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1WHAT IS RSYNC?
2--------------
3
4rsync is a replacement for rcp that has many more features.
5
6rsync uses the "rsync algorithm" which provides a very fast method for
7bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the
8differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both
9sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand.
10At first glance this may seem impossible because the calculation of
11diffs between two files normally requires local access to both
12files.
13
14A technical report describing the rsync algorithm is included with
15this package.
16
17
18USAGE
19-----
20
21Basically you use rsync just like rcp, but rsync has many additional options.
22
23Here is a brief description of rsync usage:
24
25Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
26 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
27 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
28 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
29 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
30 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
31SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
32SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
33 sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
34
35Options
36 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
37 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
38 -c, --checksum always checksum
39 -a, --archive archive mode
40 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
41 -R, --relative use relative path names
42 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
43 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
44 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
45 -l, --links preserve soft links
46 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
47 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
48 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
49 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
50 -p, --perms preserve permissions
51 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
52 -g, --group preserve group
53 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
54 -t, --times preserve times
55 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
56 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
57 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
58 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
59 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
60 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
61 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
62 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
63 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
64 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
65 --partial keep partially transferred files
66 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
67 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
68 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
69 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
70 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
71 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
72 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
73 -z, --compress compress file data
74 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
75 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
76 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
77 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
78 --version print version number
79 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
80 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
81 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
82 --stats give some file transfer stats
83 --progress show progress during transfer
84 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
85 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
86 -h, --help show this help screen
87
88
89
90SETUP
91-----
92
93Rsync uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to be setuid
94and requires no special privileges for installation. It does not
95require a inetd entry or a daemon. You must, however, have a working
96rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is recommended for its security
97features.
98
99To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a
100Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type
101"make".
102
103Note that on some systems you will have to force configure not to use
104gcc because gcc may not support some features (such as 64 bit file
105offsets) that your system may support. Set the environment variable CC
106to the name of your native compiler before running configure in this
107case.
108
109Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and
110remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!
111
112RSYNC SERVERS
113-------------
114
115rsync can also talk to "rsync servers" which can provide anonymous or
116authenticated rsync. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for details on how
117to setup a rsync server. See the rsync(1) man page for info on how to
118connect to a rsync server.
119
120
121MAILING LIST
122------------
123
124There is a mailing list for the discussion of rsync and its
125applications. It is open to anyone to join. I will announce new
126versions on this list.
127
128To join the mailing list see the web page at http://lists.samba.org/
129
130To send mail to everyone on the list send it to rsync@samba.org
131
132
133BUG REPORTS
134-----------
135
136If you have web access then please look at
137http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/
138
139This will give you access to the bug tracking system used by the
140developers of rsync and will allow you to look at other bug reports or
141submit a new bug report.
142
143If you don't have web access then mail bug reports to
144rsync-bugs@samba.org or (if you think it will be of interest to lots
145of people) send it to rsync@samba.org
146
147
148CVS TREE
149--------
150
151If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the
152source code repository then you can use anonymous cvs. You will need a
153recent version of cvs then use the following commands:
154
155 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@cvs.samba.org:/cvsroot login
156 Password: cvs
157
158 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@cvs.samba.org:/cvsroot co rsync
159
160Look at the cvs documentation for more details.
161
162
163COPYRIGHT
164---------
165
166Rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras, and is
167available under the Gnu Public License.
168
169tridge@samba.org
170paulus@cs.anu.edu.au
171
172
173AVAILABILITY
174------------
175
176The main web site for rsync is http://rsync.samba.org/
177The main ftp site is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/
178This is also available as rsync://rsync.samba.org/rsyncftp/