171b 600
2c5548d2 601dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 602even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 603
b695d088
DD
604dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
605they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
606is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
607Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
41059f75 608
e40a46de 609dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
41059f75
AT
610the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
611
b5679335 612dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 613remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
43cd760f
WD
614remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
615default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 616
bef49340 617If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
4d888108 618remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
bef49340
WD
619remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
620shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
2d4ca358
DD
621running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
622TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
bef49340 623
ea7f8108
WD
624Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
625presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
98393ae2 626
ea7f8108 627quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
98393ae2
WD
628
629(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
630options in their .ssh/config file.)
631
41059f75 632You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
ea7f8108 633environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
41059f75 634
735a816e
DD
635See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
636
b5679335 637dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
d73ee7b7
AT
638rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
639that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
640the binary is in.
41059f75 641
f177b7cc
WD
642dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
643broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
644systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
645a file should be ignored.
646
647The exclude list is initialized to:
648
2a383be0
WD
649quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
650.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
651.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
f177b7cc
WD
652
653then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2a383be0
WD
654files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
655are delimited by whitespace).
656
f177b7cc 657Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
2a383be0 658.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
2a383be0 659See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 660
b5679335 661dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
41059f75
AT
662certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
663useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
664
41059f75
AT
665You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
666to build up the list of files to exclude.
667
6156e72f 668See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 669
b5679335 670dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
c48b22c8
AT
671option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
672FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
673';' or '#' are ignored.
f8a94f0d
DD
674If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
675
b5679335 676dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
43bd68e5
AT
677specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
678build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
679
6156e72f 680See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 681
b5679335 682dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
43bd68e5 683from a file.
f8a94f0d
DD
684If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
685
f177b7cc
WD
686dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
687exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
688for stdin). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
689transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
690instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
691is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
692directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
693than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
694behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
695you want it.
696
697The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
698source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
699allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
700command:
701
702quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
703
704If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
705directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
706contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
707or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
708that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
709duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
710force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
711
712In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
713instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
714(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
715specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
716transfer". For example:
717
718quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
719
720This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
721was located on the remote "src" host.
722
723dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
724file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
725This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
f01b6368
WD
726It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
727file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 728
b5679335 729dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 730scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
41059f75
AT
731transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
732the temporary files in the receiving directory.
733
3473b5b4
DD
734dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
735the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
d53d7795
DD
736files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
737destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
738destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
3473b5b4
DD
739flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
740example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
d53d7795
DD
741although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
742This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
743transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
744have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 745to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
375a4556 746
59c95e42
DD
747dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
748also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
749unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
750linked.
d31c09c8 751Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
0b79c324 752to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
8429aa9e
WD
753An example:
754
755verb(
756 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
757)
59c95e42 758
41059f75 759dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
089e73f8 760the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
f39281ae 761option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
41059f75
AT
762same method that gzip uses.
763
764Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
765that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
766compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
767information sent for matching data blocks.
768
769dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 770and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
41059f75
AT
771at both ends.
772
4d888108 773By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 774what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 7750 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
41059f75
AT
776option is not specified.
777
ec40899b
WD
778If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
779on the destination system, then the numeric ID
780from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
781"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
782the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
783users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 784
b5accaba 785dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
de2fd20e
AT
786timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
787then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 788
eb06fa95
MP
789dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
790daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
791bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
792
793If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
794run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
795become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
30e8c8e1 796(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
eb06fa95
MP
797requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
798details.
41059f75 799
bbd6f4ba
MP
800dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
801rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
802option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
803be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
804bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
805bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
806debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
807sshd.
808
5c9730a4 809dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
e30f0657
AT
810when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
811rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
812address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
813in conjunction with the --config option.
5c9730a4 814
b5679335 815dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
30e8c8e1
DD
816the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
817The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
818a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
819the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
41059f75 820
b5679335 821dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 822rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 823
b5accaba 824dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
314a74d7
WD
825a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
826rsync defaults to using
b5accaba
WD
827blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
828ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 829
93689aa5
DD
830dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
831default.
832
3a64ad1f 833dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 834rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
3a64ad1f
DD
835specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
836rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 837
b72f24c7
AT
838dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
839on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 840algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 841
d9fcc198
AT
842dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
843transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
844it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
845--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
846make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
847
eb86d661
AT
848dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
849showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
850something to watch.
e2559dbe 851Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
7b10f91d 852
68f9910d
WD
853When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
854
855verb(
856 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
857)
858
859This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
860is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
861data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
862remaining in this transfer.
863
864After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
865
866verb(
867 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
868)
869
870This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
871transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
872the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
873These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
874what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
875
d9fcc198
AT
876dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
877found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
878option to make it easier.
879
65575e96
AT
880dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
881in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
bb18e755 882is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
65575e96 883transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
fc7952e7
AT
884must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
885single line.
65575e96 886
ef5d23eb
DD
887dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
888transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
889using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
890of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
891transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 892result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
ef5d23eb
DD
893of zero specifies no limit.
894
088aac85
DD
895dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be
896transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with
897PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 898
088aac85
DD
899dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch,
900using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH
901MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 902
e40a46de
WD
903dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
904when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
905control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
906rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
907listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
908versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
909an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
910try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
911
c8d895de
WD
912dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
913NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
914MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
915by the server and defaults to the current time(), or 32761 if
916bf(--write-batch) or bf(--read-batch) are specified. This option
917is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
918applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
919in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
920Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
921for checksum seed. Note also that bf(--write-batch) and bf(--read-batch)
922set the checksum seed to 32761, so bf(--checksum-seed=NUM) needs to
923follow these options if you want to specify a different checksum
924seed in batch mode.
925
41059f75
AT
926enddit()
927
43bd68e5
AT
928manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
929
930The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 931selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 932
be92ac6c 933Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
98606687 934the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
43bd68e5 935name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
23489269 936pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
43bd68e5
AT
937skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
938skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
939filename is not skipped.
940
a4b6f305
WD
941The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
942to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
943subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
944is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
945This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
946
947Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
20af605e 948trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
a4b6f305
WD
949option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
950changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
951system). The following examples demonstrate this.
952
b5ebe6d9
WD
953Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
954path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
955Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305
WD
956
957verb(
b5ebe6d9 958 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
a4b6f305 959 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 960 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 961 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 962 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305 963
b5ebe6d9 964 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
965 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
966 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
a4b6f305 967 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 968 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
a4b6f305 969
b5ebe6d9 970 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
971 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
972 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
a4b6f305 973 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 974 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
be92ac6c 975
b5ebe6d9 976 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
b5ebe6d9
WD
977 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
978 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
be92ac6c 979 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
b5ebe6d9 980 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
a4b6f305
WD
981)
982
983The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
984look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
985(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 986
be92ac6c
WD
987Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
988every subcomponent of
a4b6f305 989every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
27b9a19b 990applied recursively to each subcomponent.
20af605e
WD
991The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
992when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
993parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
994because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
995hierarchy.
27b9a19b
DD
996
997Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
2fb139c1
AT
998each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
999--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1000
14d43f1f 1001The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
43bd68e5
AT
1002
1003itemize(
d1cce1dd 1004
43bd68e5
AT
1005 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1006 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
d1cce1dd
S
1007 the filename.
1008 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
a4b6f305
WD
1009 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1010 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
d1cce1dd 1011 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
27b9a19b
DD
1012 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1013 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1014 end of the file name.
43bd68e5
AT
1015
1016 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
a4b6f305 1017 directory, not a file, link, or device.
43bd68e5
AT
1018
1019 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
a8b9d4ed
DD
1020 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1021 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
43bd68e5 1022
8a7846f9
WD
1023 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1024 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
27b9a19b 1025
38499c1a
WD
1026 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1027 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1028 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1029 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1030 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
8a7846f9 1031 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
43bd68e5
AT
1032
1033 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1034 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1035 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
43bd68e5
AT
1036
1037 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 1038 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
a03a9f4e 1039 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
de2fd20e
AT
1040
1041 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
eb06fa95 1042 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
43bd68e5
AT
1043)
1044
b7dc46c0
WD
1045The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1046you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
20af605e 1047options in the proper order.
27b9a19b 1048
20af605e
WD
1049Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1050directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1051the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1052important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
43bd68e5 1053
20af605e
WD
1054verb(
1055 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1056 + /file-is-included
1057 - *
1058)
1059
1060This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1061so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1062directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1063to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
f28bd833 1064before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
20af605e
WD
1065include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1066instance, this set of rules works fine:
1067
1068verb(
1069 + /some/
1070 + /some/path/
1071 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1072 + /file-also-included
1073 - *
1074)
1075
1076Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
43bd68e5
AT
1077
1078itemize(
1079 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
a4b6f305 1080 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1081 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
a8b9d4ed 1082 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1083 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
a8b9d4ed 1084 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
a4b6f305 1085 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
43bd68e5 1086 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
5d5811f7
DD
1087 directories and C source files
1088 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1089 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1090 it would be excluded by the "*")
43bd68e5
AT
1091)
1092
6902ed17
MP
1093manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1094
2e3c1417 1095bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
f28bd833 1096of rsync. The interface or behavior may change before it stabilizes.
088aac85
DD
1097
1098Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1099identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1100number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1101source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1102hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1103write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1104of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1105client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against
1106other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The
1107filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by
1108the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is
1109then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch
1110option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree.
1111Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the
1112batch update fileset.
1113
1114The fileset consists of 4 files:
2e3c1417 1115
088aac85
DD
1116itemize(
1117it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments
1118it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata
1119it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums
1120it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change
6902ed17
MP
1121)
1122
088aac85
DD
1123The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
1124destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
1125using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
1126destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
1127path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the
1128original destination tree path.
6902ed17 1129
088aac85
DD
1130Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the
1131file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when
1132updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1133be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at
1134once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1135
1136Example:
1137
1138verb(
a4b6f305
WD
1139 $ rsync --write-batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1140 $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
1141 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
1142 # or alternatively
1143 $ ssh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
6902ed17
MP
1144)
1145
088aac85
DD
1146In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
1147and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
1148pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
1149Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
1150/adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to
1151invoke rsync.
1152
1153Caveats:
1154
1155The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update
1156to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1157batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1158is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
1159destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1160be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1161destination tree.
1162
1163The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
1164one used on the original destination.
1165
1166The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
1167error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
1168size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.
1169
1170The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1171error.
1172
6902ed17
MP
1173See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1174reports.
1175
eb06fa95
MP
1176manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1177
f28bd833 1178Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
1179link in the source directory.
1180
1181By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1182"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1183
1184If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1185target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1186bf(--links).
1187
1188If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1189copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1190
1191rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1192example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1193ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1194bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1195bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1196they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
4d888108 1197unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
eb06fa95 1198
7bd0cf5b
MP
1199Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1200(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1201components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1202
d310a212
AT
1203manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1204
14d43f1f 1205rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212
AT
1206cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1207version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1208
1209This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1210facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 1211for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
1212remote shell like this:
1213
1214verb(
43cd760f 1215 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
d310a212
AT
1216)
1217
1218then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 1219should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
1220rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1221data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 1222it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
1223scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1224for non-interactive logins.
1225
e6c64e79
MP
1226If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1227try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1228show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1229
55b64e4b
MP
1230manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1231
1232startdit()
a73de5f3
WD
1233dit(bf(0)) Success
1234dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1235dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1236dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1237dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 1238was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 1239them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 1240not by the server.
a73de5f3 1241dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
b5accaba
WD
1242dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1243dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
a73de5f3
WD
1244dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1245dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1246dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1247dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1248dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1249dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
1250dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1251dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
a73de5f3 1252dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
55b64e4b
MP
1253enddit()
1254
de2fd20e
AT
1255manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1256
1257startdit()
1258
1259dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1260ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1261more details.
1262
1263dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108
WD
1264override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1265options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
de2fd20e 1266
4c3b4b25
AT
1267dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1268redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1269rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1270
de2fd20e 1271dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 1272password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
de2fd20e
AT
1273daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1274password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1275
1276dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
bb18e755 1277are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
4b2f6a7c 1278If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
de2fd20e 1279
14d43f1f 1280dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e
AT
1281default .cvsignore file.
1282
1283enddit()
1284
41059f75
AT
1285manpagefiles()
1286
30e8c8e1 1287/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
41059f75
AT
1288
1289manpageseealso()
1290
1291rsyncd.conf(5)
1292
1293manpagediagnostics()
1294
1295manpagebugs()
1296
1297times are transferred as unix time_t values
1298
f28bd833 1299When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171
DD
1300unmodified files.
1301See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1302
b5accaba 1303file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
41059f75
AT
1304values
1305
a87b3b2a 1306see also the comments on the --delete option
41059f75 1307
38843171
DD
1308Please report bugs! See the website at
1309url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75
AT
1310
1311manpagesection(CREDITS)
1312
1313rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1314COPYING for details.
1315
41059f75 1316A WEB site is available at
3cd5eb3b
MP
1317url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1318includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1319manual page.
9e3c856a
AT
1320
1321The primary ftp site for rsync is
1322url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
1323
1324We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1325
9e3c856a
AT
1326This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1327Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
1328
1329manpagesection(THANKS)
1330
1331Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
7ff701e8
MP
1332and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1333I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1334
ce5f2732
MP
1335Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1336Martin Pool, Wayne Davison.
41059f75
AT
1337
1338manpageauthor()
1339
ce5f2732
MP
1340rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1341Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 1342
a5d74a18 1343Mailing lists for support and development are available at
7ff701e8 1344url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)