added -P option
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
460f6b99 2manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18manpagedescription()
19
20rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23exists.
24
25The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28report that accompanies this package.
29
30Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31
32itemize(
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
40 mirroring)
41)
42
43manpagesection(GENERAL)
44
039faa86 45There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
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46
47itemize(
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
50
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 single : separator.
55
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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58 contains a : separator.
59
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
946347b8 62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
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63
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
66 separator.
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67
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
70 local destination.
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71)
72
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73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
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75
76manpagesection(SETUP)
77
78See the file README for installation instructions.
79
80Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82destination are local.
83
14d43f1f 84You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
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85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
87One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
88security.
89
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90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
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93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
99
100quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
101
102this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
109
14d43f1f 110this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
14d43f1f 114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
118
14d43f1f 119a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
41059f75 120all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
14d43f1f 121/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
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122contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124using the --delete option.
125
126You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128an improved copy command.
129
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130quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
131
132this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
134
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135
136manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
137
138It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140running on TCP port 873.
141
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142You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
146
14d43f1f 147Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
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148that:
149
150itemize(
151 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
152 separate the hostname from the path.
153
154 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 155 connect.
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156
157 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
158 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 159
f7632fc6 160 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 161 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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162)
163
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164Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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167the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 169
3bc67f0c 170WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 171users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 172
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173manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
174
175An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
177information.
178
179manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
180
181Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
182
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183To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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185
186quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
187
188each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
189"arvidsjaur".
190
191To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
192targets:
193
194quote( get:nl()
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
196
197 put:nl()
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
199
200 sync: get put)
201
202this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
205
206I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
207command
208
209quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
210
211this is launched from cron every few hours.
212
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213manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
214
14d43f1f 215Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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216to the detailed description below for a complete description.
217
218verb(
9ef53907 219Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
d853783f 220 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9ef53907 221 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
14d43f1f 222 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
9ef53907 223 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
14d43f1f 224 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
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225SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
226SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
227 sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
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228
229Options
c95da96a 230 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 231 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
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232 -c, --checksum always checksum
233 -a, --archive archive mode
234 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
235 -R, --relative use relative path names
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236 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
237 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
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238 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
239 -l, --links preserve soft links
240 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
b5313607 241 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
d853783f 242 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
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243 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
244 -p, --perms preserve permissions
245 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
246 -g, --group preserve group
247 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
248 -t, --times preserve times
249 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
250 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
251 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
252 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 253 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
c95da96a 254 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
d9fcc198 255 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
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256 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
257 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
b33b791e 258 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
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259 --partial keep partially transferred files
260 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
261 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
262 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
263 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
f83f0548 264 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
c95da96a 265 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
375a4556 266 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
d9fcc198 267 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
c95da96a 268 -z, --compress compress file data
2acf81eb 269 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 270 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 271 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 272 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
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273 --version print version number
274 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
275 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
276 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
277 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 278 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 279 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 280 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
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281 -h, --help show this help screen
282)
283
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284manpageoptions()
285
286rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
287options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 288below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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289The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
290can be used instead.
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291
292startdit()
293dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
294available in rsync
295
296dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
297
298dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 299are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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300single -v will give you information about what files are being
301transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
302information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
303information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 304you are debugging rsync.
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306dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
307are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
308from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
309cron.
310
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311dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
312already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
313off this behavior.
314
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315dit(bf(-I, --size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
316already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
317--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
318regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
319after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
320exactly.
321
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322dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
323a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
324explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
325which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
326receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
327
460f6b99 328dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptg. It is a quick way
14d43f1f 329of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
41059f75 330
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331Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o (preserve
332uid) and -D (preserve devices) options are also implied.
5243c216 333
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334dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
335recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
336directories at all.
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337
338dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
339names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
340just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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341you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
342example, if you used the command
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343
344verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
345
346then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
347machine. If instead you used
348
349verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
350
351then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
352machine. The full path name is preserved.
353
354dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
355renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
356control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
357
b5679335 358dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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359backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
360
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361dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
362destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
363file.
364
365dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
366remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
14d43f1f 367option, all symbolic links are skipped.
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368
369dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
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370like ordinary files.
371
372dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
373point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
374also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
375path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 376
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377dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
378which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
379also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 380give unexpected results.
d310a212 381
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382dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
383the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
384option hard links are treated like regular files.
385
386Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
387are in the list of files being sent.
388
389This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
390
391dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
392is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
393useful when using rsync with a local machine.
394
395dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
396permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
397
398dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
399of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
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400to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
401the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
14d43f1f 402access to the usernames.
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403
404dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
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405of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
406not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
407will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
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408
409dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
410block device information to the remote system to recreate these
411devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
412
413dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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414with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
415option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
416modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
417cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
418their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
419changed.
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420
421dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
422instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
423
424dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
425up less space on the destination.
426
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427NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
428filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
429correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
430
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431dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
432boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
433contents of only one filesystem.
434
435dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
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436side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
437transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
41059f75 438
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439This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
440
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441This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
442to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
443deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 444
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445If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
446files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
447prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
448sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
449destination.
41059f75 450
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451dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
452receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
453delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
454
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455dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
456they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
457cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
15800c7e 458contains a directory of the same name.
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460Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
461so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
41059f75 462
b5679335 463dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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464the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
465
b5679335 466dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 467remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
14d43f1f 468remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
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469like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
470
471You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
472environment variable.
473
b5679335 474dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
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475rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
476that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
477the binary is in.
41059f75 478
b5679335 479dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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480certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
481useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
482
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483You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
484to build up the list of files to exclude.
485
14d43f1f 486See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
43bd68e5 487this option.
41059f75 488
b5679335 489dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
41059f75 490option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
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491the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
492are ignored.
41059f75 493
b5679335 494dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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495specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
496build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
497
498See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
499this option.
500
b5679335 501dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
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502from a file.
503
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504dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
505broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
506systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
507a file should be ignored.
508
509The exclude list is initialized to:
510
511quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
512.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
513*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
514
515then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
516files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
517
518Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
519that directory are added to the list.
520
b5679335 521dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
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522rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
523find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
524this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
de2fd20e 525making things faster.
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526
527You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
528--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
529
530Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
531with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
532microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
533before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
534
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535Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
536checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
537if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
538option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
539
b5679335 540dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 541scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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542transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
543the temporary files in the receiving directory.
544
b5679335 545dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
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546additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
547transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
548leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
14d43f1f 549files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
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550around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
551the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
552option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
553files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
554to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
555destination directory.
375a4556 556
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557dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
558the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
559option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
560same method that gzip uses.
561
562Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
563that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
564compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
565information sent for matching data blocks.
566
567dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
568and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
569at both ends.
570
571By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
572what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 5730 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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574option is not specified.
575
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576If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
577does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
578source system is used instead.
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580dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
581timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
582then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
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583
584dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
585daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
586is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
5315b793 587terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
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588config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
589respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
590details.
591
b5679335 592dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
5315b793 593the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
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594specified.
595
b5679335 596dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 597rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 598
3a64ad1f 599dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 600rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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601specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
602rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 603
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604dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
605on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 606algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 607
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608dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
609transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
610it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
611--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
612make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
613
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614dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
615showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
616something to watch.
617
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618This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
619the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
620
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621dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
622found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
623option to make it easier.
624
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625dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
626in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
627is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
628transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
629must not be world readable.
630
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631enddit()
632
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633manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
634
635The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 636selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 637
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638rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
639the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
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640name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
641pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
642skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
643skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
644filename is not skipped.
645
14d43f1f 646The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
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647
648itemize(
649 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
650 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
651 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
652 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
653 called foo anywhere in the tree.
654
655 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
656 directory, not a file, link or device.
657
658 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
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659 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
660 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
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661
662 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
663 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
664 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
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665 only against the final component of the filename. Furthermore, if
666 the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
667 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
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668
669 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 670 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
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671 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
672
673 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 674 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5 675 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
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676
677 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
678 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
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679)
680
681The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
682single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
683
684Here are some examples:
685
686itemize(
687 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
688 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
689 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
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690 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
691 levels below a base directory called foo
692 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
693 or more levels below a base directory called foo
43bd68e5 694 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
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695 directories and C source files
696 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
697 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
698 it would be excluded by the "*")
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699)
700
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701manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
702
14d43f1f 703rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
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704cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
705version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
706
707This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
708facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 709for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
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710remote shell like this:
711
712verb(
713 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
714)
715
716then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 717should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
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718rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
719data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 720it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
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721scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
722for non-interactive logins.
723
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724manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
725
726startdit()
727
728dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
729ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
730more details.
731
732dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
733override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
734be used instead of the -e option.
735
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736dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
737redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
738rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
739
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740dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
741password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
742daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
743password to a shell transport such as ssh.
744
745dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
746are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
747
14d43f1f 748dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
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749default .cvsignore file.
750
751enddit()
752
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753manpagefiles()
754
755/etc/rsyncd.conf
756
757manpageseealso()
758
759rsyncd.conf(5)
760
761manpagediagnostics()
762
763manpagebugs()
764
765times are transferred as unix time_t values
766
767file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
768values
769
a87b3b2a 770see also the comments on the --delete option
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771
772Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
9e3c856a 773url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
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774
775manpagesection(VERSION)
776This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
777
778manpagesection(CREDITS)
779
780rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
781COPYING for details.
782
41059f75 783A WEB site is available at
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784url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
785
786The primary ftp site for rsync is
787url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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788
789We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
790
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791This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
792Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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793
794manpagesection(THANKS)
795
796Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
797and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
798probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
799
800
801manpageauthor()
802
803rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
9e3c856a 804contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
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805Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
806