Changed rule_match() to rule_strcmp(). Likewise for the
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
... / ...
CommitLineData
1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
7
8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9
10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
11
12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
13
14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
15
16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
17
18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
25updated.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
53 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
54 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
55 single : separator.
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
59 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
60 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
61 separator or an rsync:// URL.
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
65 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
66 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
67 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
68 separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
69 also provided.
70 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
71 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
72 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
73 destination path contains a :: separator and the
74 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option is also provided.
75 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
76 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
77 local destination.
78)
79
80Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
81and destination paths must be local.
82
83manpagesection(SETUP)
84
85See the file README for installation instructions.
86
87Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
88a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
89daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
90for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
91different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
92
93You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
94command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95
96One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
97security.
98
99Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
100machines.
101
102manpagesection(USAGE)
103
104You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
105and a destination, one of which may be remote.
106
107Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
108
109quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
110
111This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
112current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
113the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
114remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
115differences. See the tech report for details.
116
117quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
118
119This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
121files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
122links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
123in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
124size of data portions of the transfer.
125
126quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
127
128A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
130/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
131to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
134files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
135/dest/foo:
136
137quote(
138tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
139tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
140)
141
142You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144an improved copy command.
145
146quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
147
148This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
149somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
150
151manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
152
153The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
154quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
155
156quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
157
158This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
159additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
160and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
161to be a part of the filenames.
162
163quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
164
165This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
166word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
167that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
168whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
169a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
170whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
171in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
172
173quote(
174tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
175tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
176)
177
178This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
179wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
180
181manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
182
183It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
184transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
185running on TCP port 873.
186
187You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
188environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
189your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
190proxy connections to port 873.
191
192Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
193that:
194
195itemize(
196 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
197 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
198 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
199 connect.
200 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
201 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
202 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
203 specified files on the remote server is provided.
204)
205
206Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
207you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
208password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
209the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
210may be useful when scripting rsync.
211
212WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
213users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
214
215manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
216
217It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
218server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
219rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
220to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
221firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
222features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
223below).
224
225From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
226using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
227explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
228bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
229this functionality.)
230
231In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
232server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
233
234verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
235 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
236
237The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
238used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
239
240manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
241
242An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
243rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
244file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
245shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
246is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
247(typically $HOME).
248
249manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
250
251See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
252server configuration file.
253
254Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
255user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
256configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
257if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
258
259To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
260in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
261
262manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263
264Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265
266To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
267files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268
269quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270
271each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
272"arvidsjaur".
273
274To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
275targets:
276
277verb( get:
278 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 put:
280 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
281 sync: get put)
282
283this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
284connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
285lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286
287I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
288command:
289
290tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291
292This is launched from cron every few hours.
293
294manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295
296Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
297to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
298 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
299 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
300 -c, --checksum always checksum
301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
312 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
313 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
314 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
315 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
316 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
317 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
318 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
319 -p, --perms preserve permissions
320 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
321 -g, --group preserve group
322 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
323 -t, --times preserve times
324 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
325 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
326 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
327 -W, --whole-file copy files whole
328 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
329 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
330 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
331 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
332 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
333 --existing only update files that already exist
334 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
335 --del an alias for --delete-during
336 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
337 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
338 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
339 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
340 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
341 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
342 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
343 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
344 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
345 --partial keep partially transferred files
346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
353 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
354 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
355 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
356 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
357 -z, --compress compress file data
358 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
359 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
360 -F same as --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
361 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
363 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
367 -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
368 --version print version number
369 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
370 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
371 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
373 --progress show progress during transfer
374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
377 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
379 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
380 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
384 -h, --help show this help screen)
385
386Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
387accepted: verb(
388 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
389 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
390 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
391 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
392 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
393 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
394 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen)
398
399manpageoptions()
400
401rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
402options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
403below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
404The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
405can be used instead.
406
407startdit()
408dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
409available in rsync.
410
411dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
412
413dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
414are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
415single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
416transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
417information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
418information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
419you are debugging rsync.
420
421dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
422are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
423from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
424cron.
425
426dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
427already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
428This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
429
430dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
431already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
432bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
433regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
434after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
435exactly.
436
437dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
438timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
439value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
440to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
441transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
442times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
443(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
444
445dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
446a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
447explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
448which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
449receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
450
451dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
452way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
453everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
454specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
455
456Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
457finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
458specify bf(-H).
459
460dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
461recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
462
463dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
464names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
465just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
466you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
467example, if you used the command
468
469quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
470
471then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
472machine. If instead you used
473
474quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
475
476then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
477machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
478path information that is sent, do something like this:
479
480quote(
481tt( cd /foo)nl()
482tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
483)
484
485That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
486
487dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
488needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
489file processing.
490
491dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
492implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
493of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
494the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
495path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
496the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
497destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
498the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
499which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
500symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
501
502dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
503renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
504backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
505bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
506
507dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
508tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
509very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
510specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
511(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
512will keep their original filenames).
513If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
514(which changes in a recursive transfer).
515
516dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
517backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
518if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
519
520dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
521the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
522file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
523source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
524
525In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
526between the sender and receiver is always
527considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
528is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
529symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
530regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
531free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
532
533dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
534and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
535file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
536network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
537to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
538with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
539basis file for the transfer.
540
541This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
542or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
543bound.
544
545The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
546the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
547Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
548bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
549
550WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
551transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
552should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
553rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
554receiving user.
555
556dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
557are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
558unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
559name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
560bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
561output a message to that effect for each one).
562
563dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
564symlink on the destination.
565
566dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
567they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
568versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
569receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
570modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
571to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
572an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
573will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
574
575dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
576symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
577are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
578source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
579
580dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
581which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
582also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
583give unexpected results.
584
585dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
586the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
587option hard links are treated like regular files.
588
589Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
590are in the list of files being sent.
591
592This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
593
594dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
595pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
596from the sender.
597
598dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
599is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
600faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
601destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
602"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
603the source and destination are specified as local paths.
604
605dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
606default.
607
608dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
609permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
610
611Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
612source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
613other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
614(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
615
616dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
617destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
618only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
619is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
620circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
621
622dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
623destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
624program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
625receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
626is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
627circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
628
629dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
630block device information to the remote system to recreate these
631devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
632
633dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
634with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
635option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
636modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
637cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
638updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
639if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
640
641dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
642it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
643the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
644
645dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
646instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
647
648dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
649up less space on the destination.
650
651NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
652filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
653correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
654
655dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
656boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
657contents of only one filesystem.
658
659dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
660only update files that already exist on the destination.
661
662dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
663This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
664the destination.
665
666dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
667files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
668to prevent disasters.
669
670dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
671file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
672suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
673may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
674
675dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
676receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
677directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
678send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
679for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
680by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
681the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
682excluded from being deleted unless you use bf(--delete-excluded).
683
684This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
685
686This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
687to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
688deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
689
690If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
691files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
692prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
693sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
694destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
695
696The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
697without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
698--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
699bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
700bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
701
702dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
703side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
704or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
705See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
706
707Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
708and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
709However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
710and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
711specified).
712
713dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
714receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
715a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
716but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
717See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
718
719dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
720side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
721are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
722you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
723current transfer.
724See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
725
726dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
727receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
728delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
729See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
730
731dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
732even when there are I/O errors.
733
734dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
735they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
736is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
737Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
738
739dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
740the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
741the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
742
743dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
744remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
745remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
746default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
747
748If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
749remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
750remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
751shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
752running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
753TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
754
755Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
756presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
757
758quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
759
760(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
761options in their .ssh/config file.)
762
763You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
764environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
765
766See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
767
768dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
769rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
770that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
771the binary is in.
772
773dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
774broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
775systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
776a file should be ignored.
777
778The exclude list is initialized to:
779
780quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
781.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
782.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
783
784then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
785files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
786are delimited by whitespace).
787
788Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
789.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
790rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
791See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
792
793If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
794note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
795regardless of where the -C was placed on the command-line. This makes them
796a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
797control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
798should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
799bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
800putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
801The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
802file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
803mentioned above.
804
805dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
806exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
807most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
808
809You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
810to build up the list of files to exclude.
811
812See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
813
814dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
815your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
816
817quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
818
819This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
820been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
821files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
822rule:
823
824quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
825
826This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
827
828See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
829work.
830
831dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
832bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
833the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
834
835See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
836
837dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
838option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
839FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
840';' or '#' are ignored.
841If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
842
843dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
844bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
845the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
846
847See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
848
849dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
850from a file.
851If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
852
853dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
854exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
855for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
856transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
857
858quote(itemize(
859 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
860 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
861 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
862 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
863 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
864 them.
865 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
866 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
867))
868
869The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
870source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
871allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
872command:
873
874quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
875
876If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
877directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
878contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified bf(-r)
879or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
880that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
881duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
882force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
883
884In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
885instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
886(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
887specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
888transfer". For example:
889
890quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
891
892This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
893was located on the remote "src" host.
894
895dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
896file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
897This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
898merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
899It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
900file are split on whitespace).
901
902dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
903scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
904transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
905the temporary files in the receiving directory.
906
907dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
908the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
909files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
910directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
911sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
912directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
913have changed from an earlier backup.
914
915Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
916provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
917finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
918and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
919
920If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
921See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
922
923dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
924rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
925directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
926useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
927files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
928successfully transferred.
929
930If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
931See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
932
933dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
934unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
935The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
936possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
937An example:
938
939quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
940
941Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--link-dest) option is
942specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
943the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
944of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
945
946If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
947See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
948
949Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
950bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
951(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
952when sending to an old rsync.
953
954dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
955the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
956option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
957same method that gzip uses.
958
959Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
960that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
961compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
962information sent for matching data blocks.
963
964dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
965and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
966at both ends.
967
968By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
969what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
9700 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
971option is not specified.
972
973If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
974on the destination system, then the numeric ID
975from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
976"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
977the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
978users and groups and what you can do about it.
979
980dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
981timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
982then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
983
984dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
985rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
986double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
987syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
988option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
989
990dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
991a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
992rsync defaults to using
993blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
994ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
995
996dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
997default.
998
999dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1000rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
1001specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
1002rsyncd.conf.
1003
1004dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1005on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1006algorithm is for your data.
1007
1008dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1009transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1010it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1011bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1012make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1013
1014dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on bf(--partial) mode, but tells rsync to
1015put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
1016file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
1017dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
1018rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
1019its purpose. Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied) that an
1020existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
1021rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1022
1023Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
1024whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1025"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the partial-directory
1026in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
1027if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
1028DIR was specified as a relative path).
1029
1030If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
1031bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1032will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1033untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1034the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1035rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1036supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1037rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1038it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1039a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
1040
1041IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1042is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1043
1044You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1045variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1046enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1047specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1048along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1049environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1050.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1051option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1052specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1053bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1054
1055dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1056updated file into the file's partial-dir (see above) until the end of the
1057transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1058succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1059atomic. If you don't specify the bf(--partial-dir) option, this option will
1060cause it to default to ".~tmp~" (RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR is not consulted for
1061this value). Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1062
1063This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1064transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1065side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1066you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1067chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1068the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1069absolute).
1070
1071See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1072update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1073parallel hierarchy of files).
1074
1075dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1076showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1077something to watch.
1078Implies bf(--verbose) without incrementing verbosity.
1079
1080When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1081
1082verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1083
1084This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1085is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1086data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1087remaining in this transfer.
1088
1089After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1090
1091verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1092
1093This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1094transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1095the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1096These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1097what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1098
1099dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1100purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1101transfer that may be interrupted.
1102
1103dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1104in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1105is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1106transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1107must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1108single line.
1109
1110dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1111instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1112specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1113come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1114options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1115non-recursive listing.
1116
1117dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1118transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1119using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1120of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1121transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1122result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1123of zero specifies no limit.
1124
1125dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1126another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1127section for details.
1128
1129dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1130file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1131If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1132See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1133
1134dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1135when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1136control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1137rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1138
1139dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1140NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1141MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1142by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1143is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1144applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1145in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1146Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1147for checksum seed.
1148enddit()
1149
1150manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1151
1152The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1153
1154startdit()
1155dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1156daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1157bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1158
1159If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1160run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1161become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1162(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1163requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1164details.
1165
1166dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1167when run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
1168rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
1169address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1170in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
1171option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1172
1173dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1174transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1175The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1176requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1177client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1178
1179dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1180the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1181The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1182a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1183the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1184
1185dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1186rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1187option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1188be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1189bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1190bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1191debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1192sshd.
1193
1194dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1195daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1196global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1197
1198dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1199daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1200daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1201used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1202
1203dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1204when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1205listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1206versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1207an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1208try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1209
1210dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1211page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1212enddit()
1213
1214manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1215
1216The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1217(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1218specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1219include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1220
1221As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1222name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1223turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1224pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1225filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1226filename is not skipped.
1227
1228Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1229command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1230
1231quote(
1232tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1233tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1234)
1235
1236You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1237below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1238MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1239must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1240Here are the available rule prefixes:
1241
1242quote(
1243bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1244bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1245bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1246bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1247bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1248)
1249
1250When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1251comment lines that start with a "#".
1252
1253Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1254full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1255specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1256list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1257If a pattern
1258does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1259rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1260an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1261the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1262start of the rule.
1263
1264Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1265rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1266the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1267the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1268
1269manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1270
1271You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+" and
1272"-" filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1273The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1274the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1275can take several forms:
1276
1277itemize(
1278 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1279 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1280 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1281 regular expressions.
1282 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1283 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1284 per-directory rule).
1285 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1286 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1287 the
1288 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1289 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1290 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1291 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1292 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1293 of the transfer.
1294 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1295 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1296 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1297 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1298 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1299 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1300 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1301 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1302 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1303 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1304 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1305 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1306 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1307 down.)
1308)
1309
1310Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1311bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1312include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1313full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1314"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1315The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1316when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1317parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1318because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1319hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1320For instance, this won't work:
1321
1322quote(
1323tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1324tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1325tt(- *)nl()
1326)
1327
1328This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1329rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1330directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1331to be included by using a single rule: "+_*/" (put it somewhere before the
1332"-_*" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1333the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1334works fine:
1335
1336quote(
1337tt(+ /some/)nl()
1338tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1339tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1340tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1341tt(- *)nl()
1342)
1343
1344Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1345
1346itemize(
1347 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1348 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1349 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1350 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1351 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1352 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1353 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1354 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1355 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1356 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1357 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1358 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1359)
1360
1361manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1362
1363You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1364merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1365section above).
1366
1367There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1368per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1369its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1370rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1371it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1372into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1373must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1374being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1375also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1376affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1377below).
1378
1379Some examples:
1380
1381quote(
1382tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1383tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1384tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1385tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1386tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1387)
1388
1389The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1390
1391itemize(
1392 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1393 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1394 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1395 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1396 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1397 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1398 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1399 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1400 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1401 "dir-merge,e_.rules" is like "dir-merge,_.rules" and "-_.rules".
1402 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1403 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1404 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1405 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1406 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1407 also disabled).
1408 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1409 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1410 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/_.excl" would
1411 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes.
1412)
1413
1414The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1415
1416itemize(
1417 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1418 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1419 "-/_/etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1420 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1421 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1422 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1423 non-directories.
1424 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1425 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1426 follow.
1427)
1428
1429Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1430where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1431subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1432from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1433inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1434the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1435dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1436rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1437file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1438
1439Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1440anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1441merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1442would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1443file was found.
1444
1445Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1446
1447quote(
1448tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1449tt(- *.gz)nl()
1450tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1451tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1452tt(- *.o)nl()
1453)
1454
1455This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1456start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1457filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1458follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1459of the transfer).
1460
1461If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1462directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1463dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1464per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1465
1466quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1467
1468That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1469directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1470transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1471the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1472rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1473
1474Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1475
1476quote(
1477tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1478tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1479tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1480)
1481
1482The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1483"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1484and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1485and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1486a part of the transfer.
1487
1488If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1489you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1490file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1491use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1492per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1493":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1494add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1495rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1496example:
1497
1498quote(
1499tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1500tt(+ foo.o)nl()
1501tt(:C)nl()
1502tt(- *.old)nl()
1503tt(EOT)nl()
1504tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1505)
1506
1507Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1508the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1509at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1510that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1511affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1512the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1513omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1514your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1515
1516manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1517
1518You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1519rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1520list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1521parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1522inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1523out the parent's rules).
1524
1525manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1526
1527As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1528"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1529anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1530a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1531transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1532directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1533
1534Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1535trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1536option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1537changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1538host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1539
1540Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1541path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1542Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1543
1544quote(
1545 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1546 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1547 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1548 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1549 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1550)
1551
1552quote(
1553 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1554 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1555 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1556 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1557 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1558)
1559
1560quote(
1561 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1562 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1563 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1564 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1565 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1566)
1567
1568quote(
1569 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1570 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1571 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1572 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1573 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1574)
1575
1576The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1577look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1578(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1579
1580manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1581
1582Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1583sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1584without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1585this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1586
1587quote(
1588tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1589tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1590)
1591
1592However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1593files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1594receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1595the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1596because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1597rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1598
1599quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1600
1601However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1602either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1603line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1604the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1605remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1606
1607verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1608 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1609
1610In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1611transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1612merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1613per-directory merge rule.
1614
1615In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1616files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1617to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1618specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1619deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1620should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1621
1622verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1623 host:src/dir /dest
1624 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1625
1626manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1627
1628Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1629identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1630number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1631source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1632hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1633write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1634of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1635client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1636this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1637
1638To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1639with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1640file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1641using the information stored in the batch file.
1642
1643For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1644option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1645".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1646a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1647batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1648passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1649instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1650path differs from the original destination tree path.
1651
1652Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1653status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1654updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1655be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1656at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1657
1658Examples:
1659
1660quote(
1661tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1662tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1663tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1664)
1665
1666quote(
1667tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1668tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1669)
1670
1671In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1672and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1673"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1674into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1675reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1676
1677itemize(
1678 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1679 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1680 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1681 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1682 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1683 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1684 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1685 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1686 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1687 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1688 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1689)
1690
1691Caveats:
1692
1693The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1694to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1695batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1696is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1697appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1698and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1699error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1700if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1701always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1702option (when reading the batch).
1703If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1704partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1705be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1706destination tree.
1707
1708The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1709one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1710protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1711to handle.
1712
1713The bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1714error.
1715
1716When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1717to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1718as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1719For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1720bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1721bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1722one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1723
1724The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1725options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1726shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1727list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1728user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1729to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1730
1731The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1732version uses a new implementation.
1733
1734manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1735
1736Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1737link in the source directory.
1738
1739By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1740"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1741
1742If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1743target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1744bf(--links).
1745
1746If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1747copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1748
1749rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1750example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1751ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1752bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1753bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1754they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1755unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1756
1757Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1758(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1759components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1760
1761manpagediagnostics()
1762
1763rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1764cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1765version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
1766
1767This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1768facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1769for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1770remote shell like this:
1771
1772quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1773
1774then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1775should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1776rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1777data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1778it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1779scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1780for non-interactive logins.
1781
1782If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1783try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1784show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1785
1786manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1787
1788startdit()
1789dit(bf(0)) Success
1790dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1791dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1792dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1793dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1794was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1795them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1796not by the server.
1797dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1798dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1799dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1800dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1801dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1802dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1803dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1804dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1805dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1806dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1807dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1808dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1809enddit()
1810
1811manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1812
1813startdit()
1814dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1815ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
1816more details.
1817dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1818override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1819options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
1820dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1821redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1822rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1823dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1824password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1825daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1826password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1827dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1828are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1829If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1830dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1831default .cvsignore file.
1832enddit()
1833
1834manpagefiles()
1835
1836/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1837
1838manpageseealso()
1839
1840rsyncd.conf(5)
1841
1842manpagebugs()
1843
1844times are transferred as unix time_t values
1845
1846When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1847unmodified files.
1848See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
1849
1850file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1851values
1852
1853see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
1854
1855Please report bugs! See the website at
1856url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1857
1858manpagesection(CREDITS)
1859
1860rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1861COPYING for details.
1862
1863A WEB site is available at
1864url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1865includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1866manual page.
1867
1868The primary ftp site for rsync is
1869url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1870
1871We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1872
1873This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1874Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1875
1876manpagesection(THANKS)
1877
1878Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1879and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1880I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1881
1882Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1883Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1884
1885manpageauthor()
1886
1887rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1888Many people have later contributed to it.
1889
1890Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1891url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)