Fix typo pointed out by Chris Pepper.
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(12 Apr 2009)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6verb(Local: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
7
8Access via remote shell:
9 Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
10 Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
11
12Access via rsync daemon:
13 Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
15 Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
17
18Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files
19instead of copying.
20
21manpagedescription()
22
23Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can
24copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a
25remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control
26every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the
27set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm,
28which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the
29differences between the source files and the existing files in the
30destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an
31improved copy command for everyday use.
32
33Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check"
34algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or
35in last-modified time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as
36requested by options) are made on the destination file directly when the
37quick check indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
38
39Some of the additional features of rsync are:
40
41itemization(
42 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
43 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
44 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
45 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
46 it() does not require super-user privileges
47 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
48 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
49 mirroring)
50)
51
52manpagesection(GENERAL)
53
54Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
55current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
56
57There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
58remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
59rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
60the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
61a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
62source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
63host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
64"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
65an exception to this latter rule).
66
67As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
68destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
69
70As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
71host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
72
73Rsync refers to the local side as the "client" and the remote side as the
74"server". Don't confuse "server" with an rsync daemon -- a daemon is always a
75server, but a server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
76
77manpagesection(SETUP)
78
79See the file README for installation instructions.
80
81Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
82a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
83daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
84for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
85different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
86
87You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
88command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
89
90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
99
100quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
101
102This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
109
110This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
118
119A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
120additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
121/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
122to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
123containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
124destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
125files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
126/dest/foo:
127
128quote(
129tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
130tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
131)
132
133Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
134copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
135copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
136
137quote(
138tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
139tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)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
146Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
147particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
148
149quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
150
151See the following section for more details.
152
153manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
154
155The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
156specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first,
157or with the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
158
159quote(tt(rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/)nl()
160tt(rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/)nl()
161tt(rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}))
162
163Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
164examples:
165
166quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)nl()
167tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
168
169This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is
170not as easy to use as the first method.
171
172If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
173specify the bf(--protect-args) (bf(-s)) option, or you'll need to escape
174the whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For
175instance:
176
177quote(tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest))
178
179manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
180
181It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
182In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
183using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
184the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
185CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
186
187Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
188that:
189
190itemization(
191 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
192 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
193 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
194 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
195 connect.
196 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
197 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
198 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
199 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
200 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
201)
202
203An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
204
205verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
206
207Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
208you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
209password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
210the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
211may be useful when scripting rsync.
212
213WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
214users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
215
216You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
217environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
218your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
219proxy connections to port 873.
220
221You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
222setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you
223wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
224contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
225command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For
226example:
227
228verb( export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
229 rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
230 rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/ )
231
232The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost,
233which forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost
234(%H).
235
236manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
237
238It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
239named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
240system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
241Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
242a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
243home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
244daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
245the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
246change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
247transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
248configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
249connections from "localhost".)
250
251From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
252connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
253rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
254explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
255bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
256will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
257
258verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
259
260If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
261user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
262module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
263give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
264this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
265
266verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
267
268The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
269used to log-in to the "module".
270
271manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
272
273In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
274daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
275to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
276For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
277socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
278file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
279daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
280
281If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
282no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
283
284manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
285
286Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
287
288To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
289files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
290
291quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
292
293each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
294"arvidsjaur".
295
296To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
297targets:
298
299verb( get:
300 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
301 put:
302 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
303 sync: get put)
304
305this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
306connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
307lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
308
309I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
310command:
311
312tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
313
314This is launched from cron every few hours.
315
316manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
317
318Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
319to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
320 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
321 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
322 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
323 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
324 -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
325 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
326 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
327 -R, --relative use relative path names
328 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
329 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
330 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
331 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
332 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
333 --inplace update destination files in-place
334 --append append data onto shorter files
335 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
336 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
337 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
338 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
339 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
340 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
341 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
342 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
343 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
344 -p, --perms preserve permissions
345 -E, --executability preserve executability
346 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
347 -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
348 -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
349 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
350 -g, --group preserve group
351 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
352 --specials preserve special files
353 -D same as --devices --specials
354 -t, --times preserve modification times
355 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
356 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
357 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
358 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
359 -n, --dry-run perform a trial run with no changes made
360 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
361 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
362 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
363 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
364 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
365 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
366 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
367 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
368 --del an alias for --delete-during
369 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
370 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
371 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
372 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
373 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
374 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
375 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
376 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
377 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
378 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
379 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
380 --partial keep partially transferred files
381 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
382 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
383 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
384 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
385 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
386 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
387 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
388 --size-only skip files that match in size
389 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
390 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
391 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
392 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
393 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
394 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
395 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
396 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
397 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
398 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
399 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
400 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
401 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
402 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
403 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
404 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
405 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
406 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
407 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
408 -s, --protect-args no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
409 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
410 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
411 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
412 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
413 --stats give some file-transfer stats
414 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
415 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
416 --progress show progress during transfer
417 -P same as --partial --progress
418 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
419 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
420 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
421 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
422 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
423 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
424 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
425 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
426 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
427 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
428 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
429 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
430 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
431 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
432 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
433 --version print version number
434(-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
435
436Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
437accepted: verb(
438 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
439 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
440 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
441 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
442 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
443 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
444 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
445 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
446 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
447 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
448 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
449 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
450 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
451
452manpageoptions()
453
454rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
455options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
456below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
457The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
458can be used instead.
459
460startdit()
461dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
462available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
463versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
464option without any other args.
465
466dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
467
468dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
469are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
470single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
471transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) options will give you
472information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
473information at the end. More than two bf(-v) options should only be used if
474you are debugging rsync.
475
476Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
477a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
478file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
479level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
480changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
481bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
482output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
483any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
484
485dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
486are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
487from the remote server. This option is useful when invoking rsync from
488cron.
489
490dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
491by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
492message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
493that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
494a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
495request the list of modules from the daemon.
496
497dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
498already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
499This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
500be updated.
501
502dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
503finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
504transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
505time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
506when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
507not preserve timestamps exactly.
508
509dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
510timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
511value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
512to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
513transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
514times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
515(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
516
517dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
518been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
519uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
520of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
521changes this to compare a 128-bit checksum for each file that has a
522matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
523a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
524this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
525so this can slow things down significantly.
526
527The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
528scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
529its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
530file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
531either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
532
533Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
534correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
535checksum that is generated as the file is transferred, but that
536automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
537option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
538
539For protocol 30 and beyond (first supported in 3.0.0), the checksum used is
540MD5. For older protocols, the checksum used is MD4.
541
542dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
543way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
544everything (with -H being a notable omission).
545The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
546specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
547
548Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
549finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
550specify bf(-H).
551
552dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
553the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
554only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
555bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
556(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
557specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
558(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
559
560For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
561bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
562could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
563
564The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
565bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
566Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
567positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
568changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
569details).
570
571dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
572recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
573
574Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
575incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
576transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
577completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
578does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
579both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
580
581Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
582disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
583bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), and bf(--delay-updates).
584Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
585bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
586(use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
587explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
588than using bf(--delete-after).
589
590Incremental recursion can be disabled using the bf(--no-inc-recursive)
591option or its shorter bf(--no-i-r) alias.
592
593dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
594names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
595just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
596you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
597example, if you used this command:
598
599quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
600
601... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
602machine. If instead you used
603
604quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
605
606then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
607machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
608"implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
609above example).
610
611Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
612real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
613symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected
614behaviors when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had
615a symlink in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink,
616include both the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real
617path. If you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may
618need to use the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option.
619
620It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
621implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
622sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
623the source path, like this:
624
625quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
626
627That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
628dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
629(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
630source path. For example, when pushing files:
631
632quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
633
634(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
635"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
636If you're pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only
637for a non-daemon transfer):
638
639quote(
640tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
641tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
642)
643
644dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
645bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
646directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
647means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
648left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
649created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
650elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
651the receiving side.
652
653For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
654transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
655are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
656"bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
657delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
658the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
659"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
660ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
661preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
662affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
663
664When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
665option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
666wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
667
668dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
669renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
670backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
671bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
672
673Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
674bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
675also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
676filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
677(e.g. bf(-f "P *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
678deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
679need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
680in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
681your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
682rule would never be reached).
683
684dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
685tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
686side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
687specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
688(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
689will keep their original filenames).
690
691dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
692backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
693if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
694
695dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
696the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
697file. (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to the
698source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
699
700Note that this does not affect the copying of symlinks or other special
701files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and receiver
702is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what
703date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory
704where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
705the timestamps.
706
707This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
708data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
709It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
710
711dit(bf(--inplace)) This option changes how rsync transfers a file when the
712file's data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of creating
713a new copy of the file and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync
714instead writes the updated data directly to the destination file.
715
716This has several effects: (1) in-use binaries cannot be updated (either the
717OS will prevent this from happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in
718their data will misbehave or crash), (2) the file's data will be in an
719inconsistent state during the transfer, (3) a file's data may be left in an
720inconsistent state after the transfer if the transfer is interrupted or if
721an update fails, (4) a file that does not have write permissions can not be
722updated, and (5) the efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be
723reduced if some data in the destination file is overwritten before it can
724be copied to a position later in the file (one exception to this is if you
725combine this option with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use
726the backup file as the basis file for the transfer).
727
728WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
729accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
730
731This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
732or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
733bound.
734
735The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
736the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
737Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
738and bf(--link-dest).
739
740dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
741the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
742the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
743side. If a file needs to be transferred and its size on the receiver is
744the same or longer than the size on the sender, the file is skipped. This
745does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content attributes
746(e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need to be
747transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any non-regular files.
748Implies bf(--inplace),
749but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
750file's length).
751
752dit(bf(--append-verify)) This works just like the bf(--append) option, but
753the existing data on the receiving side is included in the full-file
754checksum verification step, which will cause a file to be resent if the
755final verification step fails (rsync uses a normal, non-appending
756bf(--inplace) transfer for the resend).
757
758Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the bf(--append) option worked like
759bf(--append-verify), so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
760transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
761will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
762
763dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
764are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
765unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
766(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
767bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
768output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
769bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
770
771The bf(--dirs) option is implied by the bf(--files-from) option
772or the bf(--list-only) option (including an implied
773bf(--list-only) usage) if bf(--recursive) wasn't specified (so that
774directories are seen in the listing). Specify bf(--no-dirs) (or bf(--no-d))
775if you want to turn this off.
776
777There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, bf(--old-dirs) (or
778bf(--old-d)) that tells rsync to use a hack of "-r --exclude='/*/*'" to get
779an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
780
781dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
782symlink on the destination.
783
784dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
785they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
786versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
787receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
788modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
789to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
790an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
791will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
792
793dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
794symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
795are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
796source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
797additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
798
799dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
800which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
801also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
802give unexpected results.
803
804dit(bf(-k, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
805a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
806useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
807they would be using bf(--copy-links).
808
809Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
810symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
811the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
812bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
813
814See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
815side.
816
817dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
818a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
819matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
820receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
821
822For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
823"file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
824bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
825directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
826bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
827"bar".
828
829One note of caution: if you use bf(--keep-dirlinks), you must trust all
830the symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to
831create their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a
832subsequent copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the
833content of whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies,
834you are better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink
835to modify your receiving hierarchy.
836
837See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
838
839dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
840the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
841side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
842as though they were separate files.
843
844When you are updating a non-empty destination, this option only ensures
845that files that are hard-linked together on the source are hard-linked
846together on the destination. It does NOT currently endeavor to break
847already existing hard links on the destination that do not exist between
848the source files. Note, however, that if one or more extra-linked files
849have content changes, they will become unlinked when updated (assuming you
850are not using the bf(--inplace) option).
851
852Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
853the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
854connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
855you are tempted to use the bf(--inplace) option to avoid this breakage, be
856very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
857certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
858see the bf(--inplace) option for more caveats).
859
860If incremental recursion is active (see bf(--recursive)), rsync may transfer
861a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that contents
862exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
863the transfer, just its efficiency. One way to avoid this is to disable
864incremental recursion using the bf(--no-inc-recursive) option.
865
866dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
867destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
868also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
869be the source permissions.)
870
871When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
872
873quote(itemization(
874 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
875 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
876 the execute permission for the file.
877 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
878 file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
879 permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
880 specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
881 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
882 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
883))
884
885Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
886rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
887such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
888
889In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
890permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
891permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
892bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
893all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
894behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
895putting this line in the file ~/.popt (the following defines the bf(-Z) option,
896and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
897
898quote(tt( rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
899
900You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
901
902quote(tt( rsync -avZ src/ dest/))
903
904(Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-Z), or it will re-enable
905the two "--no-*" options mentioned above.)
906
907The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
908directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
909versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
910newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
911destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
912observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
913non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
914(Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
915these behaviors.)
916
917dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
918executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
919not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
920'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
921executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
922modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
923
924quote(itemization(
925 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
926 permissions.
927 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
928 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
929))
930
931If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
932
933dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
934ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs.
935The option also implies bf(--perms).
936
937The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for this
938option to work properly. See the bf(--fake-super) option for a way to backup
939and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
940
941dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
942extended attributes to be the same as the local ones.
943
944For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done by a
945super-user copies all namespaces except system.*. A normal user only copies
946the user.* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user namespaces as
947a normal user, see the bf(--fake-super) option.
948
949dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
950comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
951transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
952that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
953can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
954
955In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
956manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
957prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
958file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
959
960quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
961
962It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
963additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
964
965See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
966permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
967
968dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
969destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
970receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
971and bf(--fake-super) options).
972Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to
973the invoking user on the receiving side.
974
975The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
976may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
977bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
978
979dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
980destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
981program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
982specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
983is a member of will be preserved.
984Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
985user on the receiving side.
986
987The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
988default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
989(see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
990
991dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
992block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
993This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
994super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
995
996dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
997such as named sockets and fifos.
998
999dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
1000
1001dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
1002with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
1003option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
1004modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
1005cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
1006updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
1007if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
1008
1009dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
1010it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
1011the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
1012This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
1013
1014dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
1015activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
1016activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
1017all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
1018option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
1019for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
1020also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
1021being run as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
1022super-user can use bf(--no-super).
1023
1024dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
1025super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via
1026special extended attributes that are attached to each file (as needed). This
1027includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
1028device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
1029any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
1030the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
1031access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file, the
1032files we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating user).
1033This option also handles ACLs (if bf(--acls) was specified) and non-user
1034extended attributes (if bf(--xattrs) was specified).
1035
1036This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1037ACLs from incompatible systems.
1038
1039The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
1040To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync
1041path:
1042
1043quote(tt( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/))
1044
1045Since there is only one "side" in a local copy, this option affects both
1046the sending and receiving of files. You'll need to specify a copy using
1047"localhost" if you need to avoid this, possibly using the "lsh" shell
1048script (from the support directory) as a substitute for an actual remote
1049shell (see bf(--rsh)).
1050
1051This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
1052
1053See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1054
1055dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
1056up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
1057not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
1058
1059NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
1060filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
1061correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
1062
1063dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't
1064make any changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real run). It
1065is most commonly used in combination with the bf(-v, --verbose) and/or
1066bf(-i, --itemize-changes) options to see what an rsync command is going
1067to do before one actually runs it.
1068
1069The output of bf(--itemize-changes) is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1070dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1071call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output is the same to the
1072extent practical, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
1073send the actual data for file transfers, so bf(--progress) has no effect,
1074the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1075statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1076where no file transfers are needed.
1077
1078dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1079is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
1080faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
1081destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
1082"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
1083the source and destination are specified as local paths.
1084
1085dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
1086filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
1087to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
1088through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
1089the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
1090in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
1091same filesystem.
1092
1093If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1094the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1095encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1096the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1097
1098If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
1099bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1100treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1101by this option.
1102
1103dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
1104creating files (including directories) that do not exist
1105yet on the destination. If this option is
1106combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
1107(which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1108
1109This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1110data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1111It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1112
1113dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
1114already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
1115directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
1116
1117This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1118data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1119It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1120
1121This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
1122option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1123a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1124used properly), using bf(--ignore existing) will ensure that the
1125already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1126permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option
1127is only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1128
1129dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
1130side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
1131and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
1132
1133dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
1134receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
1135directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
1136send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
1137for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
1138by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
1139the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are
1140also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
1141option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1142include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1143
1144Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
1145was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
1146(bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
1147
1148This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1149first try a run using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files are
1150going to be deleted.
1151
1152If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
1153files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
1154prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
1155sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
1156destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
1157
1158The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1159without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
1160--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
1161bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
1162the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1163bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
1164
1165dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1166side be done before the transfer starts.
1167See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1168
1169Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
1170and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
1171However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
1172and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
1173specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
1174algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
1175memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1176
1177dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
1178receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. The
1179per-directory delete scan is done right before each directory is checked
1180for updates, so it behaves like a more efficient bf(--delete-before),
1181including doing the deletions prior to any per-directory filter files
1182being updated. This option was first added in rsync version 2.6.4.
1183See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1184
1185dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1186side be computed during the transfer (like bf(--delete-during)), and then
1187removed after the transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1188bf(--delay-updates) and/or bf(--fuzzy), and is more efficient than using
1189bf(--delete-after) (but can behave differently, since bf(--delete-after)
1190computes the deletions in a separate pass after all updates are done).
1191If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1192temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1193is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1194the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1195using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1196incremental scan).
1197See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1198
1199dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1200side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1201are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1202you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
1203current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1204recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1205transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1206See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1207
1208dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1209receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
1210delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
1211See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1212this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1213bf(--delete-excluded).
1214See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1215
1216dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
1217even when there are I/O errors.
1218
1219dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1220when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1221deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1222
1223Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1224using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1225bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
1226
1227dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
1228files or directories. If that limit is exceeded, a warning is output
1229and rsync exits with an error code of 25 (new for 3.0.0).
1230
1231Also new for version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to be warned
1232about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1233Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1234version the client is, you can use the less obvious bf(--max-delete=-1) as
1235a backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1236older versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1237
1238dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1239file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
1240suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
1241may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1242
1243This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1244data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1245It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1246
1247The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1248"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1249gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1250If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1251"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
1252Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1253be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
1254
1255Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
12562147483649 bytes.
1257
1258dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1259file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1260transferring small, junk files.
1261See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE and other information.
1262
1263dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1264rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1265the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
1266
1267dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
1268remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
1269remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1270default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
1271
1272If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
1273remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
1274remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1275shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
1276running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1277RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1278
1279Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1280presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1281or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1282and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1283argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1284inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1285double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1286shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1287
1288quote(
1289tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1290tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1291)
1292
1293(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1294options in their .ssh/config file.)
1295
1296You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1297environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1298
1299See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1300
1301dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1302on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1303the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1304Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1305program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1306not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1307communicate.
1308
1309One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1310machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1311
1312quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
1313
1314dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1315broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1316systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
1317a file should be ignored.
1318
1319The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1320initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1321
1322quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1323.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
1324*.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .git/ .bzr/)))
1325
1326then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1327files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1328are delimited by whitespace).
1329
1330Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1331.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1332rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1333See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
1334
1335If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1336note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1337regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1338a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1339control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1340should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1341bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1342putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1343The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1344file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1345mentioned above.
1346
1347dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1348exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1349most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1350
1351You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1352to build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
1353be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
1354argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
1355replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
1356
1357See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1358
1359dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1360your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1361
1362quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1363
1364This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1365been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1366files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1367rule:
1368
1369quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1370
1371This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1372
1373See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1374work.
1375
1376dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1377bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1378the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1379
1380See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1381
1382dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1383option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1384Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1385If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1386
1387dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1388bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1389the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1390
1391See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1392
1393dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1394option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1395Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1396If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1397
1398dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1399exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1400for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1401transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1402
1403quote(itemization(
1404 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1405 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1406 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1407 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1408 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1409 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1410 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1411 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1412 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1413 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1414 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1415 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1416))
1417
1418The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1419source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1420allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1421command:
1422
1423quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1424
1425If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1426directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1427contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1428the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1429mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1430if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1431also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1432explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1433Also note
1434that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1435duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1436force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1437
1438In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1439instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1440(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1441specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1442transfer". For example:
1443
1444quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1445
1446This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1447was located on the remote "src" host.
1448
1449dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1450file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1451This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1452merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1453It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1454file are split on whitespace).
1455
1456If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
1457bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
1458filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
1459receiving host's charset.
1460
1461dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and some options to
1462the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
1463means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
1464characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
1465expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
1466
1467If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args will also be translated
1468from the local to the remote character-set. The translation happens before
1469wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
1470
1471dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1472scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1473on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1474file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1475
1476This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1477have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1478In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
1479partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1480over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1481into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1482destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1483truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1484the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1485temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1486it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1487someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1488new version on the disk at the same time.
1489
1490If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1491space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1492which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1493destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1494have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1495partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1496about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1497path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1498single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1499partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1500rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1501an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1502
1503dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1504basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1505looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1506has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1507found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1508
1509Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1510fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1511filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1512
1513dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1514the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1515files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1516directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1517sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1518directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1519have changed from an earlier backup.
1520
1521Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1522provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1523for an exact match.
1524If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1525and the attributes updated.
1526If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1527selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1528
1529If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1530See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1531
1532dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1533rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1534directory using a local copy.
1535This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1536existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1537been successfully transferred.
1538
1539Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1540rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1541If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1542selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1543
1544If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1545See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1546
1547dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1548unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1549The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1550possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1551An example:
1552
1553quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1554
1555If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if some
1556attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount option
1557that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive with generic
1558ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume" option).
1559
1560Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1561provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1562for an exact match.
1563If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1564and the attributes updated.
1565If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1566selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1567
1568This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1569rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
1570dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
1571change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
1572versions).
1573
1574Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1575link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1576substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1577file is updated.
1578
1579If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1580See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1581
1582Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1583bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1584specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1585the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1586
1587dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1588as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1589being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1590
1591Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1592be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1593because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1594blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1595
1596See the bf(--skip-compress) option for the default list of file suffixes
1597that will not be compressed.
1598
1599dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1600(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1601the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1602
1603dit(bf(--skip-compress=LIST)) Override the list of file suffixes that will
1604not be compressed. The bf(LIST) should be one or more file suffixes
1605(without the dot) separated by slashes (/).
1606
1607You may specify an empty string to indicate that no file should be skipped.
1608
1609Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
1610of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
1611"[:alpha:]", are supported).
1612
1613The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
1614
1615Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
1616matches 2 suffixes):
1617
1618verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
1619
1620The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (several
1621of these are newly added for 3.0.0):
1622
1623verb( gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg)
1624
1625This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
1626situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
1627its list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
1628different default).
1629
1630dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1631and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1632at both ends.
1633
1634By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1635what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
16360 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1637option is not specified.
1638
1639If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1640on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1641from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1642"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1643the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1644users and groups and what you can do about it.
1645
1646dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1647timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1648then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1649
1650dit(bf(--contimeout)) This option allows you to set the amount of time
1651that rsync will wait for its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed.
1652If the timeout is reached, rsync exits with an error.
1653
1654dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1655connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1656specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1657option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1658
1659dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1660rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1661double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1662syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1663option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1664
1665dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1666who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1667sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1668slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
1669details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1670special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1671connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1672bf(--daemon) mode section.
1673
1674dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1675a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1676rsync defaults to using
1677blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1678ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1679
1680dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1681changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1682This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
1683If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1684if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1685with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1686verbose messages).
1687
1688The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
1689format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1690type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1691other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1692modified.
1693
1694The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1695
1696quote(itemization(
1697 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1698 (sent).
1699 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1700 (received).
1701 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1702 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1703 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
1704 bf(--hard-links)).
1705 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1706 have attributes that are being modified).
1707 it() A bf(*) means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains
1708 a message (e.g. "deleting").
1709))
1710
1711The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1712directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1713special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1714
1715The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1716will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1717a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1718item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1719dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1720a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1721
1722The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1723
1724quote(itemization(
1725 it() A bf(c) means either that a regular file has a different checksum
1726 (requires bf(--checksum)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has
1727 a changed value.
1728 Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1, this
1729 change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular files.
1730 it() A bf(s) means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
1731 by the file transfer.
1732 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1733 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1734 means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1735 when a file/symlink/device is updated without bf(--times) and when a
1736 symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time.
1737 (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the bf(s) flag combined
1738 with bf(t) instead of the proper bf(T) flag for this time-setting failure.)
1739 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1740 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1741 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1742 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1743 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1744 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1745 it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for future use.
1746 it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
1747 it() The bf(x) means that the extended attribute information changed.
1748))
1749
1750One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1751the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1752you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1753outputting them as a verbose message).
1754
1755dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1756rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a
1757text string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed
1758with a percent (%) character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if
1759bf(-v) is specified (which reports the name
1760of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full list
1761of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting in the
1762rsyncd.conf manpage.
1763
1764Specifying the bf(--out-format) option
1765will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
1766way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
1767directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
1768the string (e.g. if the bf(--itemize-changes) option was used), the logging
1769of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
1770as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes)
1771option for a description of the output of "%i".
1772
1773Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1774one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1775logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1776is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1777the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1778(followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1779
1780dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1781to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1782requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1783transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1784enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1785option if you wish to override this.
1786
1787Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1788happening:
1789
1790verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1791
1792This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1793unexpectedly.
1794
1795dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1796per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1797(which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1798specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1799For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1800in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1801
1802The default FORMAT used if bf(--log-file) is specified and this option is not
1803is '%i %n%L'.
1804
1805dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1806on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer
1807algorithm is for your data.
1808
1809The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
1810 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1811 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1812 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1813 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include created
1814 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1815 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1816 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1817 include the size of symlinks.
1818 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1819 for just the transferred files.
1820 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1821 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1822 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1823 recreating the updated files.
1824 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1825 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1826 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1827 list.
1828 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1829 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1830 sending side for this to be present.
1831 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1832 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1833 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1834 from the client side to the server side.
1835 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1836 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1837 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1838 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
1839))
1840
1841dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1842unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1843valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1844characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1845setting.
1846
1847The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1848and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1849would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1850escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1851
1852dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1853This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1854this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1855G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1856instead of 1000.
1857
1858dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1859transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1860it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1861bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1862make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1863
1864dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1865bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1866partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1867On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1868dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1869after it has served its purpose.
1870
1871Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1872file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1873(since
1874rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer algorithm).
1875
1876Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1877the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1878"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1879partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1880remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1881
1882If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1883rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1884sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1885will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1886receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1887the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
1888filter rules.
1889
1890If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1891exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1892rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1893to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1894rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1895should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1896bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1897bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1898left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1899
1900IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1901is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1902
1903You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1904variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1905enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1906specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1907along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1908environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1909.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1910option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1911specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1912bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1913
1914For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1915bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1916refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1917of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1918safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1919
1920dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1921updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1922transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1923succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1924atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1925each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1926bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1927comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1928".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1929you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1930Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1931
1932This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1933transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1934side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1935you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1936there is no
1937chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1938the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1939absolute)
1940and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1941delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1942
1943See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1944update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1945parallel hierarchy of files).
1946
1947dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1948rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1949that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1950creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1951recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1952rules.
1953
1954Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the bf(--min-size) option, does
1955not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave directories
1956empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the transfer rule.
1957
1958Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1959what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1960mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1961being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
1962destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
1963this.
1964
1965You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1966by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1967that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1968
1969quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1970
1971Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1972the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1973that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1974(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1975
1976quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
1977
1978If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1979time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
1980in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1981
1982dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1983showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1984something to watch.
1985Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1986
1987While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
1988looks like this:
1989
1990verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1991
1992In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
1993sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
1994per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
1995is maintained until the end.
1996
1997These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
1998in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
1999followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
2000dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
2001will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
2002was finishing the matched part of the file.
2003
2004When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
2005summary line that looks like this:
2006
2007verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
2008
2009In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
2010of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
2011seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
2012during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
2013receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
2014the 396 total files in the file-list.
2015
2016dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
2017purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
2018transfer that may be interrupted.
2019
2020dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
2021file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
2022It should contain just the password as a single line.
2023
2024This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
2025ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
2026When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
2027option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
2028authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
2029config file).
2030
2031dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
2032instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
2033arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
2034command that includes a
2035destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be able to specify
2036more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the destination).
2037Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
2038shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
2039without using this option. For example:
2040
2041verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
2042
2043Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
2044that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
2045non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the bf(--dirs)
2046option w/o bf(--recursive), and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
2047avoid this problem, either specify the bf(--no-dirs) option (if you don't
2048need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude
2049the content of subdirectories: bf(-r --exclude='/*/*').
2050
2051dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2052transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
2053using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
2054of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
2055transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
2056result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
2057of zero specifies no limit.
2058
2059dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
2060another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
2061section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
2062
2063dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
2064no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
2065This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
2066other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
2067
2068Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
2069media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
2070can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
2071whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
2072partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
2073happening).
2074
2075Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
2076system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
2077into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
2078(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
2079
2080dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
2081file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
2082If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
2083See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
2084
2085dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
2086is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
2087version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
2088bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
2089bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
2090batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
2091file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
2092
2093dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
2094sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
2095the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
2096fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
2097separated by a comma in the order bf(--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE), e.g.
2098bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591). This order ensures that the option
2099will stay the same whether you're pushing or pulling files.
2100Finally, you can specify either bf(--no-iconv) or a CONVERT_SPEC of "-"
2101to turn off any conversion.
2102The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
2103affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
2104
2105For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
2106run "iconv --list".
2107
2108If you specify the bf(--protect-args) option (bf(-s)), rsync will translate
2109the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the
2110remote host. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
2111
2112Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
2113(including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
2114specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
2115For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
2116filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
2117
2118When you pass an bf(--iconv) option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
2119daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
2120regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel free to
2121specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8)).
2122
2123dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2124when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
2125control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
2126rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
2127
2128If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2129will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2130is the case.
2131
2132dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the checksum seed to the integer
2133NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
2134checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
2135by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
2136is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
2137applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
2138in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
2139Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
2140for checksum seed.
2141enddit()
2142
2143manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
2144
2145The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
2146
2147startdit()
2148dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
2149daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
2150the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
2151
2152If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
2153run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
2154become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
2155(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
2156requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
2157details.
2158
2159dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2160run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
2161allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
2162makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
2163See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2164
2165dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2166transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
2167The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
2168requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
2169client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
2170
2171dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
2172the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
2173The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
2174a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
2175the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
2176
2177dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
2178rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
2179option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
2180be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
2181bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
2182bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
2183debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
2184sshd.
2185
2186dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
2187daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
2188global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2189
2190dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2191given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
2192file.
2193
2194dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2195given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
2196file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
2197case transfer logging is turned off.
2198
2199dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
2200rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
2201
2202dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
2203daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
2204daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
2205used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
2206
2207dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2208when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
2209listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
2210versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
2211an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
2212try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
2213
2214If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2215will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2216is the case.
2217
2218dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
2219page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
2220enddit()
2221
2222manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
2223
2224The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
2225(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
2226specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
2227include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
2228
2229As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
2230name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
2231turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
2232pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
2233filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
2234filename is not skipped.
2235
2236Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
2237command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
2238
2239quote(
2240tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2241tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2242)
2243
2244You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
2245below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
2246MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
2247must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
2248Here are the available rule prefixes:
2249
2250quote(
2251bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
2252bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
2253bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
2254bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
2255bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
2256bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
2257bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
2258bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
2259bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
2260)
2261
2262When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
2263comment lines that start with a "#".
2264
2265Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
2266full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
2267specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
2268list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
2269If a pattern
2270does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
2271rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
2272an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
2273the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
2274start of the rule.
2275
2276Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
2277rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
2278the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
2279the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
2280
2281manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
2282
2283You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
2284"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
2285The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
2286the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
2287can take several forms:
2288
2289itemization(
2290 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
2291 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
2292 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
2293 regular expressions.
2294 Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the
2295 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
2296 per-directory rule).
2297 An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the
2298 tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the
2299 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
2300 end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
2301 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
2302 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
2303 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
2304 of the transfer.
2305 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
2306 directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.
2307 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
2308 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
2309 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
2310 it() a '*' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
2311 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
2312 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
2313 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
2314 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2315 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2316 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
2317 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2318 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2319 matched only against the final component of the filename.
2320 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
2321 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
2322 down.)
2323 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
2324 "dir_name/" had been specified) and everything in the directory
2325 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2326 version 2.6.7.
2327)
2328
2329Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2330bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
2331include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2332full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2333"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2334The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2335when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2336parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2337because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2338hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2339For instance, this won't work:
2340
2341quote(
2342tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2343tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2344tt(- *)nl()
2345)
2346
2347This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2348rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2349directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
2350to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
2351"- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2352solution is to add specific include rules for all
2353the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2354works fine:
2355
2356quote(
2357tt(+ /some/)nl()
2358tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2359tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2360tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2361tt(- *)nl()
2362)
2363
2364Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2365
2366itemization(
2367 it() "- *.o" would exclude all names matching *.o
2368 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2369 transfer-root directory
2370 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2371 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2372 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2373 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2374 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2375 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
2376 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2377 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
2378 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2379 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2380 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2381)
2382
2383The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
2384
2385itemization(
2386 it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
2387 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
2388 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
2389 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2390 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2391 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
2392 it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
2393 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2394 non-directories.
2395 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2396 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2397 follow.
2398 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2399 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2400 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2401 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2402 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
2403 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
2404 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2405 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2406 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2407 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2408 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
2409 it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2410 ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2411 option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2412 marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2413 on the source from being deleted on the destination.
2414)
2415
2416manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2417
2418You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
2419merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2420section above).
2421
2422There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2423per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2424its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2425rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2426it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2427into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2428must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2429being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2430also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2431affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2432below).
2433
2434Some examples:
2435
2436quote(
2437tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2438tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2439tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2440tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2441tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2442)
2443
2444The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
2445
2446itemization(
2447 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
2448 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2449 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
2450 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2451 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2452 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2453 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2454 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2455 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
2456 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
2457 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2458 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
2459 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2460 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
2461 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2462 also disabled).
2463 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
2464 (above) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
2465 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
2466 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2467 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
2468 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
2469)
2470
2471Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2472where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2473subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2474from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
2475inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
2476the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
2477dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
2478rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2479file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2480
2481Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2482anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2483merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2484would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2485file was found.
2486
2487Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2488
2489quote(
2490tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2491tt(- *.gz)nl()
2492tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2493tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
2494tt(- *.o)nl()
2495)
2496
2497This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2498start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2499filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2500follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2501of the transfer).
2502
2503If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2504directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2505dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2506per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2507
2508quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2509
2510That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2511directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2512transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2513the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2514rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2515
2516Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2517
2518quote(
2519tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2520tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2521tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2522)
2523
2524The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2525"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2526and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2527and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2528a part of the transfer.
2529
2530If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2531you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2532file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2533use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2534per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2535":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2536add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2537rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2538example:
2539
2540quote(
2541tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2542tt(+ foo.o)nl()
2543tt(:C)nl()
2544tt(- *.old)nl()
2545tt(EOT)nl()
2546tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2547)
2548
2549Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2550the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2551at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2552that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2553affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2554the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2555omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2556your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
2557
2558manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2559
2560You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2561rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2562list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2563parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2564inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2565out the parent's rules).
2566
2567manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2568
2569As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2570"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2571anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2572a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2573transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2574directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2575
2576Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2577trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2578option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2579changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2580host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2581
2582Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2583path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2584Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2585
2586quote(
2587 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2588 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2589 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2590 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2591 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2592)
2593
2594quote(
2595 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2596 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2597 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2598 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2599 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2600)
2601
2602quote(
2603 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2604 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2605 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2606 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2607 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2608)
2609
2610quote(
2611 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2612 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2613 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2614 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2615 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2616)
2617
2618The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2619look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2620(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2621
2622manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2623
2624Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2625sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2626without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2627this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2628
2629quote(
2630tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2631tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2632)
2633
2634However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2635files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2636receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2637the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2638because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2639rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2640
2641quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2642
2643However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2644either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2645line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2646the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2647remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2648
2649verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2650 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2651
2652In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2653transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2654merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2655per-directory merge rule.
2656
2657In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2658files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2659to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2660specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2661deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2662should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2663
2664verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2665 host:src/dir /dest
2666 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2667
2668manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2669
2670Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2671identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2672number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2673source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2674hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2675write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2676of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2677client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2678this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2679
2680Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2681status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2682updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2683be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2684at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2685
2686To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2687with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2688file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2689using the information stored in the batch file.
2690
2691For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch
2692option is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh"
2693appended. This script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
2694destination tree using the associated batch file. It can be executed using
2695a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
2696destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
2697destination path. This is useful when the destination tree path on the
2698current host differs from the one used to create the batch file.
2699
2700Examples:
2701
2702quote(
2703tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2704tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2705tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2706)
2707
2708quote(
2709tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2710tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2711)
2712
2713In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2714and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2715"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2716into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2717reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2718
2719itemization(
2720 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2721 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2722 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2723 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2724 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2725 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2726 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2727 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2728 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2729 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2730 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2731)
2732
2733Caveats:
2734
2735The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2736to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2737batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2738is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2739appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2740and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2741error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2742if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2743always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2744option (when reading the batch).
2745If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2746partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2747be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2748destination tree.
2749
2750The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2751one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2752protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2753to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2754creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2755(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2756older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2757
2758When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2759to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2760as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2761For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2762bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2763bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2764one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2765
2766The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2767options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2768shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2769list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2770user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2771to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2772
2773The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2774version uses a new implementation.
2775
2776manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2777
2778Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2779link in the source directory.
2780
2781By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2782"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2783
2784If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2785target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2786bf(--links).
2787
2788If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2789copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2790
2791rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2792example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2793ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2794bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2795bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2796they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2797unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2798bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2799
2800Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2801(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
2802components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2803
2804Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2805in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2806use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2807
2808dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2809symlinks for any other options to affect).
2810
2811dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2812and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2813
2814dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2815skip all safe symlinks.
2816
2817dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2818ones.
2819
2820dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2821
2822manpagediagnostics()
2823
2824rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2825cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2826version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2827
2828This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2829facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2830for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2831remote shell like this:
2832
2833quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2834
2835then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2836should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2837rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2838data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2839it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2840scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2841for non-interactive logins.
2842
2843If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2844try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2845show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2846
2847manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2848
2849startdit()
2850dit(bf(0)) Success
2851dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2852dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2853dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2854dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2855was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2856them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2857not by the server.
2858dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2859dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2860dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2861dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2862dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2863dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2864dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2865dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2866dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
2867dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2868dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2869dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2870dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2871dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2872dit(bf(35)) Timeout waiting for daemon connection
2873enddit()
2874
2875manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2876
2877startdit()
2878dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2879ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2880more details.
2881dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
2882environment variable.
2883dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2884override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2885options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2886dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2887redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2888rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2889dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2890password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2891daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2892password to a remote shell transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that,
2893consult the remote shell's documentation.
2894dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2895are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2896If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2897dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2898default .cvsignore file.
2899enddit()
2900
2901manpagefiles()
2902
2903/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2904
2905manpageseealso()
2906
2907bf(rsyncd.conf)(5)
2908
2909manpagebugs()
2910
2911times are transferred as *nix time_t values
2912
2913When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2914unmodified files.
2915See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2916
2917file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2918values
2919
2920see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2921
2922Please report bugs! See the web site at
2923url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2924
2925manpagesection(VERSION)
2926
2927This man page is current for version 3.0.6pre1 of rsync.
2928
2929manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
2930
2931The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
2932and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
2933awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
2934when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
2935the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
2936named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
2937ssh login.
2938
2939manpagesection(CREDITS)
2940
2941rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2942COPYING for details.
2943
2944A WEB site is available at
2945url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2946includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2947manual page.
2948
2949The primary ftp site for rsync is
2950url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2951
2952We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2953Please contact the mailing-list at rsync@lists.samba.org.
2954
2955This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2956Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2957
2958manpagesection(THANKS)
2959
2960Especial thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
2961David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
2962gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
2963
2964Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2965and David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2966
2967manpageauthor()
2968
2969rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2970Many people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained
2971by Wayne Davison.
2972
2973Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2974url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)