Added more local-network IPs to the "hosts allow" rsyncd config
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
CommitLineData
9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
0c6d7952 2manpage(rsync)(1)(6 Nov 2006)()()
41059f75
AT
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
868676dc
WD
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 9
868676dc 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 11
868676dc 12rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
41059f75 13
c897f711
WD
14rsync [OPTION]... SRC
15
868676dc 16rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
41059f75 17
868676dc 18rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 19
9ef53907 20rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 21
41059f75
AT
22manpagedescription()
23
d858b274 24Rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
41059f75 25but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
675ef1aa
WD
26greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27updated.
41059f75
AT
28
29The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
f39281ae 30differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
41059f75
AT
31an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
32report that accompanies this package.
33
d858b274 34Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
1874f7e2
WD
35that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified time (by
36default). Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by
37options) are made on the destination file directly when the quick check
38indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
39
41059f75
AT
40Some of the additional features of rsync are:
41
b8a6dae0 42itemization(
b9f592fb 43 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
41059f75
AT
44 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
45 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
43cd760f 46 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
d38772e0 47 it() does not require super-user privileges
41059f75 48 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
5a727522 49 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
41059f75
AT
50 mirroring)
51)
52
53manpagesection(GENERAL)
54
15997547
WD
55Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
56current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
57
58There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
59remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
60rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
61the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
62a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
63source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
ba3542cf 64host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
754a080f 65"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
ba3542cf 66an exception to this latter rule).
15997547 67
c897f711
WD
68As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
69destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
15997547
WD
70
71As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
72host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
73
41059f75
AT
74manpagesection(SETUP)
75
76See the file README for installation instructions.
77
1bbf83c0
WD
78Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
79a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 80daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 81for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 82different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 83
faa82484 84You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
41059f75
AT
85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
8e987130 87Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
faa82484 88machines.
8e987130 89
41059f75
AT
90manpagesection(USAGE)
91
92You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
93and a destination, one of which may be remote.
94
4d888108 95Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
41059f75 96
faa82484 97quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
41059f75 98
8a97fc2e 99This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
41059f75
AT
100current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
101the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
102remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
103differences. See the tech report for details.
104
faa82484 105quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
41059f75 106
8a97fc2e 107This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
41059f75
AT
108machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
109files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 110links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 111in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
41059f75
AT
112size of data portions of the transfer.
113
faa82484 114quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
41059f75 115
8a97fc2e
WD
116A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
117additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
118/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
119to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
120containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
121destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
122files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
123/dest/foo:
124
faa82484
WD
125quote(
126tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
127tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
128)
41059f75 129
c4833b02
WD
130Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
131copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
132copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
133
134quote(
135tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
136tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
137)
138
41059f75
AT
139You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
140destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
141an improved copy command.
142
bb9bdba4
WD
143Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
144particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
145
faa82484 146quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
14d43f1f 147
bb9bdba4 148See the following section for more details.
14d43f1f 149
675ef1aa
WD
150manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
151
152The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
153quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
154
faa82484 155quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
675ef1aa
WD
156
157This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
158additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
159and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
160to be a part of the filenames.
161
faa82484 162quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
675ef1aa
WD
163
164This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
165word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
166that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
167whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
168a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
169whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
170in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
171
faa82484
WD
172quote(
173tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
174tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
175)
675ef1aa
WD
176
177This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
178wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
179
5a727522 180manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
41059f75 181
754a080f
WD
182It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
183In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
184using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
185the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
186CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
4c3b4b25 187
1bbf83c0 188Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
41059f75
AT
189that:
190
b8a6dae0 191itemization(
62f27e3c
WD
192 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
193 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
2c64b258 194 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
5a727522 195 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 196 connect.
5a727522
WD
197 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
198 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
f7632fc6 199 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
5a727522 200 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
2c64b258 201 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
41059f75
AT
202)
203
754a080f
WD
204An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
205
206verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
207
208Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
4c3d16be
AT
209you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
210password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
faa82484 211the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
65575e96 212may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 213
3bc67f0c 214WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
faa82484 215users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
3bc67f0c 216
754a080f
WD
217You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
218environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
219your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
220proxy connections to port 873.
bef49340 221
b553a3dd
WD
222You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
223setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you
224wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
225contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
226command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For
227example:
228
229verb( export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
230 rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
231 rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/ )
232
233The command specifed above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost,
234which forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost
235(%H).
236
754a080f
WD
237manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
238
239It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
240named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
241system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
242Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
243a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
244home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
245daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
246the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
247change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
248transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
249configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
250connections from "localhost".)
251
252From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
253connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
254rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
255explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
256bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
257will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
258
259verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
260
261If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
262user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
263module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
f2ebbebe
WD
264give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
265this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
754a080f
WD
266
267verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
bef49340
WD
268
269The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
754a080f 270used to log-in to the "module".
bef49340 271
754a080f 272manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
bef49340 273
754a080f
WD
274In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
275daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
276to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
277For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
49f4cfdf 278socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
754a080f
WD
279file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
280daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
bef49340 281
754a080f
WD
282If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
283no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
bef49340 284
41059f75
AT
285manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
286
287Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
288
14d43f1f
DD
289To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
290files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
41059f75 291
faa82484 292quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
41059f75 293
f39281ae 294each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
41059f75
AT
295"arvidsjaur".
296
297To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
298targets:
299
faa82484
WD
300verb( get:
301 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
302 put:
303 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
304 sync: get put)
41059f75
AT
305
306this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
ae283632
WD
307connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
308lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
41059f75
AT
309
310I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
faa82484 311command:
41059f75 312
faa82484 313tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
41059f75 314
faa82484 315This is launched from cron every few hours.
41059f75 316
c95da96a
AT
317manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
318
14d43f1f 319Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
faa82484 320to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
c95da96a 321 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
44d98d61 322 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
1de02c27 323 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
44d98d61 324 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
16edf865 325 -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
f40aa6fb 326 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
c95da96a
AT
327 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
328 -R, --relative use relative path names
f40aa6fb 329 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
915dd207 330 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
44d98d61 331 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
915dd207 332 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
44d98d61
WD
333 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
334 --inplace update destination files in-place
94f20a9f 335 --append append data onto shorter files
07bbf870 336 --append-verify --append w/old data in file cheksum
09ed3099 337 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
eb06fa95 338 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
44d98d61
WD
339 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
340 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
341 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
f2ebbebe 342 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
09ed3099 343 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
f2ebbebe 344 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
c95da96a 345 -p, --perms preserve permissions
2d5279ac 346 -E, --executability preserve executability
dfe1ed5e 347 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
1c3344a1 348 -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
eb7e7b24 349 -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
d38772e0 350 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
c95da96a 351 -g, --group preserve group
d38772e0 352 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
4e7d07c8
WD
353 --specials preserve special files
354 -D same as --devices --specials
42b06481
WD
355 -t, --times preserve modification times
356 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
d38772e0 357 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
9439c0cb 358 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
c95da96a
AT
359 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
360 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
98bf61c8 361 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
c95da96a 362 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
3ed8eb3f 363 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
44d98d61 364 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
68e169ab 365 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
8517e9c1
WD
366 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
367 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
47c11975 368 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
ae76a740 369 --del an alias for --delete-during
8517e9c1 370 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
598c409e 371 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
ae76a740 372 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
fd0a130c 373 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
ae76a740 374 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
8517e9c1 375 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
b5accaba 376 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
866925bf 377 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
0b73ca12 378 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
3610c458 379 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
59dd6786 380 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
c95da96a 381 --partial keep partially transferred files
44cad59f 382 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
44d98d61 383 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
a272ff8c 384 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
c95da96a 385 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 386 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
44d98d61
WD
387 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
388 --size-only skip files that match in size
389 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
abce74bb 390 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
5b483755 391 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
915dd207 392 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
2f03ce67 393 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
b127c1dc 394 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
32a5edf4 395 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
bad01106 396 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
2b967218 397 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
44d98d61 398 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
16e5de84 399 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
8a6f3fea 400 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
16e5de84 401 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
2acf81eb 402 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
44d98d61 403 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
2acf81eb 404 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
44d98d61
WD
405 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
406 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
fa92818a 407 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
3ae5367f 408 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
c259892c 409 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
04f48837 410 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
b5accaba 411 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
44d98d61 412 --stats give some file-transfer stats
a6a27602 413 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
955c3145 414 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
eb86d661 415 --progress show progress during transfer
44d98d61 416 -P same as --partial --progress
b78296cb 417 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
c000002f
WD
418 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
419 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
420 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
09a54c39 421 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
09ed3099 422 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
44d98d61 423 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
faa82484 424 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
326bb56e 425 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
44d98d61 426 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
0b941479 427 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
332cf6df 428 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filesnames
44d98d61 429 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
abce74bb
WD
430 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
431 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
81c453b1 432 --version print version number
b8a6dae0 433(-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
6902ed17 434
faa82484
WD
435Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
436accepted: verb(
bdf278f7
WD
437 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
438 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
44d98d61 439 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
bdf278f7
WD
440 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
441 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
c259892c 442 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
a2ed5801 443 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
4b90820d 444 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
04f48837 445 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
24b0922b 446 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
abce74bb
WD
447 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
448 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
b8a6dae0 449 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
c95da96a 450
41059f75
AT
451manpageoptions()
452
453rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
454options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 455below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
b5679335
DD
456The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
457can be used instead.
41059f75
AT
458
459startdit()
955c3145
WD
460dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
461available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
467688dc
WD
462versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
463option without any other args.
41059f75 464
bdf278f7 465dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
41059f75
AT
466
467dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 468are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
faa82484
WD
469single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
470transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
41059f75 471information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
faa82484 472information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 473you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 474
4f90eb43 475Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
4b90820d 476a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
81c453b1 477file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
4f90eb43
WD
478level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
479changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
4b90820d 480bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
4f90eb43 481output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
4b90820d 482any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
4f90eb43 483
b86f0cef
DD
484dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
485are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
486from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
487cron.
488
1de02c27
WD
489dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
490by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
491message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
492that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
493a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
c5b6e57a 494request the list of modules from the daemon.
1de02c27 495
41059f75 496dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
1874f7e2 497already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
d04e95e9
WD
498This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
499be updated.
41059f75 500
1874f7e2
WD
501dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
502finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
503transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
d15f2ff0 504time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
1874f7e2
WD
505when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
506not preserve timestamps exactly.
f83f0548 507
4f1f94d1
WD
508dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
509timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
510value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
511to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
512transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
513times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
514(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
5b56cc19 515
c64ff141
WD
516dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
517been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
518uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
519of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
520changes this to compare a 128-bit MD4 checksum for each file that has a
521matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
522a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
523this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
524so this can slow things down significantly.
525
526The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
527scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
528its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
529file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
530either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
531
532Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
533correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
534checksum that is generated when as the file is transferred, but that
535automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
2a24b4bd 536option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
41059f75 537
faa82484 538dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
e7bf3e5e 539way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
f40aa6fb
WD
540everything (with -H being a notable omission).
541The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
5dd97ab9 542specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
e7bf3e5e 543
faa82484 544Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
e7bf3e5e
MP
545finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
546specify bf(-H).
41059f75 547
f40aa6fb
WD
548dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
549the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
550only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
551bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
552(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
553specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
554(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
555
556For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
557bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
558could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
559
560The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
561bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
562Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
a9af5d8e 563positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
f40aa6fb
WD
564changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
565details).
566
24986abd 567dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
faa82484 568recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
41059f75 569
d9f46544
WD
570Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
571incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
572transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
573completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
ba2d43d7
WD
574does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
575both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
d9f46544
WD
576
577Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
1e05b590 578disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
ba2d43d7 579bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), and bf(--delay-updates).
d9f46544 580Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
1e05b590
WD
581bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
582(use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
d9f46544
WD
583explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
584than using bf(--delete-after).
585
ba2d43d7
WD
586Incremental recursion can be disabled using the bf(--no-inc-recursive)
587option or its shorter bf(--no-ir) alias.
588
41059f75
AT
589dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
590names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
591just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
14d43f1f 592you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
1dc42d12 593example, if you used this command:
41059f75 594
1dc42d12 595quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
41059f75 596
58718881 597... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
41059f75
AT
598machine. If instead you used
599
1dc42d12 600quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
41059f75 601
58718881 602then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
9bef934c 603machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
1dc42d12
WD
604path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
605a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
f2ebbebe 606insert a dot and a slash into the source path, like this:
1dc42d12
WD
607
608quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
609
610That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
f2ebbebe 611dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
1dc42d12
WD
612(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
613source path. For example, when pushing files:
614
53cf0b8b 615quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
1dc42d12 616
53cf0b8b
WD
617(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
618"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
619If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
620rsync daemon):
9bef934c 621
faa82484 622quote(
1dc42d12
WD
623tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
624tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
faa82484 625)
9bef934c 626
f2ebbebe
WD
627dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
628bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
629directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
630means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
631left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
632created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
633elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
634one side of the transfer, and a real directory on the other side.
635
636For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
637transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
638are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
639"bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
640delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
641the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
642"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
643ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
644preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
645affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
646
647In a similar but opposite scenario, if the transfer of "path/foo/file" is
648requested and "path/foo" is a symlink on the sending side, running without
649bf(--no-implied-dirs) would cause rsync to transform "path/foo" on the
650receiving side into an identical symlink, and then attempt to transfer
651"path/foo/file", which might fail if the duplicated symlink did not point
652to a directory on the receiving side. Another way to avoid this sending of
653a symlink as an implied directory is to use bf(--copy-unsafe-links), or
f06c11ed
WD
654bf(--copy-dirlinks) (both of which also affect symlinks in the rest of the
655transfer -- see their descriptions for full details).
41059f75 656
b19fd07c
WD
657dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
658renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
659backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
faa82484 660bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
4c72f27d
WD
661
662Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
663bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
2d5279ac 664also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
4c72f27d 665filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
f49c8376 666(e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
4c72f27d
WD
667deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
668need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
669in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
670your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
671rule would never be reached).
41059f75 672
faa82484 673dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
ad75d18d
WD
674tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
675side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
faa82484 676specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
759ac870
DD
677(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
678will keep their original filenames).
66203a98 679
b5679335 680dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
faa82484
WD
681backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
682if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 683
4539c0d7
WD
684dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
685the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
42b06481 686file. (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to the
4539c0d7 687source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
41059f75 688
4a4622bb
WD
689Note that this does not affect the copying of symlinks or other special
690files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and receiver
691is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what
692date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory
693where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
694the timestamps.
adddd075 695
a3221d2a
WD
696dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
697and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
eb162f3b
WD
698file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
699network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
700to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
faa82484 701with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
eb162f3b 702basis file for the transfer.
a3221d2a 703
183150b7
WD
704This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
705or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
706bound.
707
faa82484
WD
708The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
709the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
b7c24819
WD
710Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
711and bf(--link-dest).
a3221d2a 712
399371e7 713WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 714transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 715should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
eb162f3b 716rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
75b243a5 717receiving user.
a3221d2a 718
94f20a9f
WD
719dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
720the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
721the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
07bbf870
WD
722side. Any files that are the same size or shorter on the receiving size
723are skipped. Files that do not yet exist on the receiving side are also
724sent, since they are considered to have 0 length. Implies bf(--inplace),
725but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
726file's length).
727
728dit(bf(--append-verify)) This works just like the bf(--append) option, but
729the existing data on the receiving side is included in the full-file
730checksum verification step, which will cause a file to be resent if the
731final verification step fails (rsync uses a normal, non-appending
732bf(--inplace) transfer for the resend).
733
734Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the bf(--append) option worked like
735bf(--append-verify), so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
736transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
737will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
94f20a9f 738
09ed3099 739dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
faa82484 740are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
57b66a24
WD
741unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
742(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
faa82484 743bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
f40aa6fb 744output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
6e6cc163 745bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
09ed3099 746
eb06fa95
MP
747dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
748symlink on the destination.
41059f75 749
f2ebbebe 750dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
ef855d19
WD
751they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
752versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
753receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
faa82484 754modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
ef855d19 755to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
faa82484
WD
756an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
757will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
b5313607 758
eb06fa95 759dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 760symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
eb06fa95 761are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
f2ebbebe
WD
762source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
763additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
41059f75 764
d310a212 765dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 766which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
faa82484
WD
767also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
768give unexpected results.
d310a212 769
1a515b49 770dit(bf(-k, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
f2ebbebe
WD
771a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
772useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
773they would be using bf(--copy-links).
41059f75 774
f2ebbebe
WD
775Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
776symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
777the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
778bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
41059f75 779
f2ebbebe
WD
780See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
781side.
41059f75 782
f2ebbebe
WD
783dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
784a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
785matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
786receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
09ed3099 787
f2ebbebe
WD
788For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
789"file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
790bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
791directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
792bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
793"bar".
794
795See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
796
797dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
798the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
799side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
800as though they were separate files.
801
802Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
803are in the list of files being sent.
41059f75 804
ba2d43d7
WD
805If incremental recursion is active (see bf(--recursive)), rsync may transfer
806a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for the file
968061bb
WD
807exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
808the transfer, just its efficiency. One way to avoid this is to disable
ba2d43d7
WD
809incremental recursion using the bf(--no-ir) option.
810
2d5279ac
WD
811dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
812destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
813also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
814be the source permissions.)
8dc74608 815
2d5279ac
WD
816When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
817
b8a6dae0 818quote(itemization(
2d5279ac
WD
819 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
820 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
821 the execute permission for the file.
77ed253c 822 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
1c3344a1
WD
823 file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
824 permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
825 specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
77ed253c
WD
826 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
827 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
2d5279ac 828))
77ed253c 829
2d5279ac
WD
830Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
831rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
832such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
833
77ed253c
WD
834In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
835permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
1f77038e 836permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
77ed253c
WD
837bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
838all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
839behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
662127e6
WD
840putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
841and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
77ed253c 842
662127e6 843quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
77ed253c
WD
844
845You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
846
847quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
848
662127e6
WD
849(Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
850the "--no-*" options.)
851
77ed253c
WD
852The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
853directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
854versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
855newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
1c3344a1
WD
856destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
857observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
858non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
859(Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
860these behaviors.)
77ed253c 861
2d5279ac
WD
862dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
863executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
864not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
77ed253c
WD
865'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
866executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
867modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
2d5279ac 868
b8a6dae0 869quote(itemization(
2d5279ac
WD
870 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
871 permissions.
872 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
873 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
874))
875
876If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
41059f75 877
1c3344a1
WD
878dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
879ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs. This nonstandard option only
880works if the remote rsync also supports it. bf(--acls) implies bf(--perms).
881
16edf865
WD
882dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
883extended attributes to be the same as the local ones. This will work
eb7e7b24 884only if the remote machine's rsync also supports this option.
16edf865 885
9f822556
WD
886dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
887comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
888transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
889that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
890can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
891
892In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
893manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
894prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
895file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
896
897quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
898
899It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
900additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
901
902See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
903permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
904
eb06fa95 905dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
8641d287
WD
906destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
907receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
9439c0cb 908and bf(--fake-super) options).
8641d287
WD
909Without this option, the owner is set to the invoking user on the
910receiving side.
911
912The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
913may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
914bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
41059f75 915
eb06fa95
MP
916dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
917destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
8641d287
WD
918program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
919specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
920is a member of will be preserved.
921Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
922user on the receiving side.
923
924The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
925default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
926(see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
41059f75 927
4e7d07c8 928dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
d38772e0
WD
929block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
930This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
9439c0cb 931super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
41059f75 932
4e7d07c8
WD
933dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
934such as named sockets and fifos.
935
936dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
937
41059f75 938dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
baf3e504
DD
939with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
940option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
faa82484
WD
941modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
942cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
d0bc3520 943updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
faa82484 944if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
41059f75 945
54e66f1d 946dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
faa82484
WD
947it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
948the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
fbe5eeb8 949This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
54e66f1d 950
d38772e0
WD
951dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
952activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
953activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
954all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
955option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
956for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
957also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
958being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
959super-user can use bf(--no-super).
960
9439c0cb
WD
961dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
962super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via a
963special extended attribute that is attached to each file (as needed). This
964includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
965device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
966any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
967the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
809724d7
WD
968access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file, the
969files we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating user).
9439c0cb
WD
970
971The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
972To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync
973path:
974
975quote(tt( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/))
976
977Since there is only one "side" in a local copy, this option affects both
978the sending and recieving of files. You'll need to specify a copy using
979"localhost" if you need to avoid this. Note, however, that it is always
980safe to copy from some non-fake-super files into some fake-super files
981using a local bf(--fake-super) command because the non-fake source files
982will just have their normal attributes.
983
984This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
985
986See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
987
41059f75 988dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
a8cbb57c
WD
989up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
990not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
41059f75 991
d310a212
AT
992NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
993filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
994correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
995
f2ebbebe
WD
996dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
997instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
998
26ac1812 999dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the delta transfer algorithm
f2ebbebe
WD
1000is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
1001faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
1002destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
1003"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
1004the source and destination are specified as local paths.
1005
4e5baafe
WD
1006dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
1007filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
1008to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
1009through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
1010the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
1011in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
77ed253c 1012same filesystem.
4e5baafe
WD
1013
1014If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1015the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1016encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1017the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1018
1019If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
1020bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
49140b27
WD
1021treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1022by this option.
6d8c6bdb 1023
9639c718 1024dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
58a06312
WD
1025creating files (including directories) that do not exist
1026yet on the destination. If this option is
9639c718 1027combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
8e3b627d 1028(which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
9639c718 1029
58a06312
WD
1030dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
1031already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
c5b6e57a 1032directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
1347d512 1033
8e3b627d
WD
1034This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
1035option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1036a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1037used properly), using bf(--ignore existing) will ensure that the
1038already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1039permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option
1040is only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1041
47c11975 1042dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
fb41a3c6
WD
1043side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
1044and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
96110304 1045
2c0fa6c5 1046dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
e8b155a3
WD
1047receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
1048directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
1049send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
1050for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
ae76a740 1051by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
e8b155a3 1052the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
0dfffb88
WD
1053also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
1054option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1055include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
41059f75 1056
505ada14 1057Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
d9f46544
WD
1058was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
1059(bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
24986abd 1060
b33b791e 1061This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
faa82484 1062to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
b33b791e 1063deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 1064
e8b155a3 1065If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
3e578a19
AT
1066files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
1067prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
1068sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
faa82484 1069destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
41059f75 1070
faa82484
WD
1071The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1072without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
d9f46544
WD
1073--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
1074bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
1075the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1076bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
2c0fa6c5
WD
1077
1078dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
d9f46544 1079side be done before the transfer starts.
faa82484 1080See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
2c0fa6c5
WD
1081
1082Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
aaca3daa 1083and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
ae76a740 1084However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
faa82484 1085and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
d9f46544
WD
1086specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
1087algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
1088memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
ae76a740 1089
2c0fa6c5
WD
1090dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
1091receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
ae283632 1092a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
ae76a740 1093but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
faa82484 1094See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
aaca3daa 1095
fd0a130c 1096dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
d9f46544
WD
1097side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
1098completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1099temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1100is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1101the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1102using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1103incremental scan).
fd0a130c 1104
2c0fa6c5 1105dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
ae76a740
WD
1106side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1107are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1108you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
d9f46544
WD
1109current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1110recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1111transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
faa82484 1112See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
e8b155a3 1113
866925bf
WD
1114dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1115receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
faa82484 1116delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
0dfffb88
WD
1117See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1118this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1119bf(--delete-excluded).
faa82484 1120See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
866925bf 1121
faa82484 1122dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 1123even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 1124
b3964d1d
WD
1125dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1126when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1127deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1128
1129Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1130using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1131bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
41059f75 1132
e2124620 1133dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
e6109f49
WD
1134files or directories. If that limit is exceeded, a warning is output
1135and rsync exits with an error code of 25 (new for 3.0.0).
1136
1137Also new for version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to be warned
1138about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1139Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1140version the client is, you can use the less obvious bf(--max-delete=-1) as
1141a backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1142older versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
e2124620
WD
1143
1144dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1145file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
926d86d1 1146suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
e2124620
WD
1147may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1148
bee9df73
WD
1149The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1150"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1151gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1152If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1153"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
926d86d1
WD
1154Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1155be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
bee9df73
WD
1156
1157Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
926d86d1
WD
11582147483649 bytes.
1159
59dd6786
WD
1160dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1161file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1162transferring small, junk files.
1163See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
1164
3ed8eb3f
WD
1165dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1166the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1167the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
41059f75 1168
b5679335 1169dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 1170remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
43cd760f
WD
1171remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1172default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 1173
bef49340 1174If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
5a727522 1175remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
bef49340
WD
1176remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1177shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
754a080f
WD
1178running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1179RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
bef49340 1180
ea7f8108 1181Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
5d9530fe
WD
1182presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1183or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1184and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1185argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1186inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1187double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1188shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
98393ae2 1189
5d9530fe
WD
1190quote(
1191tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1192tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1193)
98393ae2
WD
1194
1195(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1196options in their .ssh/config file.)
1197
41059f75 1198You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
faa82484 1199environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
41059f75 1200
faa82484 1201See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
735a816e 1202
68e169ab
WD
1203dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1204on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1205the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1206Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1207program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1208not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1209communicate.
1210
1211One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1212machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1213
c5b6e57a 1214quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
41059f75 1215
f177b7cc
WD
1216dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1217broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
c575f8ce 1218systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
f177b7cc
WD
1219a file should be ignored.
1220
c575f8ce
WD
1221The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1222initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
f177b7cc 1223
faa82484 1224quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
2a383be0 1225.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
c575f8ce 1226.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .bzr/)))
f177b7cc 1227
c575f8ce 1228then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2a383be0
WD
1229files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1230are delimited by whitespace).
1231
f177b7cc 1232Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
bafa4875
WD
1233.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1234rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
49f4cfdf 1235See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 1236
bafa4875
WD
1237If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1238note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
3753975f 1239regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
bafa4875
WD
1240a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1241control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1242should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1243bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1244putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1245The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1246file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1247mentioned above.
1248
16e5de84
WD
1249dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1250exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1251most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
41059f75 1252
faa82484 1253You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
41059f75
AT
1254to build up the list of files to exclude.
1255
16e5de84
WD
1256See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1257
faa82484 1258dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
16e5de84
WD
1259your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1260
78be8e0f 1261quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
1262
1263This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1264been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
faa82484 1265files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
16e5de84
WD
1266rule:
1267
78be8e0f 1268quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
1269
1270This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1271
1272See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1273work.
1274
1275dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 1276bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
16e5de84
WD
1277the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1278
1279See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 1280
78be8e0f
WD
1281dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1282option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1283Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1284If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 1285
16e5de84 1286dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 1287bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
16e5de84 1288the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
43bd68e5 1289
16e5de84 1290See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 1291
78be8e0f
WD
1292dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1293option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1294Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1295If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 1296
f177b7cc 1297dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
78be8e0f 1298exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
c769702f 1299for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
faa82484
WD
1300transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1301
b8a6dae0 1302quote(itemization(
faa82484
WD
1303 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1304 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
f40aa6fb 1305 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
faa82484
WD
1306 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1307 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
f40aa6fb 1308 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
faa82484
WD
1309 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1310 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
f40aa6fb
WD
1311 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1312 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1313 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1314 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
faa82484 1315))
f177b7cc 1316
809724d7 1317The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
f177b7cc
WD
1318source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1319allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1320command:
1321
faa82484 1322quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
f177b7cc
WD
1323
1324If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
51cc96e4
WD
1325directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1326contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1327the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1328mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1329if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1330also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1331explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1332Also note
faa82484 1333that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
f177b7cc
WD
1334duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1335force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1336
faa82484 1337In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
f177b7cc
WD
1338instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1339(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1340specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1341transfer". For example:
1342
faa82484 1343quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
f177b7cc
WD
1344
1345This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1346was located on the remote "src" host.
1347
fa92818a 1348dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
f177b7cc 1349file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
faa82484
WD
1350This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1351merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1352It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
f01b6368 1353file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 1354
b5679335 1355dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
a9af5d8e
WD
1356scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1357on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1358file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
41059f75 1359
9ec1ef25
WD
1360This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1361have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1362In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1363partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1364over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1365into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1366destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
a9af5d8e
WD
1367truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1368the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1369temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1370it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1371someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1372new version on the disk at the same time.
9ec1ef25
WD
1373
1374If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1375space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
a0d9819f
WD
1376which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1377destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1378have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1379partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1380about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1381path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1382single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1383partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1384rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1385an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
9ec1ef25 1386
5b483755
WD
1387dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1388basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1389looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1390has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1391found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1392
1393Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1394fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1395filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1396
b127c1dc 1397dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
e49f61f5
WD
1398the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1399files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1400directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1401sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1402directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1403have changed from an earlier backup.
1404
faa82484 1405Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
99eb41b2
WD
1406provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1407for an exact match.
2f03ce67
WD
1408If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1409and the attributes updated.
99eb41b2
WD
1410If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1411selected to try to speed up the transfer.
e49f61f5
WD
1412
1413If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2f03ce67 1414See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
b127c1dc 1415
2f03ce67
WD
1416dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1417rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1418directory using a local copy.
1419This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1420existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1421been successfully transferred.
1422
1423Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1424rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1425If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1426selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1427
1428If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1429See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1430
1431dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
e49f61f5
WD
1432unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1433The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1434possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
8429aa9e
WD
1435An example:
1436
faa82484 1437quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
59c95e42 1438
99eb41b2
WD
1439Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1440provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1441for an exact match.
2f03ce67
WD
1442If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1443and the attributes updated.
99eb41b2
WD
1444If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1445selected to try to speed up the transfer.
e49f61f5 1446
33689f48
WD
1447This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1448rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
1449dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
1450change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
1451versions).
1452
d04e95e9
WD
1453Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1454link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1455substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1456file is updated.
1457
e49f61f5 1458If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2f03ce67 1459See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
b127c1dc 1460
e0204f56 1461Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
d38772e0
WD
1462bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1463specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1464the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
e0204f56 1465
32a5edf4
WD
1466dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1467as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1468being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
41059f75 1469
02184920 1470Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
32a5edf4
WD
1471be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1472because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1473blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
41059f75 1474
2b967218
WD
1475See the bf(--skip-compress) option for the default list of file suffixes
1476that will not be compressed.
1477
bad01106
WD
1478dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1479(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1480the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1481
2b967218
WD
1482dit(bf(--skip-compress=LIST)) Override the list of file suffixes that will
1483not be compressed. The bf(LIST) should be one or more file suffixes
1484(without the dot) separated by slashes (/).
1485
1486You may specify an empty string to indicate that no file should be skipped.
1487
1488Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
1489of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
1490"[:alpha:]", are supported).
1491
1492The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
1493
1494Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
1495matches 2 suffixes):
1496
1497verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
1498
1499The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (several
1500of these are newly added for 3.0.0):
1501
1502verb( gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg)
1503
1504This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
1505situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
1506its list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
1507different default).
1508
41059f75 1509dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 1510and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
41059f75
AT
1511at both ends.
1512
4d888108 1513By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 1514what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
faa82484 15150 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
41059f75
AT
1516option is not specified.
1517
ec40899b
WD
1518If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1519on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1520from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
1521"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1522the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1523users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 1524
b5accaba 1525dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
de2fd20e
AT
1526timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1527then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 1528
3ae5367f
WD
1529dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1530connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1531specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1532option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1533
c259892c
WD
1534dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1535rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1536double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1537syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
faa82484 1538option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
c259892c 1539
04f48837
WD
1540dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1541who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1542sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
49f4cfdf 1543slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
04f48837
WD
1544details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1545special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1546connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1547bf(--daemon) mode section.
1548
b5accaba 1549dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
314a74d7
WD
1550a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1551rsync defaults to using
b5accaba
WD
1552blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1553ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 1554
0cfdf226 1555dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
4f90eb43 1556changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
4b90820d 1557This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
14cbb645
WD
1558If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1559if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1560with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1561verbose messages).
ea67c715 1562
1c3344a1
WD
1563The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
1564format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
4f417448 1565type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
a314f7c1 1566other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
ee171c6d 1567modified.
ea67c715 1568
2d5279ac 1569The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
ea67c715 1570
b8a6dae0 1571quote(itemization(
cc3e0770 1572 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
a314f7c1 1573 (sent).
cc3e0770
WD
1574 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1575 (received).
c48cff9f 1576 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
ee171c6d 1577 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
02184920 1578 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
b4875de4 1579 bf(--hard-links)).
ee171c6d
WD
1580 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1581 have attributes that are being modified).
a314f7c1 1582))
ea67c715 1583
a314f7c1 1584The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
4e7d07c8
WD
1585directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1586special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
ea67c715 1587
a314f7c1 1588The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
ea67c715
WD
1589will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1590a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
b9f0ca72
WD
1591item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1592dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
81c453b1 1593a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
ea67c715
WD
1594
1595The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1596
b8a6dae0 1597quote(itemization(
ea67c715 1598 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
c48cff9f 1599 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
ea67c715
WD
1600 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1601 by the file transfer.
1602 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
5a727522 1603 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
42b06481 1604 means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
809724d7
WD
1605 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a regular file or device is
1606 transferred without bf(--times).
ea67c715 1607 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
5a727522 1608 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
4dc67d5e 1609 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
d38772e0 1610 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
4dc67d5e 1611 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
5a727522 1612 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1c3344a1
WD
1613 it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for reporting update (access) time changes
1614 (a feature that is not yet released).
1615 it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
1616 it() The bf(x) slot is reserved for reporting extended attribute changes
1617 (a feature that is not yet released).
ea67c715
WD
1618))
1619
1620One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
ee171c6d 1621the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
ea67c715
WD
1622you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1623outputting them as a verbose message).
dc0f2497 1624
4b90820d
WD
1625dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1626rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
ea67c715
WD
1627string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1628a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
4b90820d 1629the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
ea67c715
WD
1630
1631Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1632in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
4b90820d
WD
1633touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
1634included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
81c453b1 1635item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
7c6ea3d8 16362.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
ea67c715
WD
1637output of "%i".
1638
1639The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
4b90820d 1640bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
ea67c715
WD
1641the format of its per-file output using this option.
1642
4b90820d 1643Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
ea67c715
WD
1644one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1645logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1646is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1647the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
4b90820d
WD
1648(followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1649
1650dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1651to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1652requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1653transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1654enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1655option if you wish to override this.
1656
1657Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1658happening:
1659
1660verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1661
1662This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1663unexpectedly.
1664
1665dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1666per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1667(which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1668specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1669For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1670in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
b6062654 1671
b72f24c7
AT
1672dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1673on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 1674algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 1675
b8a6dae0 1676The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
7b13ff97
WD
1677 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1678 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1679 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1680 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1681 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1682 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1683 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1684 include the size of symlinks.
1685 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1686 for just the transferred files.
1687 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1688 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1689 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1690 recreating the updated files.
1691 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1692 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1693 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1694 list.
1695 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1696 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1697 sending side for this to be present.
1698 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1699 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1700 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1701 from the client side to the server side.
1702 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1703 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1704 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1705 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
38a4b9c2 1706))
7b13ff97 1707
a6a27602 1708dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
d0022dd9
WD
1709unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1710valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1711characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1712setting.
1713
1714The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1715and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1716would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1717escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1718
955c3145 1719dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
4c248a36
WD
1720This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1721this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1722G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1723instead of 1000.
3b4ecc6b 1724
d9fcc198
AT
1725dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1726transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1727it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
faa82484 1728bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
d9fcc198
AT
1729make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1730
c2582307
WD
1731dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1732bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1733partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1734On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
9ec1ef25 1735dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
c2582307 1736after it has served its purpose.
9ec1ef25 1737
c2582307
WD
1738Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1739file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1740(since
26ac1812 1741rsync is sending files without using the delta transfer algorithm).
44cad59f 1742
c2582307
WD
1743Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1744the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1745"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1746partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1747remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
44cad59f 1748
ee554411
WD
1749If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1750rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1751sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1752will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1753receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
f49c8376 1754the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
ee554411
WD
1755filter rules.
1756
1757If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1758exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1759rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1760to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1761rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1762should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1763bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1764bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1765left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
44cad59f 1766
faa82484 1767IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
b4d1e854
WD
1768is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1769
1770You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
faa82484 1771variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
02184920 1772enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
faa82484
WD
1773specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1774along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1775environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
9ec1ef25
WD
1776.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1777option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1778specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
faa82484 1779bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
01b835c2 1780
5a727522 1781For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
c2582307
WD
1782bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1783refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1784of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1785safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1786
01b835c2 1787dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
c2582307 1788updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
01b835c2
WD
1789transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1790succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
c2582307 1791atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
64318670 1792each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
ee554411
WD
1793bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1794comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1795".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
c5b6e57a 1796you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
64318670 1797Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
01b835c2
WD
1798
1799This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1800transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1801side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
5efbddba
WD
1802you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1803there is no
01b835c2
WD
1804chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1805the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
5efbddba
WD
1806absolute)
1807and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1808delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
01b835c2
WD
1809
1810See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
faa82484 1811update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
01b835c2 1812parallel hierarchy of files).
44cad59f 1813
a272ff8c 1814dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
fb72aaba
WD
1815rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1816that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1817creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1818recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
a272ff8c
WD
1819rules.
1820
1821Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1822what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1823mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1824being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1825destination files).
1826
1827You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1828by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1829that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1830
1831quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
fb72aaba
WD
1832
1833Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1834the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1835that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
a272ff8c
WD
1836(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1837
58718881 1838quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
fb72aaba 1839
a272ff8c 1840If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
4743f0f4 1841time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
a272ff8c 1842in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
fb72aaba 1843
eb86d661
AT
1844dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1845showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1846something to watch.
c2582307 1847Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
7b10f91d 1848
5e1f082d
WD
1849While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
1850looks like this:
68f9910d 1851
faa82484 1852verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
68f9910d 1853
5e1f082d
WD
1854In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
1855sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
1856per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
1857is maintained until the end.
1858
26ac1812 1859These statistics can be misleading if the delta transfer algorithm is
5e1f082d
WD
1860in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
1861followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
1862dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
1863will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
1864was finishing the matched part of the file.
1865
1866When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
1867summary line that looks like this:
1868
1869verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
1870
1871In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
1872of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
1873seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
1874during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
1875receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
1876the 396 total files in the file-list.
68f9910d 1877
faa82484 1878dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
183150b7
WD
1879purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1880transfer that may be interrupted.
d9fcc198 1881
9586e593
WD
1882dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
1883file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
1884It should contain just the password as a single line.
1885
1886When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
1887option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
1888authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
1889config file).
65575e96 1890
09ed3099 1891dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
b4c7c1ca
WD
1892instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
1893arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
1894command that includes a
c897f711
WD
1895destination arg into a file-listing command, (2) to be able to specify more
1896than one local source arg (note: be sure to include the destination), or
1897(3) to avoid the automatically added "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')" options that
1898rsync usually uses as a compatibility kluge when generating a non-recursive
b4c7c1ca
WD
1899listing. Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded
1900by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
1901without using this option. For example:
1902
1903verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
09ed3099 1904
ef5d23eb
DD
1905dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1906transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1907using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1908of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1909transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 1910result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
ef5d23eb
DD
1911of zero specifies no limit.
1912
b9f592fb 1913dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
faa82484 1914another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
32c7f91a 1915section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
6902ed17 1916
326bb56e
WD
1917dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1918no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1919This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
32c7f91a
WD
1920other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1921
1922Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1923media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1924can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1925whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1926partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1927happening).
1928
1929Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1930system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1931into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1932(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
326bb56e 1933
b9f592fb 1934dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
faa82484 1935file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
78be8e0f 1936If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 1937See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 1938
0b941479
WD
1939dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1940is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1941version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1942bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
81c453b1
WD
1943bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1944batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1945file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
0b941479 1946
332cf6df
WD
1947dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
1948sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
1949the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
1950fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
1951separated by a comma (local first), e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591).
1952Finally, you can specify a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion.
1953The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
1954affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
1955
1956Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
1957(including include/exclude files), in a files-from file, nor those
1958specified on the command line. It is up to you to ensure that you're
1959requesting the right names from a remote server, and you can specify
1960extra include/exclude rules if there are filename differences on the
1961two sides that need to be accounted for. (In the future there may be
1962a way to specify a UTF-8 filter rule that gets auto-converted to the
1963local side's character set.)
1964
e40a46de
WD
1965dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1966when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1967control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
faa82484 1968rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
e40a46de 1969
24d677fc
WD
1970If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
1971will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
1972is the case.
1973
c8d895de
WD
1974dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1975NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1976MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
49f4cfdf 1977by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
c8d895de
WD
1978is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1979applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1980in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
49f4cfdf 1981Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
b9f592fb 1982for checksum seed.
41059f75
AT
1983enddit()
1984
faa82484
WD
1985manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1986
bdf278f7
WD
1987The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1988
1989startdit()
bdf278f7 1990dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
62f27e3c
WD
1991daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1992the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
bdf278f7
WD
1993
1994If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1995run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1996become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1997(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
49f4cfdf 1998requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
bdf278f7
WD
1999details.
2000
3ae5367f
WD
2001dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2002run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
2003allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
2004makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
2005See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 2006
1f69bec4
WD
2007dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2008transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
faa82484 2009The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1f69bec4
WD
2010requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
2011client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
2012
bdf278f7 2013dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
faa82484 2014the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
bdf278f7 2015The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
d38772e0 2016a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
bdf278f7
WD
2017the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
2018
2019dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
2020rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
2021option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
2022be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
2023bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
2024bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
2025debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
2026sshd.
2027
c259892c
WD
2028dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
2029daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
2030global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 2031
a2ed5801
WD
2032dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2033given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
2034file.
2035
4b90820d
WD
2036dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2037given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
2038file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
2039case transfer logging is turned off.
2040
04f48837
WD
2041dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
2042rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
2043
24b0922b
WD
2044dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
2045daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
2046daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
2047used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
2048
bdf278f7
WD
2049dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2050when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
2051listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
2052versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
2053an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
faa82484 2054try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
bdf278f7 2055
24d677fc
WD
2056If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2057will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2058is the case.
2059
faa82484 2060dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
bdf278f7 2061page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
bdf278f7
WD
2062enddit()
2063
16e5de84 2064manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
43bd68e5 2065
16e5de84
WD
2066The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
2067(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
2068specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
2069include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
43bd68e5 2070
16e5de84
WD
2071As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
2072name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
2073turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
2074pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
2075filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
43bd68e5
AT
2076filename is not skipped.
2077
16e5de84
WD
2078Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
2079command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
2080
faa82484 2081quote(
d91de046
WD
2082tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2083tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
16e5de84
WD
2084)
2085
d91de046
WD
2086You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
2087below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
2088MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
2089must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
2090Here are the available rule prefixes:
16e5de84 2091
faa82484 2092quote(
d91de046
WD
2093bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
2094bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
2095bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
2096bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
0dfffb88
WD
2097bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
2098bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
2099bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
2100bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
d91de046 2101bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
16e5de84
WD
2102)
2103
d91de046
WD
2104When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
2105comment lines that start with a "#".
2106
faa82484 2107Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
16e5de84 2108full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
d91de046
WD
2109specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
2110list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
2111If a pattern
16e5de84
WD
2112does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
2113rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
faa82484 2114an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
d91de046
WD
2115the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
2116start of the rule.
16e5de84 2117
faa82484 2118Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
16e5de84 2119rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
faa82484
WD
2120the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
2121the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
16e5de84 2122
16e5de84
WD
2123manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
2124
0dfffb88
WD
2125You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
2126"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
bb5f4e72
WD
2127The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
2128the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
2129can take several forms:
16e5de84 2130
b8a6dae0 2131itemization(
16e5de84
WD
2132 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
2133 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
2134 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
2135 regular expressions.
809724d7 2136 Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the
16e5de84
WD
2137 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
2138 per-directory rule).
809724d7
WD
2139 An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the
2140 tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the
16e5de84 2141 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
809724d7 2142 end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
16e5de84
WD
2143 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
2144 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
2145 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
2146 of the transfer.
16e5de84 2147 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
809724d7 2148 directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.
9639c718
WD
2149 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
2150 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
2151 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
2152 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
2153 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
2154 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
2155 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
2156 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2157 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2158 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
16e5de84
WD
2159 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2160 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2161 matched only against the final component of the filename.
2162 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
ae283632 2163 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
16e5de84 2164 down.)
d3db3eef 2165 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
809724d7 2166 "dir_name/" had been specified) and everything in the directory
c575f8ce
WD
2167 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2168 version 2.6.7.
16e5de84
WD
2169)
2170
faa82484
WD
2171Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2172bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
16e5de84
WD
2173include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2174full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2175"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2176The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2177when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2178parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2179because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2180hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2181For instance, this won't work:
2182
faa82484
WD
2183quote(
2184tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2185tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2186tt(- *)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2187)
2188
2189This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2190rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2191directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
a5a26484 2192to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
58718881
WD
2193"- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2194solution is to add specific include rules for all
16e5de84
WD
2195the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2196works fine:
2197
faa82484
WD
2198quote(
2199tt(+ /some/)nl()
2200tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2201tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2202tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2203tt(- *)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2204)
2205
2206Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2207
b8a6dae0 2208itemization(
809724d7 2209 it() "- *.o" would exclude all names matching *.o
58718881
WD
2210 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2211 transfer-root directory
2212 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2213 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2214 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2215 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2216 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
faa82484 2217 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
58718881
WD
2218 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2219 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
16e5de84
WD
2220 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2221 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2222 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2223)
2224
2225manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2226
2227You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
d91de046
WD
2228merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2229section above).
16e5de84
WD
2230
2231There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2232per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2233its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2234rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2235it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2236into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2237must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2238being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2239also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2240affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2241below).
2242
2243Some examples:
2244
faa82484 2245quote(
d91de046 2246tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
faa82484 2247tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
d91de046
WD
2248tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2249tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
faa82484 2250tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2251)
2252
d91de046 2253The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
16e5de84 2254
b8a6dae0 2255itemization(
62bf783f 2256 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
d91de046 2257 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
62bf783f 2258 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
d91de046
WD
2259 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2260 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2261 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2262 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2263 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2264 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
a5a26484 2265 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
62bf783f
WD
2266 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2267 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
16e5de84
WD
2268 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2269 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
d91de046
WD
2270 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2271 also disabled).
2272 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
467688dc 2273 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
a5a26484 2274 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
0dfffb88
WD
2275 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2276 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
5a727522 2277 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
16e5de84
WD
2278)
2279
44d60d5f 2280The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
dc1488ae 2281
b8a6dae0 2282itemization(
c575f8ce 2283 it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
82360c6b 2284 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
a5a26484 2285 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
82360c6b
WD
2286 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2287 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2288 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
c575f8ce 2289 it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
44d60d5f
WD
2290 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2291 non-directories.
397a3443
WD
2292 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2293 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2294 follow.
0dfffb88
WD
2295 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2296 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2297 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2298 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2299 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
5a727522 2300 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
0dfffb88
WD
2301 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2302 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2303 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2304 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2305 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
c575f8ce
WD
2306 it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2307 ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2308 option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2309 marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2310 on the source from being deleted on the destination.
0dfffb88 2311)
dc1488ae 2312
16e5de84
WD
2313Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2314where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2315subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2316from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
d91de046 2317inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
16e5de84 2318the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
d91de046 2319dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
16e5de84
WD
2320rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2321file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2322
d91de046 2323Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
16e5de84
WD
2324anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2325merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
d91de046 2326would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
16e5de84
WD
2327file was found.
2328
faa82484 2329Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
16e5de84 2330
faa82484 2331quote(
d91de046 2332tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
faa82484 2333tt(- *.gz)nl()
d91de046 2334tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
faa82484
WD
2335tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
2336tt(- *.o)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2337)
2338
2339This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2340start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
467688dc 2341filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
16e5de84
WD
2342follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2343of the transfer).
2344
2345If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2346directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2347dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
faa82484 2348per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
16e5de84 2349
faa82484 2350quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
2351
2352That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2353directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2354transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2355the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2356rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2357
2358Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2359
faa82484
WD
2360quote(
2361tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2362tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2363tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2364)
2365
2366The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2367"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2368and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2369and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2370a part of the transfer.
2371
2372If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
d91de046
WD
2373you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2374file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
faa82484 2375use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
d91de046 2376per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
16e5de84 2377":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
d91de046 2378add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
16e5de84
WD
2379rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2380example:
2381
faa82484
WD
2382quote(
2383tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2384tt(+ foo.o)nl()
2385tt(:C)nl()
2386tt(- *.old)nl()
2387tt(EOT)nl()
2388tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
16e5de84
WD
2389)
2390
2391Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2392the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2393at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
bafa4875
WD
2394that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2395affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2396the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2397omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
4743f0f4 2398your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
16e5de84
WD
2399
2400manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2401
2402You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2403rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2404list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2405parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2406inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2407out the parent's rules).
2408
2409manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2410
2411As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2412"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2413anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2414a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2415transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2416directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
a4b6f305
WD
2417
2418Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
faa82484 2419trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
a4b6f305
WD
2420option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2421changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
16e5de84 2422host). The following examples demonstrate this.
a4b6f305 2423
b5ebe6d9
WD
2424Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2425path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2426Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305 2427
faa82484
WD
2428quote(
2429 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2430 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2431 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2432 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2433 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2434)
2435
2436quote(
2437 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2438 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2439 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2440 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2441 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2442)
2443
2444quote(
2445 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2446 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2447 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2448 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2449 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2450)
2451
2452quote(
2453 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2454 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2455 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2456 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2457 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
a4b6f305
WD
2458)
2459
16e5de84 2460The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
faa82484
WD
2461look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2462(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 2463
16e5de84 2464manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
43bd68e5 2465
16e5de84
WD
2466Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2467sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2468without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2469this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
27b9a19b 2470
faa82484
WD
2471quote(
2472tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2473tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
43bd68e5
AT
2474)
2475
16e5de84
WD
2476However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2477files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2478receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
faa82484 2479the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
16e5de84
WD
2480because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2481rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
43bd68e5 2482
faa82484 2483quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
20af605e 2484
16e5de84
WD
2485However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2486either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2487line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2488the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2489remote .rules files exclude themselves):
20af605e 2490
faa82484
WD
2491verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2492 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
20af605e 2493
16e5de84
WD
2494In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2495transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2496merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2497per-directory merge rule.
43bd68e5 2498
16e5de84
WD
2499In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2500files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2501to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2502specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2503deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2504should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2505
faa82484
WD
2506verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2507 host:src/dir /dest
2508 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
43bd68e5 2509
6902ed17
MP
2510manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2511
088aac85
DD
2512Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2513identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2514number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2515source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2516hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2517write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2518of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
2519client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2520this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2521
2522To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2523with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2524file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2525using the information stored in the batch file.
2526
2527For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2528option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 2529".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb 2530a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
49f4cfdf
WD
2531batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
2532optionally
b9f592fb
WD
2533passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2534instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2535path differs from the original destination tree path.
2536
2537Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2538status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 2539updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
2540be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2541at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 2542
4602eafa 2543Examples:
088aac85 2544
faa82484
WD
2545quote(
2546tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2547tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2548tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
4602eafa
WD
2549)
2550
faa82484
WD
2551quote(
2552tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2553tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
4602eafa
WD
2554)
2555
98f51bfb
WD
2556In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2557and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2558"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2559into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2560reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2561
b8a6dae0 2562itemization(
98f51bfb
WD
2563 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2564 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2565 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
98f51bfb
WD
2566 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2567 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
98f51bfb
WD
2568 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2569 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2570 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
faa82484 2571 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
98f51bfb 2572 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
faa82484 2573 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
98f51bfb 2574)
088aac85
DD
2575
2576Caveats:
2577
98f51bfb 2578The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
2579to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2580batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
0b941479 2581is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
7432ccf4
WD
2582appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2583and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2584error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
59d73bf3 2585if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
faa82484 2586always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
59d73bf3
WD
2587option (when reading the batch).
2588If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
7432ccf4 2589partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
088aac85
DD
2590be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2591destination tree.
2592
b9f592fb 2593The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
59d73bf3
WD
2594one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2595protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
0b941479
WD
2596to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2597creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2598(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2599older than that with newer versions will not work.)
088aac85 2600
7432ccf4
WD
2601When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2602to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2603as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
bb5f4e72
WD
2604For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2605bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2606bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2607one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
b9f592fb 2608
faa82484 2609The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
98f51bfb
WD
2610options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2611shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
faa82484 2612list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
98f51bfb 2613user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
faa82484 2614to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
98f51bfb 2615
59d73bf3
WD
2616The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2617version uses a new implementation.
6902ed17 2618
eb06fa95
MP
2619manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2620
f28bd833 2621Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
2622link in the source directory.
2623
2624By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2625"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2626
2627If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2628target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2629bf(--links).
2630
2631If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2632copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2633
2634rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2635example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2636ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2637bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2638bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2639they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
6efe9416
WD
2640unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2641bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
eb06fa95 2642
7bd0cf5b 2643Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
4743f0f4 2644(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
7bd0cf5b
MP
2645components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2646
6efe9416
WD
2647Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2648in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2649use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2650
2651dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2652symlinks for any other options to affect).
2653
2654dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2655and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2656
2657dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2658skip all safe symlinks.
2659
02184920 2660dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
6efe9416
WD
2661ones.
2662
2663dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2664
faa82484 2665manpagediagnostics()
d310a212 2666
14d43f1f 2667rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212 2668cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
faa82484 2669version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
d310a212
AT
2670
2671This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2672facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 2673for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
2674remote shell like this:
2675
faa82484
WD
2676quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2677
d310a212 2678then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 2679should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
2680rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2681data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 2682it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
2683scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2684for non-interactive logins.
2685
16e5de84 2686If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
faa82484 2687try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
e6c64e79
MP
2688show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2689
55b64e4b
MP
2690manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2691
2692startdit()
a73de5f3 2693dit(bf(0)) Success
faa82484
WD
2694dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2695dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
a73de5f3
WD
2696dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2697dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 2698was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 2699them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 2700not by the server.
a73de5f3 2701dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
124f349e 2702dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
faa82484
WD
2703dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2704dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2705dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2706dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2707dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2708dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
49f4cfdf 2709dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
faa82484 2710dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
2711dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2712dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
124f349e 2713dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
faa82484 2714dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
55b64e4b
MP
2715enddit()
2716
de2fd20e
AT
2717manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2718
2719startdit()
de2fd20e 2720dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
faa82484 2721ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
de2fd20e 2722more details.
332cf6df
WD
2723dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
2724environment variable.
de2fd20e 2725dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108 2726override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
faa82484 2727options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
4c3b4b25
AT
2728dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2729redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2730rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
de2fd20e 2731dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 2732password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
de2fd20e
AT
2733daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2734password to a shell transport such as ssh.
de2fd20e 2735dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
5a727522 2736are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
4b2f6a7c 2737If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
14d43f1f 2738dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e 2739default .cvsignore file.
de2fd20e
AT
2740enddit()
2741
41059f75
AT
2742manpagefiles()
2743
30e8c8e1 2744/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
41059f75
AT
2745
2746manpageseealso()
2747
49f4cfdf 2748bf(rsyncd.conf)(5)
41059f75 2749
41059f75
AT
2750manpagebugs()
2751
02184920 2752times are transferred as *nix time_t values
41059f75 2753
f28bd833 2754When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171 2755unmodified files.
faa82484 2756See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
38843171 2757
b5accaba 2758file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
41059f75
AT
2759values
2760
faa82484 2761see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
41059f75 2762
b553a3dd 2763Please report bugs! See the web site at
38843171 2764url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
41059f75 2765
15997547
WD
2766manpagesection(VERSION)
2767
0c6d7952 2768This man page is current for version 2.6.9 of rsync.
15997547 2769
4e0bf977
WD
2770manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
2771
2772The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
2773and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
2774awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
2775when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
2776the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
2777named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
2778ssh login.
2779
41059f75
AT
2780manpagesection(CREDITS)
2781
2782rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2783COPYING for details.
2784
41059f75 2785A WEB site is available at
3cd5eb3b
MP
2786url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2787includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2788manual page.
9e3c856a
AT
2789
2790The primary ftp site for rsync is
2791url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
41059f75
AT
2792
2793We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2794
9e3c856a
AT
2795This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2796Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
41059f75
AT
2797
2798manpagesection(THANKS)
2799
2800Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
7ff701e8
MP
2801and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2802I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2803
ce5f2732 2804Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
98f51bfb 2805Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
41059f75
AT
2806
2807manpageauthor()
2808
ce5f2732
MP
2809rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2810Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 2811
a5d74a18 2812Mailing lists for support and development are available at
faa82484 2813url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)