Implemented a "!" modifier for filter rules that lets a rule trigger
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
618c8a73 2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
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20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
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24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
25updated.
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26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
f39281ae 28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
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29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
b9f592fb 35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
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36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
43cd760f 38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
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39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
bef49340 47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
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48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
41059f75 52 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
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53 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
54 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
41059f75 55 single : separator.
41059f75 56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
41059f75 58 contains a : separator.
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59 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
60 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
bb18e755 61 separator or an rsync:// URL.
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62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
bb18e755 64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
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65 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
66 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
67 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
faa82484 68 separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
bef49340 69 also provided.
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70 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
71 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
72 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
73 destination path contains a :: separator and the
faa82484 74 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option is also provided.
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75 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
76 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
faa82484 77 local destination.
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78)
79
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80Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
81and destination paths must be local.
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82
83manpagesection(SETUP)
84
85See the file README for installation instructions.
86
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87Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
88a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
43cd760f 89daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
1bbf83c0 90for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
43cd760f 91different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
41059f75 92
faa82484 93You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
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94command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95
96One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
97security.
98
8e987130 99Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
faa82484 100machines.
8e987130 101
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102manpagesection(USAGE)
103
104You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
105and a destination, one of which may be remote.
106
4d888108 107Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
41059f75 108
faa82484 109quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
41059f75 110
8a97fc2e 111This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
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112current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
113the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
114remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
115differences. See the tech report for details.
116
faa82484 117quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
41059f75 118
8a97fc2e 119This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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120machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
121files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
b5accaba 122links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
14d43f1f 123in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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124size of data portions of the transfer.
125
faa82484 126quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
41059f75 127
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128A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
130/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
131to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
134files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
135/dest/foo:
136
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137quote(
138tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
139tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
140)
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141
142You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144an improved copy command.
145
faa82484 146quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
14d43f1f 147
8a97fc2e 148This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
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149somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
150
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151manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
152
153The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
154quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
155
faa82484 156quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
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157
158This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
159additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
160and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
161to be a part of the filenames.
162
faa82484 163quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
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164
165This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
166word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
167that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
168whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
169a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
170whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
171in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
172
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173quote(
174tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
175tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
176)
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177
178This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
179wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
180
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181manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
182
1bbf83c0 183It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
41059f75 184transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
faa82484 185running on TCP port 873.
41059f75 186
eb06fa95 187You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
4c3b4b25 188environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
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189your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
190proxy connections to port 873.
4c3b4b25 191
1bbf83c0 192Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
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193that:
194
195itemize(
196 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
bb18e755 197 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
41059f75 198 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 199 connect.
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200 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
201 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
f7632fc6 202 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 203 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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204)
205
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206Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
207you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
208password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
faa82484 209the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
65575e96 210may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 211
3bc67f0c 212WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
faa82484 213users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
3bc67f0c 214
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215manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
216
217It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
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218server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
219rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
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220to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
221firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
222features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
faa82484 223below).
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224
225From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
226using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
227explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
faa82484 228bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
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229this functionality.)
230
231In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
232server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
233
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234verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
235 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
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236
237The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
238used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
239
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240manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
241
faa82484 242An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
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243rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
244file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
245shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
faa82484 246is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
30e8c8e1 247(typically $HOME).
41059f75 248
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249manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
250
251See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
faa82484 252server configuration file.
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253
254Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
255user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
256configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
257if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
258
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259To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
260in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
bef49340 261
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262manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263
264Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265
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266To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
267files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
41059f75 268
faa82484 269quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
41059f75 270
f39281ae 271each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
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272"arvidsjaur".
273
274To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
275targets:
276
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277verb( get:
278 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 put:
280 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
281 sync: get put)
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282
283this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
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284connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
285lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
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286
287I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
faa82484 288command:
41059f75 289
faa82484 290tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
41059f75 291
faa82484 292This is launched from cron every few hours.
41059f75 293
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294manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295
14d43f1f 296Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
faa82484 297to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
c95da96a 298 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
44d98d61 299 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
c95da96a 300 -c, --checksum always checksum
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301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
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303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
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305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
915dd207 307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
44d98d61 308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
915dd207 309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
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310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
09ed3099 312 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
eb06fa95 313 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
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314 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
315 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
316 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
c95da96a 317 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
09ed3099 318 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
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319 -p, --perms preserve permissions
320 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
321 -g, --group preserve group
322 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
323 -t, --times preserve times
54e66f1d 324 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
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325 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
326 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
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327 -W, --whole-file copy files whole
328 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
c95da96a 329 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
3ed8eb3f 330 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
44d98d61 331 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
d9fcc198 332 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
1347d512 333 --existing only update files that already exist
915dd207 334 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
ae76a740 335 --del an alias for --delete-during
915dd207 336 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
598c409e 337 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
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338 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
339 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
866925bf 340 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
b5accaba 341 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
866925bf 342 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
0b73ca12 343 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
3610c458 344 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
c95da96a 345 --partial keep partially transferred files
44cad59f 346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
44d98d61 347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
c95da96a 348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
b5accaba 349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
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350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
c95da96a 353 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
915dd207 354 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
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355 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
356 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
c95da96a 357 -z, --compress compress file data
44d98d61 358 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
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359 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
360 -F same as --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
361 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
2acf81eb 362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
44d98d61 363 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
2acf81eb 364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
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365 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
367 -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
c95da96a 368 --version print version number
c259892c 369 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
b5accaba 370 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
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371 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
eb86d661 373 --progress show progress during transfer
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374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
09ed3099 377 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
44d98d61 378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
faa82484 379 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
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380 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
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382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
faa82484 384 -h, --help show this help screen)
6902ed17 385
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386Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
387accepted: verb(
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388 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
389 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
44d98d61 390 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
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391 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
392 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
c259892c 393 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
24b0922b 394 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
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395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
faa82484 397 -h, --help show this help screen)
c95da96a 398
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399manpageoptions()
400
401rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
402options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 403below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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404The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
405can be used instead.
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406
407startdit()
408dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
bdf278f7 409available in rsync.
41059f75 410
bdf278f7 411dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
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412
413dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 414are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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415single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
416transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
41059f75 417information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
faa82484 418information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 419you are debugging rsync.
41059f75 420
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421dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
422are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
423from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
424cron.
425
41059f75 426dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
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427already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
428This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
41059f75 429
a03a9f4e 430dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
915dd207 431already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
faa82484 432bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
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433regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
434after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
435exactly.
436
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437dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
438the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
439modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
440set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
38843171 441transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
faa82484 442with a 1 second resolution bf(--modify-window=1) is useful.
5b56cc19 443
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444dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
445a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
446explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
447which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
a03a9f4e 448receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
41059f75 449
faa82484 450dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
e7bf3e5e 451way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
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452everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
453specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
e7bf3e5e 454
faa82484 455Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
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456finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
457specify bf(-H).
41059f75 458
24986abd 459dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
faa82484 460recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
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461
462dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
463names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
464just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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465you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
466example, if you used the command
41059f75 467
faa82484 468quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
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469
470then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
471machine. If instead you used
472
faa82484 473quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
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474
475then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
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476machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
477path information that is sent, do something like this:
478
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479quote(
480tt( cd /foo)nl()
481tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
482)
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483
484That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
f177b7cc 485
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486dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
487needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
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488file processing.
489
faa82484 490dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
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491implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
492of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
493the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
faa82484 494path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
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495the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
496destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
faa82484 497the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
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498which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
499symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
41059f75 500
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501dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
502renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
503backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
faa82484 504bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
41059f75 505
faa82484 506dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
66203a98 507tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
759ac870 508very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
faa82484 509specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
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510(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
511will keep their original filenames).
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512If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
513(which changes in a recursive transfer).
66203a98 514
b5679335 515dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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516backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
517if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
9ef53907 518
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519dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
520the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
521file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
522source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
41059f75 523
faa82484 524In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
4539c0d7 525between the sender and receiver is always
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526considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
527is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
528symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
529regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
530free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
531
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532dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
533and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
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534file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
535network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
536to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
faa82484 537with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
eb162f3b 538basis file for the transfer.
a3221d2a 539
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540This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
541or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
542bound.
543
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544The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
545the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
546Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
547bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
a3221d2a 548
399371e7 549WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
98f51bfb 550transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
399371e7 551should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
eb162f3b 552rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
75b243a5 553receiving user.
a3221d2a 554
09ed3099 555dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
faa82484 556are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
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557unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
558name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
faa82484 559bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
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560output a message to that effect for each one).
561
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562dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
563symlink on the destination.
41059f75 564
eb06fa95 565dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
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566they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
567versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
568receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
faa82484 569modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
ef855d19 570to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
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571an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
572will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
b5313607 573
eb06fa95 574dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
7af4227a 575symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
eb06fa95 576are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
faa82484 577source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
41059f75 578
d310a212 579dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
7af4227a 580which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
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581also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
582give unexpected results.
d310a212 583
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584dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
585the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
586option hard links are treated like regular files.
587
588Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
589are in the list of files being sent.
590
591This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
592
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593dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
594pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
595from the sender.
596
41059f75 597dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
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598is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
599faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
6eb770bb 600destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
4d888108 601"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
6eb770bb 602the source and destination are specified as local paths.
41059f75 603
faa82484 604dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
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605default.
606
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607dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
608permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
609
610Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
611source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
612other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
613(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
41059f75 614
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615dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
616destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
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617only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
618is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
faa82484 619circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
41059f75 620
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621dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
622destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
623program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
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624receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
625is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
faa82484 626circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
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627
628dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
629block device information to the remote system to recreate these
630devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
631
632dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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633with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
634option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
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635modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
636cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
d0bc3520 637updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
faa82484 638if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
41059f75 639
54e66f1d 640dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
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641it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
642the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
54e66f1d 643
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644dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
645instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
646
647dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
648up less space on the destination.
649
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650NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
651filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
652correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
653
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654dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
655boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
656contents of only one filesystem.
657
faa82484 658dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
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659only update files that already exist on the destination.
660
3d6feada 661dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
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662This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
663the destination.
3d6feada 664
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665dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
666files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
667to prevent disasters.
668
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669dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
670file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
671suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
faa82484 672may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
3610c458 673
2c0fa6c5 674dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
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675receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
676directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
677send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
678for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
ae76a740 679by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
e8b155a3 680the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
faa82484 681excluded from being deleted unless you use bf(--delete-excluded).
41059f75 682
866925bf 683This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
24986abd 684
b33b791e 685This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
faa82484 686to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
b33b791e 687deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
41059f75 688
e8b155a3 689If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
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690files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
691prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
692sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
faa82484 693destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
41059f75 694
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695The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
696without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
2c0fa6c5 697--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
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698bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
699bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
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700
701dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
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702side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
703or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
704See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
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705
706Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
aaca3daa 707and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
ae76a740 708However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
faa82484 709and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
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710specified).
711
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712dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
713receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
ae283632 714a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
ae76a740 715but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
faa82484 716See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
aaca3daa 717
2c0fa6c5 718dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
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719side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
720are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
721you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
722current transfer.
faa82484 723See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
e8b155a3 724
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725dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
726receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
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727delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
728See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
866925bf 729
faa82484 730dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
b5accaba 731even when there are I/O errors.
2c5548d2 732
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733dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
734they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
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735is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
736Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
41059f75 737
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738dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
739the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
740the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
41059f75 741
b5679335 742dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 743remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
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744remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
745default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
41059f75 746
bef49340 747If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
4d888108 748remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
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749remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
750shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
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751running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
752TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
bef49340 753
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754Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
755presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
98393ae2 756
faa82484 757quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
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758
759(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
760options in their .ssh/config file.)
761
41059f75 762You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
faa82484 763environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
41059f75 764
faa82484 765See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
735a816e 766
b5679335 767dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
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768rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
769that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
770the binary is in.
41059f75 771
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772dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
773broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
774systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
775a file should be ignored.
776
777The exclude list is initialized to:
778
faa82484 779quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
2a383be0 780.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
faa82484 781.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
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782
783then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
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784files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
785are delimited by whitespace).
786
f177b7cc 787Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
2a383be0 788.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
2a383be0 789See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
f177b7cc 790
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791dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
792exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
793most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
41059f75 794
faa82484 795You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
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796to build up the list of files to exclude.
797
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798See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
799
faa82484 800dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
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801your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
802
faa82484 803quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
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804
805This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
806been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
faa82484 807files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
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808rule:
809
faa82484 810quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
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811
812This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
813
814See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
815work.
816
817dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 818bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
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819the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
820
821See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
41059f75 822
faa82484 823dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
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824option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
825FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
826';' or '#' are ignored.
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DD
827If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
828
16e5de84 829dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
faa82484 830bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
16e5de84 831the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
43bd68e5 832
16e5de84 833See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
43bd68e5 834
b5679335 835dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
43bd68e5 836from a file.
c769702f 837If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
f8a94f0d 838
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839dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
840exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
c769702f 841for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
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842transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
843
844quote(itemize(
845 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
846 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
847 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
848 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
849 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
850 them.
851 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
852 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
853))
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854
855The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
856source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
857allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
858command:
859
faa82484 860quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
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861
862If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
863directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
faa82484 864contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified bf(-r)
f177b7cc 865or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
faa82484 866that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
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867duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
868force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
869
faa82484 870In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
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871instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
872(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
873specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
874transfer". For example:
875
faa82484 876quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
f177b7cc
WD
877
878This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
879was located on the remote "src" host.
880
881dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
882file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
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883This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
884merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
885It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
f01b6368 886file are split on whitespace).
41059f75 887
b5679335 888dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 889scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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890transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
891the temporary files in the receiving directory.
892
b127c1dc 893dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
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894the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
895files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
896directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
897sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
898directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
899have changed from an earlier backup.
900
faa82484 901Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
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902provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
903finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
904and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
905
906If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
faa82484 907See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
b127c1dc
WD
908
909dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
910rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
911directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
912useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
913files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
e49f61f5
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914successfully transferred.
915
916If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
faa82484 917See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
b127c1dc
WD
918
919dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
e49f61f5
WD
920unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
921The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
922possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
8429aa9e
WD
923An example:
924
faa82484 925quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
59c95e42 926
faa82484 927Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--link-dest) option is
e49f61f5
WD
928specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
929the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
930of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
931
932If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
faa82484 933See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
b127c1dc 934
e0204f56 935Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
faa82484
WD
936bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
937(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
eb162f3b 938when sending to an old rsync.
e0204f56 939
41059f75 940dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
089e73f8 941the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
f39281ae 942option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
41059f75
AT
943same method that gzip uses.
944
945Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
946that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
947compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
948information sent for matching data blocks.
949
950dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
4d888108 951and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
41059f75
AT
952at both ends.
953
4d888108 954By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
41059f75 955what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
faa82484 9560 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
41059f75
AT
957option is not specified.
958
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959If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
960on the destination system, then the numeric ID
961from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
a2b0471f
WD
962"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
963the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
964users and groups and what you can do about it.
41059f75 965
b5accaba 966dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
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967timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
968then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
41059f75 969
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970dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
971rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
972double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
973syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
faa82484 974option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
c259892c 975
b5accaba 976dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
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977a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
978rsync defaults to using
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WD
979blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
980ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
64c704f0 981
faa82484 982dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
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DD
983default.
984
3a64ad1f 985dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 986rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
3a64ad1f
DD
987specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
988rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 989
b72f24c7
AT
990dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
991on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 992algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 993
d9fcc198
AT
994dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
995transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
996it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
faa82484 997bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
d9fcc198
AT
998make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
999
faa82484 1000dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on bf(--partial) mode, but tells rsync to
b127c1dc 1001put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
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1002file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
1003dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
1004rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
faa82484 1005its purpose. Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied) that an
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1006existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
1007rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
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1008
1009Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
1010whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
faa82484 1011"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the partial-directory
b127c1dc 1012in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
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1013if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
1014DIR was specified as a relative path).
1015
a33857da 1016If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
faa82484 1017bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
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1018will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1019untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
faa82484 1020the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
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1021rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1022supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
a33857da
WD
1023rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1024it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
faa82484 1025a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
44cad59f 1026
faa82484 1027IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
b4d1e854
WD
1028is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1029
1030You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
faa82484
WD
1031variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1032enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1033specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1034along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1035environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1036.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1037option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1038specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1039bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
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WD
1040
1041dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1042updated file into the file's partial-dir (see above) until the end of the
1043transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1044succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
faa82484 1045atomic. If you don't specify the bf(--partial-dir) option, this option will
01b835c2 1046cause it to default to ".~tmp~" (RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR is not consulted for
faa82484 1047this value). Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
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WD
1048
1049This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1050transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1051side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
faa82484 1052you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
01b835c2
WD
1053chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1054the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1055absolute).
1056
1057See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
faa82484 1058update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
01b835c2 1059parallel hierarchy of files).
44cad59f 1060
eb86d661
AT
1061dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1062showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1063something to watch.
faa82484 1064Implies bf(--verbose) without incrementing verbosity.
7b10f91d 1065
68f9910d
WD
1066When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1067
faa82484 1068verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
68f9910d
WD
1069
1070This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1071is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1072data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1073remaining in this transfer.
1074
c2c14fa2 1075After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
68f9910d 1076
faa82484 1077verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
68f9910d
WD
1078
1079This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1080transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1081the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1082These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1083what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1084
faa82484 1085dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
183150b7
WD
1086purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1087transfer that may be interrupted.
d9fcc198 1088
65575e96
AT
1089dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1090in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
bb18e755 1091is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
65575e96 1092transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
fc7952e7
AT
1093must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1094single line.
65575e96 1095
09ed3099
WD
1096dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1097instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1098specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
faa82484 1099come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
09ed3099
WD
1100options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1101non-recursive listing.
1102
ef5d23eb
DD
1103dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1104transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1105using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1106of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1107transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
4d888108 1108result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
ef5d23eb
DD
1109of zero specifies no limit.
1110
b9f592fb 1111dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
faa82484 1112another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
b9f592fb 1113section for details.
6902ed17 1114
b9f592fb 1115dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
faa82484 1116file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
399371e7 1117If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
c769702f 1118See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
6902ed17 1119
e40a46de
WD
1120dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1121when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1122control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
faa82484 1123rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
e40a46de 1124
c8d895de
WD
1125dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1126NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1127MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
b9f592fb 1128by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
c8d895de
WD
1129is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1130applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1131in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1132Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
b9f592fb 1133for checksum seed.
41059f75
AT
1134enddit()
1135
faa82484
WD
1136manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1137
bdf278f7
WD
1138The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1139
1140startdit()
bdf278f7
WD
1141dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1142daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1143bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1144
1145If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1146run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1147become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1148(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1149requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1150details.
1151
1152dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
faa82484
WD
1153when run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
1154rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
bdf278f7 1155address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
faa82484 1156in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
01f8a115 1157option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 1158
1f69bec4
WD
1159dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1160transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
faa82484 1161The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1f69bec4
WD
1162requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1163client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1164
bdf278f7 1165dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
faa82484 1166the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
bdf278f7
WD
1167The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1168a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1169the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1170
1171dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1172rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1173option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1174be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1175bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1176bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1177debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1178sshd.
1179
c259892c
WD
1180dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1181daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1182global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
bdf278f7 1183
24b0922b
WD
1184dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1185daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1186daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1187used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1188
bdf278f7
WD
1189dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1190when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1191listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1192versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1193an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
faa82484 1194try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
bdf278f7 1195
faa82484 1196dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
bdf278f7 1197page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
bdf278f7
WD
1198enddit()
1199
16e5de84 1200manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
43bd68e5 1201
16e5de84
WD
1202The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1203(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1204specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1205include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
43bd68e5 1206
16e5de84
WD
1207As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1208name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1209turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1210pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1211filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
43bd68e5
AT
1212filename is not skipped.
1213
16e5de84
WD
1214Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1215command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1216
faa82484
WD
1217quote(
1218tt(x [RULE])nl()
1219tt(xMODIFIERS [RULE])nl()
16e5de84
WD
1220)
1221
1222The 'x' is a single-letter that specifies the kind of rule to create. It
dc1488ae
WD
1223can have trailing modifiers, and is separated from the RULE by either a
1224single space or an underscore (_). Here are the available rule prefixes:
16e5de84 1225
faa82484
WD
1226quote(
1227bf(-) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1228bf(+) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1229bf(.) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1230bf(:) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1231bf(!) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no RULE) nl()
16e5de84
WD
1232)
1233
faa82484 1234Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
16e5de84
WD
1235full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1236specification of include/exclude patterns and the "!" token (not to
1237mention the comment lines when reading rules from a file). If a pattern
1238does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1239rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
faa82484 1240an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
16e5de84
WD
1241the other hand, must always contain one of the prefixes above.
1242
faa82484 1243Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
16e5de84 1244rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
faa82484
WD
1245the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1246the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
16e5de84
WD
1247
1248When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1249comment lines that start with a "#".
1250
1251manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1252
ae283632 1253You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+" and
16e5de84
WD
1254"-" filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). These
1255rules specify a pattern that is matched against the names of the files
1256that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several forms:
1257
1258itemize(
16e5de84
WD
1259 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1260 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1261 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1262 regular expressions.
1263 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1264 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1265 per-directory rule).
1266 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1267 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1268 the
1269 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1270 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1271 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1272 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1273 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1274 of the transfer.
16e5de84
WD
1275 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1276 directory, not a file, link, or device.
16e5de84
WD
1277 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1278 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1279 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
16e5de84
WD
1280 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1281 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
16e5de84
WD
1282 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1283 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1284 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1285 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1286 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
ae283632 1287 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
16e5de84 1288 down.)
16e5de84
WD
1289)
1290
faa82484
WD
1291Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1292bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
16e5de84
WD
1293include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1294full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1295"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1296The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1297when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1298parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1299because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1300hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1301For instance, this won't work:
1302
faa82484
WD
1303quote(
1304tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1305tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1306tt(- *)nl()
16e5de84
WD
1307)
1308
1309This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1310rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1311directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1312to be included by using a single rule: "+_*/" (put it somewhere before the
1313"-_*" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1314the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1315works fine:
1316
faa82484
WD
1317quote(
1318tt(+ /some/)nl()
1319tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1320tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1321tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1322tt(- *)nl()
16e5de84
WD
1323)
1324
1325Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1326
1327itemize(
1328 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1329 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1330 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1331 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1332 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1333 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1334 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
faa82484 1335 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
16e5de84
WD
1336 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1337 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1338 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1339 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1340)
1341
1342manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1343
1344You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1345"." or a ":" filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
1346above).
1347
1348There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1349per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1350its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1351rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1352it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1353into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1354must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1355being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1356also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1357affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1358below).
1359
1360Some examples:
1361
faa82484
WD
1362quote(
1363tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1364tt(: .per-dir-filter)nl()
1365tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
16e5de84
WD
1366)
1367
dc1488ae 1368The following modifiers are accepted after a "." or ":":
16e5de84
WD
1369
1370itemize(
62bf783f 1371 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
16e5de84
WD
1372 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1373 token ("!").
62bf783f 1374 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
16e5de84
WD
1375 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1376 token ("!").
62bf783f 1377 it() A bf(C) is a shorthand for the modifiers bf(nw-), which makes the
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WD
1378 parsing compatible with the way CVS parses their exclude files. If no
1379 filename is specified, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
62bf783f 1380 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file from the transfer; e.g.
16e5de84 1381 ":e_.rules" is like ":_.rules" and "-_.rules".
62bf783f
WD
1382 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1383 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
16e5de84
WD
1384 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1385 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
62bf783f 1386 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that bf(-) or bf(+) was not
16e5de84
WD
1387 specified to turn off the parsing of prefixes).
1388)
1389
dc1488ae
WD
1390The following modifier is accepted after a "+" or "-":
1391
1392itemize(
1393 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1394 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
faa82484 1395 "-/_/etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
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WD
1396 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1397)
1398
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1399Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1400where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1401subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1402from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1403inherited rules. The entire set of per-dir rules is grouped together in
1404the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1405per-dir rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1406rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1407file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1408
1409Another way to prevent a single per-dir rule from being inherited is to
1410anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1411merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1412would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the per-dir filter
1413file was found.
1414
faa82484 1415Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
16e5de84 1416
faa82484
WD
1417quote(
1418tt(. /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1419tt(- *.gz)nl()
1420tt(: .rules)nl()
1421tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1422tt(- *.o)nl()
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WD
1423)
1424
1425This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1426start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1427filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1428follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1429of the transfer).
1430
1431If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1432directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1433dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
faa82484 1434per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
16e5de84 1435
faa82484 1436quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
16e5de84
WD
1437
1438That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1439directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1440transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1441the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1442rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1443
1444Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1445
faa82484
WD
1446quote(
1447tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1448tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1449tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
16e5de84
WD
1450)
1451
1452The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1453"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1454and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1455and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1456a part of the transfer.
1457
1458If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1459you should use the rule ":C" -- this is a short-hand for the rule
62bf783f 1460":nw-_.cvsignore", and ensures that the .cvsignore file's contents are
16e5de84 1461interpreted according to the same parsing rules that CVS uses. You can
faa82484 1462use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
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WD
1463per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting a
1464":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
ae283632 1465add the per-dir rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
16e5de84
WD
1466rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1467example:
1468
faa82484
WD
1469quote(
1470tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1471tt(+ foo.o)nl()
1472tt(:C)nl()
1473tt(- *.old)nl()
1474tt(EOT)nl()
1475tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
16e5de84
WD
1476)
1477
1478Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1479the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1480at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1481that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. (The
1482global rules taken from the $HOME/.cvsignore file and from $CVSIGNORE are
1483not repositioned from their spot at the end of your rules, however -- feel
1484free to manually include $HOME/.cvsignore elsewhere in your rules.)
1485
1486manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1487
1488You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1489rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1490list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1491parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1492inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1493out the parent's rules).
1494
1495manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1496
1497As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1498"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1499anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1500a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1501transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1502directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
a4b6f305
WD
1503
1504Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
faa82484 1505trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
a4b6f305
WD
1506option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1507changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
16e5de84 1508host). The following examples demonstrate this.
a4b6f305 1509
b5ebe6d9
WD
1510Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1511path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1512Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
a4b6f305 1513
faa82484
WD
1514quote(
1515 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1516 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1517 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1518 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1519 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1520)
1521
1522quote(
1523 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1524 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1525 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1526 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1527 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1528)
1529
1530quote(
1531 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1532 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1533 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1534 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1535 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1536)
1537
1538quote(
1539 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1540 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1541 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1542 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1543 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
a4b6f305
WD
1544)
1545
16e5de84 1546The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
faa82484
WD
1547look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1548(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
d1cce1dd 1549
16e5de84 1550manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
43bd68e5 1551
16e5de84
WD
1552Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1553sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1554without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1555this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
27b9a19b 1556
faa82484
WD
1557quote(
1558tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1559tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
43bd68e5
AT
1560)
1561
16e5de84
WD
1562However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1563files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1564receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
faa82484 1565the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
16e5de84
WD
1566because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1567rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
43bd68e5 1568
faa82484 1569quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
20af605e 1570
16e5de84
WD
1571However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1572either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1573line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1574the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1575remote .rules files exclude themselves):
20af605e 1576
faa82484
WD
1577verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1578 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
20af605e 1579
16e5de84
WD
1580In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1581transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1582merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1583per-directory merge rule.
43bd68e5 1584
16e5de84
WD
1585In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1586files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1587to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1588specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1589deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1590should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1591
faa82484
WD
1592verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1593 host:src/dir /dest
1594 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
43bd68e5 1595
6902ed17
MP
1596manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1597
088aac85
DD
1598Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1599identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1600number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1601source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1602hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1603write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1604of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
b9f592fb
WD
1605client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1606this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1607
1608To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1609with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1610file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1611using the information stored in the batch file.
1612
1613For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1614option is used. This file's name is created by appending
73e01568 1615".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
b9f592fb
WD
1616a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1617batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1618passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1619instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1620path differs from the original destination tree path.
1621
1622Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1623status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
088aac85 1624updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
b9f592fb
WD
1625be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1626at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
088aac85 1627
4602eafa 1628Examples:
088aac85 1629
faa82484
WD
1630quote(
1631tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1632tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1633tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
4602eafa
WD
1634)
1635
faa82484
WD
1636quote(
1637tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1638tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
4602eafa
WD
1639)
1640
98f51bfb
WD
1641In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1642and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1643"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1644into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1645reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1646
1647itemize(
98f51bfb
WD
1648 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1649 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1650 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
98f51bfb
WD
1651 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1652 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
98f51bfb
WD
1653 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1654 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1655 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
faa82484 1656 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
98f51bfb 1657 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
faa82484 1658 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
98f51bfb 1659)
088aac85
DD
1660
1661Caveats:
1662
98f51bfb 1663The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
088aac85
DD
1664to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1665batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
7432ccf4
WD
1666is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1667appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1668and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1669error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
59d73bf3 1670if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
faa82484 1671always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
59d73bf3
WD
1672option (when reading the batch).
1673If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
7432ccf4 1674partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
088aac85
DD
1675be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1676destination tree.
1677
b9f592fb 1678The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
59d73bf3
WD
1679one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1680protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1681to handle.
088aac85 1682
faa82484 1683The bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
088aac85
DD
1684error.
1685
7432ccf4
WD
1686When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1687to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1688as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1689For instance
faa82484
WD
1690bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch), bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1691bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless one of the
1692bf(--delete) options is specified without bf(--delete-excluded).
b9f592fb 1693
faa82484 1694The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
98f51bfb
WD
1695options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1696shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
faa82484 1697list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
98f51bfb 1698user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
faa82484 1699to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
98f51bfb 1700
59d73bf3
WD
1701The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1702version uses a new implementation.
6902ed17 1703
eb06fa95
MP
1704manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1705
f28bd833 1706Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
eb06fa95
MP
1707link in the source directory.
1708
1709By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1710"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1711
1712If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1713target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1714bf(--links).
1715
1716If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1717copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1718
1719rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1720example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1721ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1722bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1723bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1724they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
4d888108 1725unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
eb06fa95 1726
7bd0cf5b
MP
1727Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1728(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1729components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1730
faa82484 1731manpagediagnostics()
d310a212 1732
14d43f1f 1733rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
d310a212 1734cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
faa82484 1735version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
d310a212
AT
1736
1737This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1738facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 1739for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
d310a212
AT
1740remote shell like this:
1741
faa82484
WD
1742quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1743
d310a212 1744then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 1745should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
d310a212
AT
1746rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1747data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 1748it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
d310a212
AT
1749scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1750for non-interactive logins.
1751
16e5de84 1752If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
faa82484 1753try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
e6c64e79
MP
1754show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1755
55b64e4b
MP
1756manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1757
1758startdit()
a73de5f3 1759dit(bf(0)) Success
faa82484
WD
1760dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1761dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
a73de5f3
WD
1762dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1763dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
8212336a 1764was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
f28bd833 1765them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
8212336a 1766not by the server.
a73de5f3 1767dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
faa82484
WD
1768dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1769dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1770dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1771dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1772dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1773dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1774dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1775dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3c1e2ad9
WD
1776dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1777dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
faa82484 1778dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
55b64e4b
MP
1779enddit()
1780
de2fd20e
AT
1781manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1782
1783startdit()
de2fd20e 1784dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
faa82484 1785ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
de2fd20e 1786more details.
de2fd20e 1787dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
ea7f8108 1788override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
faa82484 1789options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
4c3b4b25
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1790dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1791redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1792rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
de2fd20e 1793dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
bb18e755 1794password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
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1795daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1796password to a shell transport such as ssh.
de2fd20e 1797dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
bb18e755 1798are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
4b2f6a7c 1799If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
14d43f1f 1800dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
de2fd20e 1801default .cvsignore file.
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1802enddit()
1803
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1804manpagefiles()
1805
30e8c8e1 1806/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
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1807
1808manpageseealso()
1809
1810rsyncd.conf(5)
1811
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1812manpagebugs()
1813
1814times are transferred as unix time_t values
1815
f28bd833 1816When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
38843171 1817unmodified files.
faa82484 1818See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
38843171 1819
b5accaba 1820file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
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1821values
1822
faa82484 1823see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
41059f75 1824
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1825Please report bugs! See the website at
1826url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
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1827
1828manpagesection(CREDITS)
1829
1830rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1831COPYING for details.
1832
41059f75 1833A WEB site is available at
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1834url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1835includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1836manual page.
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1837
1838The primary ftp site for rsync is
1839url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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1840
1841We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1842
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1843This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1844Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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1845
1846manpagesection(THANKS)
1847
1848Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
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1849and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1850I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1851
ce5f2732 1852Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
98f51bfb 1853Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
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1854
1855manpageauthor()
1856
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1857rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1858Many people have later contributed to it.
3cd5eb3b 1859
a5d74a18 1860Mailing lists for support and development are available at
faa82484 1861url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)