Fixed some itemized logging failures:
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
... / ...
CommitLineData
1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 2008)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6verb(Local: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
7
8Access via remote shell:
9 Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
10 Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
11
12Access via rsync daemon:
13 Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
15 Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
17
18Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files
19instead of copying.
20
21manpagedescription()
22
23Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can
24copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a
25remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control
26every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the
27set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm,
28which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the
29differences between the source files and the existing files in the
30destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an
31improved copy command for everyday use.
32
33Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check"
34algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or
35in last-modified time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as
36requested by options) are made on the destination file directly when the
37quick check indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
38
39Some of the additional features of rsync are:
40
41itemization(
42 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
43 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
44 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
45 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
46 it() does not require super-user privileges
47 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
48 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
49 mirroring)
50)
51
52manpagesection(GENERAL)
53
54Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
55current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
56
57There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
58remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
59rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
60the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
61a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
62source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
63host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
64"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
65an exception to this latter rule).
66
67As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
68destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
69
70As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
71host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
72
73manpagesection(SETUP)
74
75See the file README for installation instructions.
76
77Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
78a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
79daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
80for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
81different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
82
83You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
84command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
85
86Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
87machines.
88
89manpagesection(USAGE)
90
91You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
92and a destination, one of which may be remote.
93
94Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
95
96quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
97
98This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
99current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
100the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
101remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
102differences. See the tech report for details.
103
104quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
105
106This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
107machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
108files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
109links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
110in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
111size of data portions of the transfer.
112
113quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
114
115A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
116additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
117/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
118to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
119containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
120destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
121files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
122/dest/foo:
123
124quote(
125tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
126tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
127)
128
129Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
130copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
131copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
132
133quote(
134tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
135tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
136)
137
138You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
139destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
140an improved copy command.
141
142Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
143particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
144
145quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
146
147See the following section for more details.
148
149manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
150
151The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
152specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first,
153or with the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
154
155quote(tt(rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/)nl()
156tt(rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/)nl()
157tt(rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}))
158
159Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
160examples:
161
162quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)nl()
163tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
164
165This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is
166not as easy to use as the first method.
167
168If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
169specify the bf(--protect-args) (bf(-s)) option, or you'll need to escape
170the whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For
171instance:
172
173quote(tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest))
174
175manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
176
177It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
178In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
179using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
180the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
181CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
182
183Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
184that:
185
186itemization(
187 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
188 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
189 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
190 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
191 connect.
192 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
193 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
194 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
195 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
196 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
197)
198
199An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
200
201verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
202
203Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
204you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
205password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
206the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
207may be useful when scripting rsync.
208
209WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
210users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
211
212You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
213environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
214your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
215proxy connections to port 873.
216
217You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
218setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you
219wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
220contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
221command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For
222example:
223
224verb( export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
225 rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
226 rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/ )
227
228The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost,
229which forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost
230(%H).
231
232manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
233
234It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
235named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
236system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
237Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
238a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
239home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
240daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
241the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
242change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
243transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
244configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
245connections from "localhost".)
246
247From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
248connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
249rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
250explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
251bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
252will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
253
254verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
255
256If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
257user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
258module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
259give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
260this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
261
262verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
263
264The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
265used to log-in to the "module".
266
267manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
268
269In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
270daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
271to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
272For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
273socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
274file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
275daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
276
277If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
278no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
279
280manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
281
282Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
283
284To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
285files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
286
287quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
288
289each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
290"arvidsjaur".
291
292To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
293targets:
294
295verb( get:
296 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
297 put:
298 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
299 sync: get put)
300
301this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
302connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
303lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
304
305I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
306command:
307
308tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
309
310This is launched from cron every few hours.
311
312manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
313
314Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
315to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
316 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
317 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
318 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
319 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
320 -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
321 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
322 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
323 -R, --relative use relative path names
324 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
325 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
326 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
327 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
328 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
329 --inplace update destination files in-place
330 --append append data onto shorter files
331 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
332 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
333 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
334 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
335 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
336 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
337 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
338 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
339 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
340 -p, --perms preserve permissions
341 -E, --executability preserve executability
342 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
343 -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
344 -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
345 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
346 -g, --group preserve group
347 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
348 --specials preserve special files
349 -D same as --devices --specials
350 -t, --times preserve modification times
351 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
352 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
353 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
354 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
355 -n, --dry-run perform a trial run with no changes made
356 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
357 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
358 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
359 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
360 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
361 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
362 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
363 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
364 --del an alias for --delete-during
365 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
366 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
367 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
368 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
369 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
370 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
371 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
372 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
373 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
374 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
375 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
376 --partial keep partially transferred files
377 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
378 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
379 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
380 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
381 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
382 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
383 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
384 --size-only skip files that match in size
385 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
386 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
387 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
388 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
389 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
390 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
391 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
392 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
393 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
394 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
395 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
396 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
397 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
398 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
399 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
400 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
401 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
402 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
403 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
404 -s, --protect-args no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
405 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
406 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
407 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
408 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
409 --stats give some file-transfer stats
410 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
411 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
412 --progress show progress during transfer
413 -P same as --partial --progress
414 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
415 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
416 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
417 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
418 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
419 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
420 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
421 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
422 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
423 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
424 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
425 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
426 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
427 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
428 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
429 --version print version number
430(-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
431
432Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
433accepted: verb(
434 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
435 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
436 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
437 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
438 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
439 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
440 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
441 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
442 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
443 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
444 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
445 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
446 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
447
448manpageoptions()
449
450rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
451options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
452below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
453The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
454can be used instead.
455
456startdit()
457dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
458available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
459versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
460option without any other args.
461
462dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
463
464dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
465are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
466single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
467transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
468information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
469information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
470you are debugging rsync.
471
472Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
473a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
474file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
475level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
476changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
477bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
478output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
479any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
480
481dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
482are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
483from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
484cron.
485
486dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
487by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
488message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
489that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
490a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
491request the list of modules from the daemon.
492
493dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
494already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
495This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
496be updated.
497
498dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
499finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
500transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
501time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
502when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
503not preserve timestamps exactly.
504
505dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
506timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
507value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
508to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
509transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
510times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
511(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
512
513dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
514been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
515uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
516of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
517changes this to compare a 128-bit MD4 checksum for each file that has a
518matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
519a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
520this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
521so this can slow things down significantly.
522
523The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
524scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
525its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
526file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
527either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
528
529Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
530correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
531checksum that is generated as the file is transferred, but that
532automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
533option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
534
535dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
536way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
537everything (with -H being a notable omission).
538The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
539specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
540
541Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
542finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
543specify bf(-H).
544
545dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
546the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
547only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
548bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
549(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
550specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
551(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
552
553For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
554bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
555could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
556
557The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
558bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
559Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
560positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
561changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
562details).
563
564dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
565recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
566
567Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
568incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
569transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
570completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
571does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
572both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
573
574Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
575disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
576bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), and bf(--delay-updates).
577Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
578bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
579(use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
580explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
581than using bf(--delete-after).
582
583Incremental recursion can be disabled using the bf(--no-inc-recursive)
584option or its shorter bf(--no-i-r) alias.
585
586dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
587names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
588just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
589you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
590example, if you used this command:
591
592quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
593
594... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
595machine. If instead you used
596
597quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
598
599then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
600machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
601"implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
602above example).
603
604Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
605real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
606symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected
607behaviors when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had
608a symlink in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink,
609include both the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real
610path. If you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may
611need to use the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option.
612
613It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
614implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
615sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
616the source path, like this:
617
618quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
619
620That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
621dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
622(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
623source path. For example, when pushing files:
624
625quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
626
627(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
628"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
629If you're pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only
630for a non-daemon transfer):
631
632quote(
633tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
634tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
635)
636
637dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
638bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
639directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
640means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
641left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
642created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
643elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
644the receiving side.
645
646For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
647transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
648are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
649"bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
650delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
651the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
652"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
653ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
654preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
655affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
656
657When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
658option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
659wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
660
661dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
662renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
663backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
664bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
665
666Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
667bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
668also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
669filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
670(e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
671deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
672need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
673in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
674your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
675rule would never be reached).
676
677dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
678tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
679side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
680specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
681(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
682will keep their original filenames).
683
684dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
685backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
686if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
687
688dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
689the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
690file. (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to the
691source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
692
693Note that this does not affect the copying of symlinks or other special
694files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and receiver
695is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what
696date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory
697where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
698the timestamps.
699
700dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
701and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
702file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
703network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
704to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
705with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
706basis file for the transfer.
707
708This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
709or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
710bound.
711
712The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
713the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
714Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
715and bf(--link-dest).
716
717WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
718transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
719should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
720rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
721receiving user.
722
723dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
724the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
725the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
726side. Any files that are the same size or longer on the receiving side
727are skipped. Files that do not yet exist on the receiving side are
728transferred, regardless of size. Implies bf(--inplace),
729but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
730file's length).
731
732dit(bf(--append-verify)) This works just like the bf(--append) option, but
733the existing data on the receiving side is included in the full-file
734checksum verification step, which will cause a file to be resent if the
735final verification step fails (rsync uses a normal, non-appending
736bf(--inplace) transfer for the resend).
737
738Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the bf(--append) option worked like
739bf(--append-verify), so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
740transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
741will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
742
743dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
744are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
745unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
746(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
747bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
748output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
749bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
750
751This option is implied by the bf(--list-only) option (including an implied
752bf(--list-only) usage) if bf(--recursive) wasn't specified (so that
753directories are seen in the listing). Specify bf(--no-dirs) (or bf(--no-d))
754if you want to override this. This option is also implied by
755bf(--files-from).
756
757dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
758symlink on the destination.
759
760dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
761they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
762versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
763receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
764modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
765to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
766an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
767will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
768
769dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
770symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
771are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
772source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
773additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
774
775dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
776which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
777also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
778give unexpected results.
779
780dit(bf(-k, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
781a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
782useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
783they would be using bf(--copy-links).
784
785Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
786symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
787the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
788bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
789
790See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
791side.
792
793dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
794a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
795matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
796receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
797
798For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
799"file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
800bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
801directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
802bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
803"bar".
804
805One note of caution: if you use bf(--keep-dirlinks), you must trust all
806the symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to
807create their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a
808subsequent copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the
809content of whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies,
810you are better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink
811to modify your receiving hierarchy.
812
813See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
814
815dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
816the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
817side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
818as though they were separate files.
819
820When you are updating a non-empty destination, this option only ensures
821that files that are hard-linked together on the source are hard-linked
822together on the destination. It does NOT currently endeavor to break
823already existing hard links on the destination that do not exist between
824the source files. Note, however, that if one or more extra-linked files
825have content changes, they will become unlinked when updated (assuming you
826are not using the bf(--inplace) option).
827
828Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
829the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
830connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
831you are tempted to use the bf(--inplace) option to avoid this breakage, be
832very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
833certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
834see the bf(--inplace) option for more caveats).
835
836If incremental recursion is active (see bf(--recursive)), rsync may transfer
837a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that contents
838exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
839the transfer, just its efficiency. One way to avoid this is to disable
840incremental recursion using the bf(--no-inc-recursive) option.
841
842dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
843destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
844also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
845be the source permissions.)
846
847When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
848
849quote(itemization(
850 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
851 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
852 the execute permission for the file.
853 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
854 file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
855 permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
856 specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
857 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
858 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
859))
860
861Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
862rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
863such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
864
865In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
866permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
867permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
868bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
869all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
870behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
871putting this line in the file ~/.popt (the following defines the bf(-Z) option,
872and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
873
874quote(tt( rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
875
876You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
877
878quote(tt( rsync -avZ src/ dest/))
879
880(Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-Z), or it will re-enable
881the two "--no-*" options mentioned above.)
882
883The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
884directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
885versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
886newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
887destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
888observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
889non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
890(Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
891these behaviors.)
892
893dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
894executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
895not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
896'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
897executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
898modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
899
900quote(itemization(
901 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
902 permissions.
903 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
904 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
905))
906
907If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
908
909dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
910ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs.
911The option also implies bf(--perms).
912
913The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for this
914option to work properly. See the bf(--fake-super) option for a way to backup
915and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
916
917dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
918extended attributes to be the same as the local ones.
919
920For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done by a
921super-user copies all namespaces except system.*. A normal user only copies
922the user.* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user namespaces as
923a normal user, see the bf(--fake-super) option.
924
925dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
926comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
927transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
928that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
929can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
930
931In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
932manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
933prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
934file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
935
936quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
937
938It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
939additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
940
941See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
942permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
943
944dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
945destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
946receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
947and bf(--fake-super) options).
948Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to
949the invoking user on the receiving side.
950
951The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
952may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
953bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
954
955dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
956destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
957program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
958specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
959is a member of will be preserved.
960Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
961user on the receiving side.
962
963The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
964default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
965(see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
966
967dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
968block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
969This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
970super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
971
972dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
973such as named sockets and fifos.
974
975dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
976
977dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
978with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
979option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
980modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
981cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
982updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
983if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
984
985dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
986it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
987the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
988This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
989
990dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
991activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
992activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
993all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
994option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
995for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
996also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
997being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
998super-user can use bf(--no-super).
999
1000dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
1001super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via
1002special extended attributes that are attached to each file (as needed). This
1003includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
1004device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
1005any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
1006the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
1007access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file, the
1008files we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating user).
1009This option also handles ACLs (if bf(--acls) was specified) and non-user
1010extended attributes (if bf(--xattrs) was specified).
1011
1012This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1013ACLs from incompatible systems.
1014
1015The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
1016To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync
1017path:
1018
1019quote(tt( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/))
1020
1021Since there is only one "side" in a local copy, this option affects both
1022the sending and receiving of files. You'll need to specify a copy using
1023"localhost" if you need to avoid this, possibly using the "lsh" shell
1024script (from the support directory) as a substitute for an actual remote
1025shell (see bf(--rsh)).
1026
1027This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
1028
1029See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1030
1031dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
1032up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
1033not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
1034
1035NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
1036filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
1037correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
1038
1039dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't
1040make any changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real run). It
1041is most commonly used in combination with the bf(-v, --verbose) and/or
1042bf(-i, --itemize-changes) options to see what an rsync command is going
1043to do before one actually runs it.
1044
1045The output of bf(--itemize-changes) is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1046dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1047call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output is the same to the
1048extent practical, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
1049send the actual data for file transfers, so bf(--progress) has no effect,
1050the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1051statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1052where no file transfers are needed.
1053
1054dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the delta-transfer algorithm
1055is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
1056faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
1057destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
1058"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
1059the source and destination are specified as local paths.
1060
1061dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
1062filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
1063to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
1064through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
1065the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
1066in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
1067same filesystem.
1068
1069If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1070the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1071encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1072the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1073
1074If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
1075bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1076treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1077by this option.
1078
1079dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
1080creating files (including directories) that do not exist
1081yet on the destination. If this option is
1082combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
1083(which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1084
1085dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
1086already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
1087directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
1088
1089This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
1090option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1091a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1092used properly), using bf(--ignore existing) will ensure that the
1093already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1094permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option
1095is only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1096
1097dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
1098side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
1099and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
1100
1101dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
1102receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
1103directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
1104send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
1105for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
1106by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
1107the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
1108also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
1109option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1110include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1111
1112Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
1113was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
1114(bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
1115
1116This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1117first try a run using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files are
1118going to be deleted.
1119
1120If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
1121files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
1122prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
1123sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
1124destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
1125
1126The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1127without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
1128--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
1129bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
1130the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1131bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
1132
1133dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1134side be done before the transfer starts.
1135See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1136
1137Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
1138and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
1139However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
1140and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
1141specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
1142algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
1143memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1144
1145dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
1146receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
1147a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
1148but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
1149See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1150
1151dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1152side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
1153completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1154temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1155is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1156the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1157using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1158incremental scan).
1159
1160dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1161side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1162are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1163you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
1164current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1165recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1166transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1167See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1168
1169dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1170receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
1171delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
1172See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1173this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1174bf(--delete-excluded).
1175See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1176
1177dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
1178even when there are I/O errors.
1179
1180dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1181when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1182deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1183
1184Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1185using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1186bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
1187
1188dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
1189files or directories. If that limit is exceeded, a warning is output
1190and rsync exits with an error code of 25 (new for 3.0.0).
1191
1192Also new for version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to be warned
1193about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1194Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1195version the client is, you can use the less obvious bf(--max-delete=-1) as
1196a backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1197older versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1198
1199dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1200file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
1201suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
1202may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1203
1204The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1205"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1206gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1207If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1208"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
1209Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1210be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
1211
1212Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
12132147483649 bytes.
1214
1215dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1216file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1217transferring small, junk files.
1218See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
1219
1220dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1221the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1222the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
1223
1224dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
1225remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
1226remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1227default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
1228
1229If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
1230remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
1231remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1232shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
1233running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1234RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1235
1236Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1237presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1238or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1239and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1240argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1241inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1242double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1243shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1244
1245quote(
1246tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1247tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1248)
1249
1250(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1251options in their .ssh/config file.)
1252
1253You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1254environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1255
1256See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1257
1258dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1259on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1260the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1261Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1262program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1263not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1264communicate.
1265
1266One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1267machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1268
1269quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
1270
1271dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1272broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1273systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
1274a file should be ignored.
1275
1276The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1277initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1278
1279quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1280.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
1281*.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .git/ .bzr/)))
1282
1283then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1284files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1285are delimited by whitespace).
1286
1287Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1288.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1289rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1290See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
1291
1292If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1293note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1294regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1295a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1296control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1297should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1298bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1299putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1300The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1301file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1302mentioned above.
1303
1304dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1305exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1306most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1307
1308You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1309to build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
1310be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
1311argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
1312replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
1313
1314See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1315
1316dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1317your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1318
1319quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1320
1321This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1322been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1323files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1324rule:
1325
1326quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1327
1328This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1329
1330See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1331work.
1332
1333dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1334bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1335the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1336
1337See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1338
1339dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1340option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1341Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1342If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1343
1344dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1345bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1346the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1347
1348See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1349
1350dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1351option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1352Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1353If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1354
1355dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1356exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1357for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1358transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1359
1360quote(itemization(
1361 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1362 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1363 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1364 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1365 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1366 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1367 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1368 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1369 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1370 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1371 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1372 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1373))
1374
1375The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1376source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1377allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1378command:
1379
1380quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1381
1382If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1383directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1384contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1385the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1386mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1387if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1388also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1389explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1390Also note
1391that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1392duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1393force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1394
1395In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1396instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1397(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1398specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1399transfer". For example:
1400
1401quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1402
1403This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1404was located on the remote "src" host.
1405
1406dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1407file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1408This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1409merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1410It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1411file are split on whitespace).
1412
1413If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
1414bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
1415filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
1416receiving host's charset.
1417
1418dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and some options to
1419the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
1420means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
1421characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
1422expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
1423
1424If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args will also be translated
1425from the local to the remote character-set. The translation happens before
1426wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
1427
1428dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1429scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1430on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1431file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1432
1433This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1434have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1435In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
1436partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1437over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1438into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1439destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1440truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1441the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1442temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1443it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1444someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1445new version on the disk at the same time.
1446
1447If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1448space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1449which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1450destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1451have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1452partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1453about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1454path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1455single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1456partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1457rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1458an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1459
1460dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1461basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1462looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1463has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1464found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1465
1466Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1467fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1468filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1469
1470dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1471the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1472files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1473directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1474sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1475directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1476have changed from an earlier backup.
1477
1478Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1479provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1480for an exact match.
1481If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1482and the attributes updated.
1483If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1484selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1485
1486If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1487See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1488
1489dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1490rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1491directory using a local copy.
1492This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1493existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1494been successfully transferred.
1495
1496Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1497rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1498If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1499selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1500
1501If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1502See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1503
1504dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1505unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1506The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1507possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1508An example:
1509
1510quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1511
1512Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1513provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1514for an exact match.
1515If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1516and the attributes updated.
1517If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1518selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1519
1520This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1521rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
1522dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
1523change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
1524versions).
1525
1526Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1527link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1528substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1529file is updated.
1530
1531If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1532See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1533
1534Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1535bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1536specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1537the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1538
1539dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1540as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1541being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1542
1543Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1544be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1545because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1546blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1547
1548See the bf(--skip-compress) option for the default list of file suffixes
1549that will not be compressed.
1550
1551dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1552(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1553the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1554
1555dit(bf(--skip-compress=LIST)) Override the list of file suffixes that will
1556not be compressed. The bf(LIST) should be one or more file suffixes
1557(without the dot) separated by slashes (/).
1558
1559You may specify an empty string to indicate that no file should be skipped.
1560
1561Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
1562of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
1563"[:alpha:]", are supported).
1564
1565The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
1566
1567Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
1568matches 2 suffixes):
1569
1570verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
1571
1572The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (several
1573of these are newly added for 3.0.0):
1574
1575verb( gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg)
1576
1577This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
1578situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
1579its list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
1580different default).
1581
1582dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1583and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1584at both ends.
1585
1586By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1587what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
15880 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1589option is not specified.
1590
1591If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1592on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1593from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1594"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1595the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1596users and groups and what you can do about it.
1597
1598dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1599timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1600then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1601
1602dit(bf(--contimeout)) This option allows you to set the amount of time
1603that rsync will wait for its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed.
1604If the timeout is reached, rsync exits with an error.
1605
1606dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1607connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1608specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1609option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1610
1611dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1612rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1613double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1614syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1615option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1616
1617dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1618who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1619sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1620slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
1621details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1622special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1623connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1624bf(--daemon) mode section.
1625
1626dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1627a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1628rsync defaults to using
1629blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1630ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1631
1632dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1633changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1634This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
1635If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1636if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1637with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1638verbose messages).
1639
1640The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
1641format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1642type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1643other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1644modified.
1645
1646The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1647
1648quote(itemization(
1649 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1650 (sent).
1651 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1652 (received).
1653 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1654 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1655 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
1656 bf(--hard-links)).
1657 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1658 have attributes that are being modified).
1659 it() A bf(*) means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains
1660 a message (e.g. "deleting").
1661))
1662
1663The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1664directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1665special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1666
1667The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1668will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1669a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1670item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1671dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1672a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1673
1674The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1675
1676quote(itemization(
1677 it() A bf(c) means either that a regular file has a different checksum
1678 (requires bf(--checksum)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has
1679 a changed value.
1680 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1681 by the file transfer.
1682 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1683 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1684 means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1685 when a file/symlink/device is updated without bf(--times) and when a
1686 symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time.
1687 (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the bf(s) flag combined
1688 with bf(t) instead of the proper bf(T) flag for this time-setting failure.)
1689 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1690 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1691 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1692 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1693 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1694 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1695 it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for future use.
1696 it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
1697 it() The bf(x) means that the extended attribute information changed.
1698))
1699
1700One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1701the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1702you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1703outputting them as a verbose message).
1704
1705dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1706rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
1707string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1708a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1709the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1710
1711Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1712in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1713touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
1714included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
1715item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
17162.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1717output of "%i".
1718
1719The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1720bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1721the format of its per-file output using this option.
1722
1723Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1724one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1725logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1726is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1727the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1728(followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1729
1730dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1731to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1732requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1733transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1734enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1735option if you wish to override this.
1736
1737Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1738happening:
1739
1740verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1741
1742This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1743unexpectedly.
1744
1745dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1746per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1747(which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1748specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1749For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1750in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1751
1752dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1753on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1754algorithm is for your data.
1755
1756The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
1757 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1758 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1759 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1760 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1761 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1762 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1763 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1764 include the size of symlinks.
1765 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1766 for just the transferred files.
1767 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1768 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1769 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1770 recreating the updated files.
1771 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1772 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1773 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1774 list.
1775 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1776 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1777 sending side for this to be present.
1778 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1779 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1780 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1781 from the client side to the server side.
1782 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1783 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1784 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1785 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
1786))
1787
1788dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1789unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1790valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1791characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1792setting.
1793
1794The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1795and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1796would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1797escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1798
1799dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1800This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1801this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1802G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1803instead of 1000.
1804
1805dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1806transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1807it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1808bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1809make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1810
1811dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1812bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1813partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1814On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1815dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1816after it has served its purpose.
1817
1818Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1819file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1820(since
1821rsync is sending files without using the delta transfer algorithm).
1822
1823Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1824the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1825"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1826partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1827remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1828
1829If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1830rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1831sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1832will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1833receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1834the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
1835filter rules.
1836
1837If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1838exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1839rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1840to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1841rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1842should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1843bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1844bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1845left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1846
1847IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1848is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1849
1850You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1851variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1852enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1853specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1854along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1855environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1856.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1857option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1858specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1859bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1860
1861For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1862bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1863refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1864of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1865safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1866
1867dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1868updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1869transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1870succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1871atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1872each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1873bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1874comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1875".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1876you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1877Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1878
1879This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1880transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1881side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1882you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1883there is no
1884chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1885the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1886absolute)
1887and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1888delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1889
1890See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1891update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1892parallel hierarchy of files).
1893
1894dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1895rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1896that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1897creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1898recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1899rules.
1900
1901Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1902what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1903mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1904being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1905destination files).
1906
1907You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1908by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1909that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1910
1911quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1912
1913Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1914the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1915that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1916(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1917
1918quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
1919
1920If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1921time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
1922in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1923
1924dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1925showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1926something to watch.
1927Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1928
1929While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
1930looks like this:
1931
1932verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1933
1934In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
1935sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
1936per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
1937is maintained until the end.
1938
1939These statistics can be misleading if the delta transfer algorithm is
1940in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
1941followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
1942dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
1943will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
1944was finishing the matched part of the file.
1945
1946When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
1947summary line that looks like this:
1948
1949verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
1950
1951In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
1952of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
1953seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
1954during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
1955receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
1956the 396 total files in the file-list.
1957
1958dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1959purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1960transfer that may be interrupted.
1961
1962dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
1963file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
1964It should contain just the password as a single line.
1965
1966This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
1967ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
1968When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
1969option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
1970authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
1971config file).
1972
1973dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1974instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
1975arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
1976command that includes a
1977destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be able to specify
1978more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the destination).
1979Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
1980shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
1981without using this option. For example:
1982
1983verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
1984
1985Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
1986that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
1987non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the bf(--dirs)
1988option w/o bf(--recursive), and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
1989avoid this problem, either specify the bf(--no-dirs) option (if you don't
1990need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude
1991the content of subdirectories: bf(-r --exclude='/*/*').
1992
1993dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1994transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1995using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1996of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1997transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1998result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1999of zero specifies no limit.
2000
2001dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
2002another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
2003section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
2004
2005dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
2006no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
2007This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
2008other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
2009
2010Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
2011media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
2012can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
2013whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
2014partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
2015happening).
2016
2017Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
2018system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
2019into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
2020(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
2021
2022dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
2023file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
2024If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
2025See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
2026
2027dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
2028is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
2029version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
2030bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
2031bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
2032batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
2033file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
2034
2035dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
2036sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
2037the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
2038fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
2039separated by a comma in the order bf(--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE), e.g.
2040bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591). This order ensures that the option
2041will stay the same whether you're pushing or pulling files.
2042Finally, you can specify either bf(--no-iconv) or a CONVERT_SPEC of "-"
2043to turn off any conversion.
2044The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
2045affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
2046
2047For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
2048run "iconv --list".
2049
2050If you specify the bf(--protect-args) option (bf(-s)), rsync will translate
2051the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the
2052remote host. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
2053
2054Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
2055(including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
2056specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
2057For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
2058filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
2059
2060When you pass an bf(--iconv) option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
2061daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
2062regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel free to
2063specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8)).
2064
2065dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2066when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
2067control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
2068rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
2069
2070If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2071will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2072is the case.
2073
2074dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
2075NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
2076MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
2077by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
2078is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
2079applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
2080in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
2081Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
2082for checksum seed.
2083enddit()
2084
2085manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
2086
2087The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
2088
2089startdit()
2090dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
2091daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
2092the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
2093
2094If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
2095run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
2096become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
2097(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
2098requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
2099details.
2100
2101dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2102run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
2103allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
2104makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
2105See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2106
2107dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2108transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
2109The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
2110requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
2111client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
2112
2113dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
2114the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
2115The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
2116a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
2117the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
2118
2119dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
2120rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
2121option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
2122be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
2123bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
2124bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
2125debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
2126sshd.
2127
2128dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
2129daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
2130global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2131
2132dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2133given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
2134file.
2135
2136dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2137given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
2138file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
2139case transfer logging is turned off.
2140
2141dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
2142rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
2143
2144dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
2145daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
2146daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
2147used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
2148
2149dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2150when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
2151listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
2152versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
2153an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
2154try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
2155
2156If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2157will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2158is the case.
2159
2160dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
2161page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
2162enddit()
2163
2164manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
2165
2166The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
2167(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
2168specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
2169include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
2170
2171As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
2172name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
2173turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
2174pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
2175filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
2176filename is not skipped.
2177
2178Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
2179command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
2180
2181quote(
2182tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2183tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2184)
2185
2186You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
2187below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
2188MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
2189must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
2190Here are the available rule prefixes:
2191
2192quote(
2193bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
2194bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
2195bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
2196bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
2197bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
2198bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
2199bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
2200bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
2201bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
2202)
2203
2204When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
2205comment lines that start with a "#".
2206
2207Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
2208full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
2209specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
2210list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
2211If a pattern
2212does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
2213rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
2214an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
2215the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
2216start of the rule.
2217
2218Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
2219rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
2220the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
2221the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
2222
2223manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
2224
2225You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
2226"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
2227The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
2228the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
2229can take several forms:
2230
2231itemization(
2232 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
2233 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
2234 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
2235 regular expressions.
2236 Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the
2237 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
2238 per-directory rule).
2239 An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the
2240 tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the
2241 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
2242 end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
2243 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
2244 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
2245 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
2246 of the transfer.
2247 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
2248 directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.
2249 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
2250 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
2251 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
2252 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
2253 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
2254 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
2255 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
2256 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2257 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2258 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
2259 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2260 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2261 matched only against the final component of the filename.
2262 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
2263 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
2264 down.)
2265 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
2266 "dir_name/" had been specified) and everything in the directory
2267 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2268 version 2.6.7.
2269)
2270
2271Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2272bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
2273include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2274full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2275"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2276The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2277when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2278parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2279because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2280hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2281For instance, this won't work:
2282
2283quote(
2284tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2285tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2286tt(- *)nl()
2287)
2288
2289This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2290rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2291directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
2292to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
2293"- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2294solution is to add specific include rules for all
2295the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2296works fine:
2297
2298quote(
2299tt(+ /some/)nl()
2300tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2301tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2302tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2303tt(- *)nl()
2304)
2305
2306Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2307
2308itemization(
2309 it() "- *.o" would exclude all names matching *.o
2310 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2311 transfer-root directory
2312 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2313 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2314 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2315 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2316 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2317 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
2318 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2319 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
2320 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2321 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2322 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2323)
2324
2325manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2326
2327You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
2328merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2329section above).
2330
2331There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2332per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2333its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2334rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2335it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2336into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2337must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2338being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2339also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2340affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2341below).
2342
2343Some examples:
2344
2345quote(
2346tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2347tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2348tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2349tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2350tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2351)
2352
2353The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
2354
2355itemization(
2356 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
2357 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2358 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
2359 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2360 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2361 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2362 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2363 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2364 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
2365 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
2366 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2367 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
2368 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2369 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
2370 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2371 also disabled).
2372 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
2373 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
2374 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
2375 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2376 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
2377 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
2378)
2379
2380The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
2381
2382itemization(
2383 it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
2384 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
2385 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
2386 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2387 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2388 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
2389 it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
2390 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2391 non-directories.
2392 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2393 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2394 follow.
2395 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2396 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2397 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2398 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2399 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
2400 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
2401 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2402 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2403 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2404 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2405 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
2406 it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2407 ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2408 option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2409 marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2410 on the source from being deleted on the destination.
2411)
2412
2413Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2414where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2415subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2416from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
2417inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
2418the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
2419dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
2420rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2421file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2422
2423Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2424anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2425merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2426would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2427file was found.
2428
2429Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2430
2431quote(
2432tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2433tt(- *.gz)nl()
2434tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2435tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
2436tt(- *.o)nl()
2437)
2438
2439This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2440start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2441filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2442follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2443of the transfer).
2444
2445If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2446directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2447dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2448per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2449
2450quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2451
2452That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2453directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2454transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2455the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2456rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2457
2458Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2459
2460quote(
2461tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2462tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2463tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2464)
2465
2466The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2467"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2468and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2469and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2470a part of the transfer.
2471
2472If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2473you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2474file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2475use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2476per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2477":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2478add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2479rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2480example:
2481
2482quote(
2483tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2484tt(+ foo.o)nl()
2485tt(:C)nl()
2486tt(- *.old)nl()
2487tt(EOT)nl()
2488tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2489)
2490
2491Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2492the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2493at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2494that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2495affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2496the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2497omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2498your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
2499
2500manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2501
2502You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2503rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2504list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2505parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2506inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2507out the parent's rules).
2508
2509manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2510
2511As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2512"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2513anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2514a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2515transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2516directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2517
2518Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2519trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2520option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2521changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2522host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2523
2524Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2525path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2526Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2527
2528quote(
2529 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2530 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2531 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2532 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2533 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2534)
2535
2536quote(
2537 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2538 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2539 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2540 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2541 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2542)
2543
2544quote(
2545 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2546 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2547 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2548 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2549 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2550)
2551
2552quote(
2553 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2554 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2555 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2556 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2557 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2558)
2559
2560The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2561look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2562(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2563
2564manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2565
2566Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2567sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2568without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2569this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2570
2571quote(
2572tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2573tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2574)
2575
2576However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2577files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2578receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2579the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2580because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2581rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2582
2583quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2584
2585However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2586either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2587line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2588the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2589remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2590
2591verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2592 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2593
2594In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2595transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2596merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2597per-directory merge rule.
2598
2599In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2600files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2601to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2602specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2603deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2604should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2605
2606verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2607 host:src/dir /dest
2608 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2609
2610manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2611
2612Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2613identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2614number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2615source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2616hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2617write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2618of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2619client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2620this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2621
2622To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2623with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2624file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2625using the information stored in the batch file.
2626
2627For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2628option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2629".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2630a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2631batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
2632optionally
2633passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2634instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2635path differs from the original destination tree path.
2636
2637Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2638status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2639updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2640be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2641at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2642
2643Examples:
2644
2645quote(
2646tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2647tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2648tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2649)
2650
2651quote(
2652tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2653tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2654)
2655
2656In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2657and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2658"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2659into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2660reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2661
2662itemization(
2663 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2664 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2665 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2666 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2667 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2668 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2669 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2670 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2671 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2672 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2673 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2674)
2675
2676Caveats:
2677
2678The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2679to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2680batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2681is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2682appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2683and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2684error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2685if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2686always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2687option (when reading the batch).
2688If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2689partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2690be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2691destination tree.
2692
2693The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2694one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2695protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2696to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2697creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2698(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2699older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2700
2701When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2702to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2703as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2704For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2705bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2706bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2707one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2708
2709The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2710options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2711shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2712list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2713user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2714to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2715
2716The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2717version uses a new implementation.
2718
2719manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2720
2721Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2722link in the source directory.
2723
2724By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2725"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2726
2727If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2728target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2729bf(--links).
2730
2731If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2732copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2733
2734rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2735example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2736ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2737bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2738bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2739they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2740unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2741bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2742
2743Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2744(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
2745components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2746
2747Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2748in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2749use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2750
2751dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2752symlinks for any other options to affect).
2753
2754dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2755and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2756
2757dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2758skip all safe symlinks.
2759
2760dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2761ones.
2762
2763dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2764
2765manpagediagnostics()
2766
2767rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2768cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2769version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2770
2771This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2772facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2773for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2774remote shell like this:
2775
2776quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2777
2778then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2779should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2780rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2781data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2782it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2783scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2784for non-interactive logins.
2785
2786If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2787try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2788show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2789
2790manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2791
2792startdit()
2793dit(bf(0)) Success
2794dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2795dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2796dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2797dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2798was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2799them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2800not by the server.
2801dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2802dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2803dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2804dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2805dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2806dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2807dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2808dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2809dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
2810dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2811dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2812dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2813dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2814dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2815dit(bf(35)) Timeout waiting for daemon connection
2816enddit()
2817
2818manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2819
2820startdit()
2821dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2822ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2823more details.
2824dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
2825environment variable.
2826dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2827override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2828options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2829dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2830redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2831rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2832dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2833password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2834daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2835password to a remote shell transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that,
2836consult the remote shell's documentation.
2837dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2838are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2839If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2840dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2841default .cvsignore file.
2842enddit()
2843
2844manpagefiles()
2845
2846/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2847
2848manpageseealso()
2849
2850bf(rsyncd.conf)(5)
2851
2852manpagebugs()
2853
2854times are transferred as *nix time_t values
2855
2856When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2857unmodified files.
2858See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2859
2860file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2861values
2862
2863see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2864
2865Please report bugs! See the web site at
2866url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2867
2868manpagesection(VERSION)
2869
2870This man page is current for version 3.0.0 of rsync.
2871
2872manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
2873
2874The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
2875and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
2876awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
2877when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
2878the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
2879named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
2880ssh login.
2881
2882manpagesection(CREDITS)
2883
2884rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2885COPYING for details.
2886
2887A WEB site is available at
2888url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2889includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2890manual page.
2891
2892The primary ftp site for rsync is
2893url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2894
2895We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2896Please contact the mailing-list at rsync@lists.samba.org.
2897
2898This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2899Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2900
2901manpagesection(THANKS)
2902
2903Especial thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
2904David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
2905gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
2906
2907Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2908and David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2909
2910manpageauthor()
2911
2912rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2913Many people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained
2914by Wayne Davison.
2915
2916Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2917url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)