Fixed an off-by-one error in the prefix-length checking in
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
7
8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9
10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
11
12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
13
14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
15
16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
17
18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
25updated.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
53 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
54 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
55 single : separator.
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
59 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
60 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
61 separator or an rsync:// URL.
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
65 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
66 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
67 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
68 separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
69 also provided.
70 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
71 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
72 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
73 destination path contains a :: separator and the
74 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option is also provided.
75 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
76 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
77 local destination.
78)
79
80Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
81and destination paths must be local.
82
83manpagesection(SETUP)
84
85See the file README for installation instructions.
86
87Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
88a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
89daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
90for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
91different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
92
93You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
94command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95
96One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
97security.
98
99Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
100machines.
101
102manpagesection(USAGE)
103
104You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
105and a destination, one of which may be remote.
106
107Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
108
109quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
110
111This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
112current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
113the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
114remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
115differences. See the tech report for details.
116
117quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
118
119This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
121files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
122links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
123in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
124size of data portions of the transfer.
125
126quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
127
128A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
130/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
131to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
134files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
135/dest/foo:
136
137quote(
138tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
139tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
140)
141
142You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144an improved copy command.
145
146quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
147
148This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
149somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
150
151manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
152
153The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
154quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
155
156quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
157
158This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
159additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
160and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
161to be a part of the filenames.
162
163quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
164
165This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
166word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
167that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
168whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
169a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
170whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
171in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
172
173quote(
174tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
175tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
176)
177
178This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
179wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
180
181manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
182
183It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
184transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
185running on TCP port 873.
186
187You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
188environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
189your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
190proxy connections to port 873.
191
192Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
193that:
194
195itemize(
196 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
197 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
198 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
199 connect.
200 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
201 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
202 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
203 specified files on the remote server is provided.
204)
205
206Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
207you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
208password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
209the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
210may be useful when scripting rsync.
211
212WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
213users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
214
215manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
216
217It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
218server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
219rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
220to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
221firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
222features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
223below).
224
225From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
226using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
227explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
228bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
229this functionality.)
230
231In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
232server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
233
234verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
235 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
236
237The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
238used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
239
240manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
241
242An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
243rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
244file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
245shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
246is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
247(typically $HOME).
248
249manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
250
251See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
252server configuration file.
253
254Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
255user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
256configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
257if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
258
259To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
260in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
261
262manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263
264Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265
266To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
267files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268
269quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270
271each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
272"arvidsjaur".
273
274To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
275targets:
276
277verb( get:
278 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 put:
280 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
281 sync: get put)
282
283this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
284connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
285lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286
287I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
288command:
289
290tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291
292This is launched from cron every few hours.
293
294manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295
296Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
297to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
298 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
299 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
300 -c, --checksum always checksum
301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
312 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
313 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
314 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
315 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
316 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
317 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
318 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
319 -p, --perms preserve permissions
320 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
321 -g, --group preserve group
322 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
323 -t, --times preserve times
324 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
325 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
326 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
327 -W, --whole-file copy files whole
328 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
329 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
330 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
331 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
332 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
333 --existing only update files that already exist
334 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
335 --del an alias for --delete-during
336 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
337 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
338 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
339 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
340 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
341 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
342 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
343 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
344 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
345 --partial keep partially transferred files
346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
353 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
354 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
355 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
356 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
357 -z, --compress compress file data
358 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
359 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
360 -F same as --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
361 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
363 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
367 -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
368 --version print version number
369 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
370 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
371 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
373 --progress show progress during transfer
374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
377 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
379 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
380 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
384 -h, --help show this help screen)
385
386Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
387accepted: verb(
388 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
389 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
390 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
391 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
392 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
393 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
394 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen)
398
399manpageoptions()
400
401rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
402options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
403below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
404The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
405can be used instead.
406
407startdit()
408dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
409available in rsync.
410
411dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
412
413dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
414are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
415single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
416transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
417information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
418information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
419you are debugging rsync.
420
421dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
422are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
423from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
424cron.
425
426dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
427already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
428This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
429
430dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
431already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
432bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
433regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
434after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
435exactly.
436
437dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
438the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
439modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
440set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
441transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
442with a 1 second resolution bf(--modify-window=1) is useful.
443
444dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
445a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
446explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
447which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
448receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
449
450dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
451way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
452everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
453specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
454
455Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
456finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
457specify bf(-H).
458
459dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
460recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
461
462dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
463names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
464just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
465you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
466example, if you used the command
467
468quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
469
470then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
471machine. If instead you used
472
473quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
474
475then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
476machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
477path information that is sent, do something like this:
478
479quote(
480tt( cd /foo)nl()
481tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
482)
483
484That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
485
486dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
487needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
488file processing.
489
490dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
491implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
492of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
493the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
494path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
495the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
496destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
497the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
498which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
499symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
500
501dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
502renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
503backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
504bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
505
506dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
507tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
508very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
509specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
510(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
511will keep their original filenames).
512If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
513(which changes in a recursive transfer).
514
515dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
516backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
517if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
518
519dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
520the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
521file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
522source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
523
524In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
525between the sender and receiver is always
526considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
527is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
528symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
529regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
530free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
531
532dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
533and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
534file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
535network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
536to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
537with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
538basis file for the transfer.
539
540This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
541or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
542bound.
543
544The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
545the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
546Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
547bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
548
549WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
550transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
551should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
552rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
553receiving user.
554
555dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
556are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
557unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
558name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
559bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
560output a message to that effect for each one).
561
562dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
563symlink on the destination.
564
565dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
566they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
567versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
568receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
569modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
570to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
571an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
572will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
573
574dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
575symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
576are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
577source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
578
579dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
580which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
581also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
582give unexpected results.
583
584dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
585the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
586option hard links are treated like regular files.
587
588Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
589are in the list of files being sent.
590
591This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
592
593dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
594pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
595from the sender.
596
597dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
598is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
599faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
600destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
601"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
602the source and destination are specified as local paths.
603
604dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
605default.
606
607dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
608permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
609
610Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
611source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
612other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
613(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
614
615dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
616destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
617only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
618is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
619circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
620
621dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
622destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
623program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
624receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
625is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
626circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
627
628dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
629block device information to the remote system to recreate these
630devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
631
632dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
633with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
634option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
635modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
636cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
637updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
638if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
639
640dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
641it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
642the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
643
644dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
645instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
646
647dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
648up less space on the destination.
649
650NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
651filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
652correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
653
654dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
655boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
656contents of only one filesystem.
657
658dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
659only update files that already exist on the destination.
660
661dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
662This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
663the destination.
664
665dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
666files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
667to prevent disasters.
668
669dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
670file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
671suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
672may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
673
674dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
675receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
676directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
677send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
678for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
679by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
680the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
681excluded from being deleted unless you use bf(--delete-excluded).
682
683This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
684
685This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
686to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
687deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
688
689If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
690files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
691prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
692sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
693destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
694
695The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
696without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
697--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
698bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
699bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
700
701dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
702side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
703or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
704See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
705
706Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
707and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
708However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
709and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
710specified).
711
712dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
713receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
714a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
715but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
716See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
717
718dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
719side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
720are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
721you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
722current transfer.
723See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
724
725dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
726receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
727delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
728See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
729
730dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
731even when there are I/O errors.
732
733dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
734they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
735is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
736Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
737
738dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
739the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
740the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
741
742dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
743remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
744remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
745default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
746
747If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
748remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
749remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
750shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
751running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
752TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
753
754Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
755presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
756
757quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
758
759(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
760options in their .ssh/config file.)
761
762You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
763environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
764
765See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
766
767dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
768rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
769that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
770the binary is in.
771
772dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
773broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
774systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
775a file should be ignored.
776
777The exclude list is initialized to:
778
779quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
780.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
781.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
782
783then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
784files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
785are delimited by whitespace).
786
787Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
788.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
789rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
790See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
791
792If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
793note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
794regardless of where the -C was placed on the command-line. This makes them
795a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
796control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
797should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
798bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
799putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
800The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
801file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
802mentioned above.
803
804dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
805exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
806most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
807
808You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
809to build up the list of files to exclude.
810
811See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
812
813dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
814your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
815
816quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
817
818This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
819been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
820files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
821rule:
822
823quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
824
825This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
826
827See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
828work.
829
830dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
831bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
832the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
833
834See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
835
836dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
837option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
838FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
839';' or '#' are ignored.
840If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
841
842dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
843bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
844the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
845
846See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
847
848dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
849from a file.
850If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
851
852dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
853exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
854for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
855transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
856
857quote(itemize(
858 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
859 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
860 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
861 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
862 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
863 them.
864 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
865 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
866))
867
868The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
869source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
870allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
871command:
872
873quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
874
875If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
876directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
877contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified bf(-r)
878or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
879that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
880duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
881force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
882
883In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
884instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
885(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
886specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
887transfer". For example:
888
889quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
890
891This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
892was located on the remote "src" host.
893
894dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
895file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
896This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
897merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
898It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
899file are split on whitespace).
900
901dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
902scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
903transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
904the temporary files in the receiving directory.
905
906dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
907the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
908files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
909directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
910sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
911directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
912have changed from an earlier backup.
913
914Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
915provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
916finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
917and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
918
919If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
920See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
921
922dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
923rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
924directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
925useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
926files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
927successfully transferred.
928
929If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
930See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
931
932dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
933unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
934The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
935possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
936An example:
937
938quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
939
940Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--link-dest) option is
941specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
942the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
943of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
944
945If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
946See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
947
948Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
949bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
950(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
951when sending to an old rsync.
952
953dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
954the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
955option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
956same method that gzip uses.
957
958Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
959that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
960compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
961information sent for matching data blocks.
962
963dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
964and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
965at both ends.
966
967By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
968what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
9690 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
970option is not specified.
971
972If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
973on the destination system, then the numeric ID
974from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
975"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
976the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
977users and groups and what you can do about it.
978
979dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
980timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
981then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
982
983dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
984rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
985double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
986syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
987option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
988
989dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
990a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
991rsync defaults to using
992blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
993ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
994
995dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
996default.
997
998dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
999rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
1000specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
1001rsyncd.conf.
1002
1003dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1004on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1005algorithm is for your data.
1006
1007dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1008transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1009it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1010bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1011make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1012
1013dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on bf(--partial) mode, but tells rsync to
1014put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
1015file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
1016dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
1017rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
1018its purpose. Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied) that an
1019existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
1020rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1021
1022Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
1023whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1024"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the partial-directory
1025in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
1026if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
1027DIR was specified as a relative path).
1028
1029If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
1030bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1031will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1032untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1033the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1034rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1035supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1036rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1037it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1038a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
1039
1040IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1041is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1042
1043You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1044variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1045enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1046specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1047along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1048environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1049.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1050option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1051specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1052bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1053
1054dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1055updated file into the file's partial-dir (see above) until the end of the
1056transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1057succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1058atomic. If you don't specify the bf(--partial-dir) option, this option will
1059cause it to default to ".~tmp~" (RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR is not consulted for
1060this value). Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1061
1062This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1063transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1064side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1065you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1066chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1067the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1068absolute).
1069
1070See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1071update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1072parallel hierarchy of files).
1073
1074dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1075showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1076something to watch.
1077Implies bf(--verbose) without incrementing verbosity.
1078
1079When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1080
1081verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1082
1083This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1084is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1085data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1086remaining in this transfer.
1087
1088After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1089
1090verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1091
1092This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1093transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1094the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1095These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1096what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1097
1098dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1099purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1100transfer that may be interrupted.
1101
1102dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1103in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1104is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1105transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1106must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1107single line.
1108
1109dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1110instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1111specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1112come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1113options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1114non-recursive listing.
1115
1116dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1117transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1118using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1119of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1120transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1121result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1122of zero specifies no limit.
1123
1124dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1125another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1126section for details.
1127
1128dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1129file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1130If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1131See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1132
1133dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1134when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1135control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1136rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1137
1138dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1139NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1140MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1141by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1142is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1143applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1144in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1145Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1146for checksum seed.
1147enddit()
1148
1149manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1150
1151The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1152
1153startdit()
1154dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1155daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1156bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1157
1158If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1159run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1160become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1161(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1162requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1163details.
1164
1165dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1166when run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
1167rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
1168address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1169in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
1170option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1171
1172dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1173transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1174The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1175requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1176client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1177
1178dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1179the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1180The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1181a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1182the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1183
1184dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1185rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1186option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1187be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1188bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1189bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1190debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1191sshd.
1192
1193dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1194daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1195global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1196
1197dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1198daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1199daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1200used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1201
1202dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1203when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1204listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1205versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1206an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1207try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1208
1209dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1210page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1211enddit()
1212
1213manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1214
1215The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1216(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1217specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1218include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1219
1220As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1221name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1222turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1223pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1224filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1225filename is not skipped.
1226
1227Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1228command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1229
1230quote(
1231tt(x [PATTERN_OR_FILE])nl()
1232tt(xMODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILE])nl()
1233)
1234
1235The 'x' is a single-letter that specifies the kind of rule to create. It
1236can have trailing modifiers, and is separated from its arg by either a
1237single space or an underscore (_). Here are the available rule prefixes:
1238
1239quote(
1240bf(-) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1241bf(+) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1242bf(.) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1243bf(:) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1244bf(!) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1245)
1246
1247Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1248full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1249specification of include/exclude patterns and the "!" token (not to
1250mention the comment lines when reading rules from a file). If a pattern
1251does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1252rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1253an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1254the other hand, must always contain one of the prefixes above.
1255
1256Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1257rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1258the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1259the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1260
1261When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1262comment lines that start with a "#".
1263
1264manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1265
1266You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+" and
1267"-" filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). These
1268rules specify a pattern that is matched against the names of the files
1269that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several forms:
1270
1271itemize(
1272 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1273 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1274 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1275 regular expressions.
1276 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1277 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1278 per-directory rule).
1279 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1280 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1281 the
1282 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1283 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1284 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1285 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1286 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1287 of the transfer.
1288 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1289 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1290 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1291 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1292 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1293 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1294 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1295 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1296 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1297 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1298 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1299 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1300 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1301 down.)
1302)
1303
1304Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1305bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1306include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1307full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1308"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1309The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1310when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1311parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1312because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1313hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1314For instance, this won't work:
1315
1316quote(
1317tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1318tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1319tt(- *)nl()
1320)
1321
1322This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1323rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1324directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1325to be included by using a single rule: "+_*/" (put it somewhere before the
1326"-_*" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1327the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1328works fine:
1329
1330quote(
1331tt(+ /some/)nl()
1332tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1333tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1334tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1335tt(- *)nl()
1336)
1337
1338Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1339
1340itemize(
1341 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1342 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1343 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1344 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1345 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1346 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1347 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1348 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1349 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1350 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1351 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1352 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1353)
1354
1355manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1356
1357You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1358"." or a ":" filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
1359above).
1360
1361There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1362per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1363its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1364rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1365it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1366into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1367must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1368being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1369also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1370affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1371below).
1372
1373Some examples:
1374
1375quote(
1376tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1377tt(: .per-dir-filter)nl()
1378tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1379)
1380
1381The following modifiers are accepted after a "." or ":":
1382
1383itemize(
1384 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1385 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1386 token ("!").
1387 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1388 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1389 token ("!").
1390 it() A bf(C) is a shorthand for the modifiers bf(nw-), which makes the
1391 parsing compatible with the way CVS parses their exclude files. If no
1392 filename is specified, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1393 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file from the transfer; e.g.
1394 ":e_.rules" is like ":_.rules" and "-_.rules".
1395 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1396 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1397 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1398 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1399 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that bf(-) or bf(+) was not
1400 specified to turn off the parsing of prefixes).
1401)
1402
1403The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1404
1405itemize(
1406 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1407 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1408 "-/_/etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1409 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1410 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1411 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1412 non-directories.
1413 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1414 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1415 follow.
1416)
1417
1418Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1419where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1420subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1421from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1422inherited rules. The entire set of per-dir rules is grouped together in
1423the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1424per-dir rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1425rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1426file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1427
1428Another way to prevent a single per-dir rule from being inherited is to
1429anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1430merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1431would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the per-dir filter
1432file was found.
1433
1434Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1435
1436quote(
1437tt(. /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1438tt(- *.gz)nl()
1439tt(: .rules)nl()
1440tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1441tt(- *.o)nl()
1442)
1443
1444This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1445start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1446filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1447follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1448of the transfer).
1449
1450If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1451directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1452dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1453per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1454
1455quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1456
1457That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1458directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1459transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1460the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1461rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1462
1463Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1464
1465quote(
1466tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1467tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1468tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1469)
1470
1471The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1472"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1473and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1474and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1475a part of the transfer.
1476
1477If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1478you should use the rule ":C" -- this is a short-hand for the rule
1479":nw-_.cvsignore", and ensures that the .cvsignore file's contents are
1480interpreted according to the same parsing rules that CVS uses. You can
1481use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1482per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting a
1483":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1484add the per-dir rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1485rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1486example:
1487
1488quote(
1489tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1490tt(+ foo.o)nl()
1491tt(:C)nl()
1492tt(- *.old)nl()
1493tt(EOT)nl()
1494tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1495)
1496
1497Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1498the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1499at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1500that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1501affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1502the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1503omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1504your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1505
1506manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1507
1508You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1509rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1510list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1511parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1512inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1513out the parent's rules).
1514
1515manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1516
1517As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1518"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1519anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1520a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1521transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1522directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1523
1524Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1525trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1526option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1527changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1528host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1529
1530Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1531path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1532Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1533
1534quote(
1535 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1536 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1537 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1538 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1539 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1540)
1541
1542quote(
1543 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1544 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1545 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1546 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1547 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1548)
1549
1550quote(
1551 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1552 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1553 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1554 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1555 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1556)
1557
1558quote(
1559 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1560 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1561 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1562 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1563 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1564)
1565
1566The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1567look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1568(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1569
1570manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1571
1572Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1573sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1574without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1575this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1576
1577quote(
1578tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1579tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1580)
1581
1582However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1583files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1584receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1585the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1586because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1587rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1588
1589quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1590
1591However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1592either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1593line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1594the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1595remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1596
1597verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1598 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1599
1600In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1601transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1602merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1603per-directory merge rule.
1604
1605In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1606files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1607to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1608specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1609deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1610should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1611
1612verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1613 host:src/dir /dest
1614 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1615
1616manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1617
1618Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1619identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1620number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1621source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1622hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1623write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1624of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1625client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1626this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1627
1628To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1629with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1630file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1631using the information stored in the batch file.
1632
1633For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1634option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1635".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1636a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1637batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1638passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1639instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1640path differs from the original destination tree path.
1641
1642Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1643status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1644updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1645be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1646at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1647
1648Examples:
1649
1650quote(
1651tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1652tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1653tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1654)
1655
1656quote(
1657tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1658tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1659)
1660
1661In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1662and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1663"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1664into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1665reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1666
1667itemize(
1668 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1669 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1670 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1671 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1672 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1673 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1674 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1675 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1676 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1677 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1678 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1679)
1680
1681Caveats:
1682
1683The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1684to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1685batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1686is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1687appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1688and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1689error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1690if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1691always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1692option (when reading the batch).
1693If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1694partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1695be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1696destination tree.
1697
1698The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1699one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1700protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1701to handle.
1702
1703The bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1704error.
1705
1706When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1707to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1708as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1709For instance
1710bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch), bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1711bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless one of the
1712bf(--delete) options is specified without bf(--delete-excluded).
1713
1714The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1715options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1716shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1717list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1718user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1719to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1720
1721The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1722version uses a new implementation.
1723
1724manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1725
1726Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1727link in the source directory.
1728
1729By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1730"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1731
1732If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1733target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1734bf(--links).
1735
1736If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1737copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1738
1739rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1740example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1741ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1742bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1743bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1744they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1745unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1746
1747Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1748(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1749components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1750
1751manpagediagnostics()
1752
1753rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1754cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1755version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
1756
1757This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1758facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1759for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1760remote shell like this:
1761
1762quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1763
1764then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1765should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1766rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1767data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1768it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1769scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1770for non-interactive logins.
1771
1772If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1773try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1774show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1775
1776manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1777
1778startdit()
1779dit(bf(0)) Success
1780dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1781dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1782dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1783dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1784was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1785them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1786not by the server.
1787dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1788dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1789dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1790dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1791dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1792dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1793dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1794dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1795dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1796dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1797dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1798dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1799enddit()
1800
1801manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1802
1803startdit()
1804dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1805ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
1806more details.
1807dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1808override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1809options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
1810dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1811redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1812rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1813dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1814password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1815daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1816password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1817dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1818are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1819If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1820dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1821default .cvsignore file.
1822enddit()
1823
1824manpagefiles()
1825
1826/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1827
1828manpageseealso()
1829
1830rsyncd.conf(5)
1831
1832manpagebugs()
1833
1834times are transferred as unix time_t values
1835
1836When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1837unmodified files.
1838See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
1839
1840file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1841values
1842
1843see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
1844
1845Please report bugs! See the website at
1846url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1847
1848manpagesection(CREDITS)
1849
1850rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1851COPYING for details.
1852
1853A WEB site is available at
1854url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1855includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1856manual page.
1857
1858The primary ftp site for rsync is
1859url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1860
1861We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1862
1863This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1864Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1865
1866manpagesection(THANKS)
1867
1868Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1869and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1870I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1871
1872Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1873Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1874
1875manpageauthor()
1876
1877rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1878Many people have later contributed to it.
1879
1880Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1881url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)