added --size-only option. Useful when starting to use rsync after a
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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9e3c856a 1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
b5313607 2manpage(rsync)(1)(17 Feb 1999)()()
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3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
9ef53907 6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
41059f75 7
9ef53907 8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
41059f75 9
9ef53907 10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
41059f75 11
9ef53907 12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
41059f75 13
9ef53907 14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
41059f75 15
9ef53907 16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
039faa86 17
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18manpagedescription()
19
20rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23exists.
24
25The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28report that accompanies this package.
29
30Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31
32itemize(
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
40 mirroring)
41)
42
43manpagesection(GENERAL)
44
039faa86 45There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
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46
47itemize(
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
50
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 single : separator.
55
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
6c7c2ef3 57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
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58 contains a : separator.
59
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
946347b8 62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
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63
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
66 separator.
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67
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
70 local destination.
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71)
72
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73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
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75
76manpagesection(SETUP)
77
78See the file README for installation instructions.
79
80Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82destination are local.
83
14d43f1f 84You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
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85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
87One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
88security.
89
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90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
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93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
99
100quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
101
102this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
109
14d43f1f 110this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
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111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
14d43f1f 114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
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115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
118
14d43f1f 119a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
41059f75 120all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
14d43f1f 121/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
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122contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124using the --delete option.
125
126You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128an improved copy command.
129
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130quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
131
132this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
134
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135
136manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
137
138It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140running on TCP port 873.
141
14d43f1f 142Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
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143that:
144
145itemize(
146 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
147 separate the hostname from the path.
148
149 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
14d43f1f 150 connect.
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151
152 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
153 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
14d43f1f 154
f7632fc6 155 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
14d43f1f 156 specified files on the remote server is provided.
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157)
158
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159Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
160you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
161password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
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162the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
163may be useful when scripting rsync.
4c3d16be 164
3bc67f0c 165WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
65575e96 166users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
3bc67f0c 167
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168manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
169
170An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
171called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
172information.
173
174manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
175
176Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
177
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178To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
179files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
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180
181quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
182
183each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
184"arvidsjaur".
185
186To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
187targets:
188
189quote( get:nl()
190 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
191
192 put:nl()
193 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
194
195 sync: get put)
196
197this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
198link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
199lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
200
201I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
202command
203
204quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
205
206this is launched from cron every few hours.
207
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208manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
209
14d43f1f 210Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
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211to the detailed description below for a complete description.
212
213verb(
9ef53907 214Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
d853783f 215 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9ef53907 216 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
14d43f1f 217 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
9ef53907 218 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
14d43f1f 219 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
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220SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
221SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
222 sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
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223
224Options
c95da96a 225 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
b86f0cef 226 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
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227 -c, --checksum always checksum
228 -a, --archive archive mode
229 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
230 -R, --relative use relative path names
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231 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
232 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
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233 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
234 -l, --links preserve soft links
235 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
b5313607 236 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
d853783f 237 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
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238 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
239 -p, --perms preserve permissions
240 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
241 -g, --group preserve group
242 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
243 -t, --times preserve times
244 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
245 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
246 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
247 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
9ef53907 248 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
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249 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
250 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
251 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
252 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
253 --partial keep partially transferred files
254 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
255 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
256 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
257 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
f83f0548 258 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
c95da96a 259 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
375a4556 260 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
c95da96a 261 -z, --compress compress file data
2acf81eb 262 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 263 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
2acf81eb 264 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
9ef53907 265 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
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266 --version print version number
267 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
268 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
269 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
270 --stats give some file transfer stats
eb86d661 271 --progress show progress during transfer
b6062654 272 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
9ef53907 273 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
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274 -h, --help show this help screen
275)
276
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277manpageoptions()
278
279rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
280options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
14d43f1f 281below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
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282The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
283can be used instead.
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284
285startdit()
286dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
287available in rsync
288
289dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
290
291dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
14d43f1f 292are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
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293single -v will give you information about what files are being
294transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
295information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
296information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
14d43f1f 297you are debugging rsync.
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299dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
300are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
301from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
302cron.
303
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304dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
305already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
306off this behavior.
307
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308dit(bf(-I, --size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
309already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
310--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
311regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
312after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
313exactly.
314
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315dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
316a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
317explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
318which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
319receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
320
5243c216 321dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
14d43f1f 322of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
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324Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
325uid) is also implied.
326
14d43f1f 327dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively.
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328
329dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
330names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
331just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
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332you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
333example, if you used the command
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334
335verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
336
337then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
338machine. If instead you used
339
340verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
341
342then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
343machine. The full path name is preserved.
344
345dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
346renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
347control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
348
b5679335 349dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
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350backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
351
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352dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
353destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
354file.
355
356dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
357remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
14d43f1f 358option, all symbolic links are skipped.
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359
360dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
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361like ordinary files.
362
363dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
364point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
365also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
366path itself when --relative is used.
41059f75 367
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368dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
369which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
370also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
14d43f1f 371give unexpected results.
d310a212 372
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373dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
374the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
375option hard links are treated like regular files.
376
377Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
378are in the list of files being sent.
379
380This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
381
382dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
383is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
384useful when using rsync with a local machine.
385
14d43f1f 386dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
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387transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
388it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
389--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
390make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
391
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392dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
393permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
394
395dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
396of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
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397to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
398the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
14d43f1f 399access to the usernames.
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400
401dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
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402of the file to be the same as the local group. Note that if the source
403system is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because
404the source system cannot get access to the group names.
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405
406dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
407block device information to the remote system to recreate these
408devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
409
410dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
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411with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
412option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
413modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
414cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
415their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
416changed.
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417
418dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
419instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
420
421dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
422up less space on the destination.
423
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424NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
425filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
426correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
427
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428dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
429boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
430contents of only one filesystem.
431
432dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
433side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
434used incorrectly!
435
436It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
437see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
438listed.
439
440rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
441dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
442that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
443these directories are deleted.
444
445Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
446of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
447behavior of --delete.
448
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449If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
450files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
451prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
452sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
453destination.
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454
455dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
456they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
457cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
15800c7e 458contains a directory of the same name.
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460Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
461so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
41059f75 462
b5679335 463dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
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464the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
465
b5679335 466dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
41059f75 467remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
14d43f1f 468remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
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469like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
470
471You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
472environment variable.
473
b5679335 474dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
14d43f1f 475rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path.
41059f75 476
b5679335 477dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
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478certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
479useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
480
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481You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
482to build up the list of files to exclude.
483
14d43f1f 484See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
43bd68e5 485this option.
41059f75 486
b5679335 487dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
41059f75 488option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
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489the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
490are ignored.
41059f75 491
b5679335 492dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
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493specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
494build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
495
496See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
497this option.
498
b5679335 499dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
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500from a file.
501
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502dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
503broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
504systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
505a file should be ignored.
506
507The exclude list is initialized to:
508
509quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
510.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
511*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
512
513then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
514files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
515
516Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
517that directory are added to the list.
518
b5679335 519dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
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520rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
521find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
522this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
de2fd20e 523making things faster.
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524
525You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
526--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
527
528Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
529with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
530microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
531before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
532
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533Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
534checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
535if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
536option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
537
b5679335 538dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
375a4556 539scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
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540transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
541the temporary files in the receiving directory.
542
b5679335 543dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
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544additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
545transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
546leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
14d43f1f 547files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
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548around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
549the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
550option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
551files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
552to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
553destination directory.
375a4556 554
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555dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
556the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
557option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
558same method that gzip uses.
559
560Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
561that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
562compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
563information sent for matching data blocks.
564
565dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
566and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
567at both ends.
568
569By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
570what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
14d43f1f 5710 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
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572option is not specified.
573
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574If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
575does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
576source system is used instead.
41059f75 577
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578dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
579timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
580then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
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581
582dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
583daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
584is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
5315b793 585terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
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586config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
587respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
588details.
589
b5679335 590dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
5315b793 591the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
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592specified.
593
b5679335 594dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
14d43f1f 595rather than the default port 873.
41059f75 596
3a64ad1f 597dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
14d43f1f 598rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
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599specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
600rsyncd.conf.
b6062654 601
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602dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
603on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
e19452a9 604algorithm is for your data.
b72f24c7 605
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606dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
607showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
608something to watch.
609
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610dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
611in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
612is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
613transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
614must not be world readable.
615
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616enddit()
617
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618manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
619
620The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
14d43f1f 621selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
43bd68e5 622
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623rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
624the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
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625name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
626pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
627skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
628skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
629filename is not skipped.
630
14d43f1f 631The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
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632
633itemize(
634 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
635 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
636 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
637 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
638 called foo anywhere in the tree.
639
640 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
641 directory, not a file, link or device.
642
643 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
644 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
645 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
646 match is used.
647
648 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
649 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
650 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
651 only against the final component of the filename.
652
653 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 654 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
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655 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
656
657 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
5a554d5b 658 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
43bd68e5 659 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
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660
661 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
662 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
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663)
664
665The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
666single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
667
668Here are some examples:
669
670itemize(
671 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
672 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
673 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
674 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
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675 directories and C source files
676 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
677 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
678 it would be excluded by the "*")
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679)
680
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681manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
682
14d43f1f 683rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
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684cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
685version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
686
687This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
688facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
14d43f1f 689for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
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690remote shell like this:
691
692verb(
693 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
694)
695
696then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2cfeab21 697should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
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698rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
699data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
14d43f1f 700it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
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701scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
702for non-interactive logins.
703
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704manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
705
706startdit()
707
708dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
709ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
710more details.
711
712dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
713override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
714be used instead of the -e option.
715
716dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
717password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
718daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
719password to a shell transport such as ssh.
720
721dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
722are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
723
14d43f1f 724dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
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725default .cvsignore file.
726
727enddit()
728
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729manpagefiles()
730
731/etc/rsyncd.conf
732
733manpageseealso()
734
735rsyncd.conf(5)
736
737manpagediagnostics()
738
739manpagebugs()
740
741times are transferred as unix time_t values
742
743file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
744values
745
a87b3b2a 746see also the comments on the --delete option
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747
748Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
9e3c856a 749url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
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750
751manpagesection(VERSION)
752This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
753
754manpagesection(CREDITS)
755
756rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
757COPYING for details.
758
41059f75 759A WEB site is available at
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760url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
761
762The primary ftp site for rsync is
763url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
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764
765We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
766
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767This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
768Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
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769
770manpagesection(THANKS)
771
772Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
773and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
774probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
775
776
777manpageauthor()
778
779rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
9e3c856a 780contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
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781Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
782