| 1 | mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org) |
| 2 | manpage(rsync)(1)(29 May 2001)()() |
| 3 | manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp) |
| 4 | manpagesynopsis() |
| 5 | |
| 6 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST |
| 7 | |
| 8 | rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST |
| 9 | |
| 10 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST |
| 11 | |
| 12 | rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST |
| 15 | |
| 16 | rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | manpagedescription() |
| 19 | |
| 20 | rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does, |
| 21 | but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to |
| 22 | greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already |
| 23 | exists. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the |
| 26 | differences between two sets of files across the network link, using |
| 27 | an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical |
| 28 | report that accompanies this package. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Some of the additional features of rsync are: |
| 31 | |
| 32 | itemize( |
| 33 | it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions |
| 34 | it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar |
| 35 | it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore |
| 36 | it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh |
| 37 | it() does not require root privileges |
| 38 | it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs |
| 39 | it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for |
| 40 | mirroring) |
| 41 | ) |
| 42 | |
| 43 | manpagesection(GENERAL) |
| 44 | |
| 45 | There are six different ways of using rsync. They are: |
| 46 | |
| 47 | itemize( |
| 48 | it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither |
| 49 | source nor destination path contains a : separator |
| 50 | |
| 51 | it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using |
| 52 | a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or |
| 53 | ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a |
| 54 | single : separator. |
| 55 | |
| 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 | |
| 60 | it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local |
| 61 | machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a :: |
| 62 | separator or a rsync:// URL. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync |
| 65 | server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a :: |
| 66 | separator. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the |
| 69 | same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the |
| 70 | local destination. |
| 71 | ) |
| 72 | |
| 73 | Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source |
| 74 | and destination paths must be local. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | manpagesection(SETUP) |
| 77 | |
| 78 | See the file README for installation instructions. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh |
| 81 | to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and |
| 82 | destination are local. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e |
| 85 | command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of |
| 88 | security. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination |
| 91 | machines. |
| 92 | |
| 93 | manpagesection(USAGE) |
| 94 | |
| 95 | You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source |
| 96 | and a destination, one of which may be remote. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples: |
| 99 | |
| 100 | quote(rsync *.c foo:src/) |
| 101 | |
| 102 | this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the |
| 103 | current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of |
| 104 | the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync |
| 105 | remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the |
| 106 | differences. See the tech report for details. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp) |
| 109 | |
| 110 | this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the |
| 111 | machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The |
| 112 | files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic |
| 113 | links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved |
| 114 | in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the |
| 115 | size of data portions of the transfer. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp) |
| 118 | |
| 119 | a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer |
| 120 | all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the |
| 121 | /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the |
| 122 | contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy |
| 123 | the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when |
| 124 | using the --delete option. |
| 125 | |
| 126 | You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and |
| 127 | destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like |
| 128 | an improved copy command. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::) |
| 131 | |
| 132 | this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host |
| 133 | somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.) |
| 134 | |
| 135 | |
| 136 | manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER) |
| 137 | |
| 138 | It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the |
| 139 | transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server |
| 140 | running on TCP port 873. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the |
| 143 | environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to |
| 144 | your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port |
| 145 | 873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except |
| 148 | that: |
| 149 | |
| 150 | itemize( |
| 151 | it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to |
| 152 | separate the hostname from the path. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you |
| 155 | connect. |
| 156 | |
| 157 | it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the |
| 158 | list of accessible paths on the server will be shown. |
| 159 | |
| 160 | it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the |
| 161 | specified files on the remote server is provided. |
| 162 | ) |
| 163 | |
| 164 | Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then |
| 165 | you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the |
| 166 | password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to |
| 167 | the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This |
| 168 | may be useful when scripting rsync. |
| 169 | |
| 170 | WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all |
| 171 | users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended. |
| 172 | |
| 173 | manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER) |
| 174 | |
| 175 | An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is |
| 176 | called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more |
| 177 | information. |
| 178 | |
| 179 | manpagesection(EXAMPLES) |
| 180 | |
| 181 | Here are some examples of how I use rsync. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word |
| 184 | files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs |
| 185 | |
| 186 | quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup) |
| 187 | |
| 188 | each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine |
| 189 | "arvidsjaur". |
| 190 | |
| 191 | To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile |
| 192 | targets: |
| 193 | |
| 194 | quote( get:nl() |
| 195 | rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ . |
| 196 | |
| 197 | put:nl() |
| 198 | rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/ |
| 199 | |
| 200 | sync: get put) |
| 201 | |
| 202 | this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the |
| 203 | link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a |
| 204 | lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient. |
| 205 | |
| 206 | I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the |
| 207 | command |
| 208 | |
| 209 | quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba") |
| 210 | |
| 211 | this is launched from cron every few hours. |
| 212 | |
| 213 | manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY) |
| 214 | |
| 215 | Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer |
| 216 | to the detailed description below for a complete description. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | verb( |
| 219 | -v, --verbose increase verbosity |
| 220 | -q, --quiet decrease verbosity |
| 221 | -c, --checksum always checksum |
| 222 | -a, --archive archive mode |
| 223 | -r, --recursive recurse into directories |
| 224 | -R, --relative use relative path names |
| 225 | -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix) |
| 226 | --backup-dir make backups into this directory |
| 227 | --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix |
| 228 | -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files) |
| 229 | -l, --links preserve soft links |
| 230 | -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files |
| 231 | --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree |
| 232 | --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree |
| 233 | -H, --hard-links preserve hard links |
| 234 | -p, --perms preserve permissions |
| 235 | -o, --owner preserve owner (root only) |
| 236 | -g, --group preserve group |
| 237 | -D, --devices preserve devices (root only) |
| 238 | -t, --times preserve times |
| 239 | -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently |
| 240 | -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred |
| 241 | -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks |
| 242 | -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries |
| 243 | -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700) |
| 244 | -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement |
| 245 | --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine |
| 246 | -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does |
| 247 | --existing only update files that already exist |
| 248 | --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side |
| 249 | --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side |
| 250 | --delete-after delete after transferring, not before |
| 251 | --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors |
| 252 | --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files |
| 253 | --partial keep partially transferred files |
| 254 | --force force deletion of directories even if not empty |
| 255 | --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name |
| 256 | --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds |
| 257 | -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time |
| 258 | --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred |
| 259 | --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0) |
| 260 | -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR |
| 261 | --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR |
| 262 | -P equivalent to --partial --progress |
| 263 | -z, --compress compress file data |
| 264 | --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN |
| 265 | --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE |
| 266 | --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN |
| 267 | --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE |
| 268 | --version print version number |
| 269 | --daemon run as a rsync daemon |
| 270 | --address bind to the specified address |
| 271 | --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file |
| 272 | --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number |
| 273 | --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell |
| 274 | --stats give some file transfer stats |
| 275 | --progress show progress during transfer |
| 276 | --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format |
| 277 | --password-file=FILE get password from FILE |
| 278 | --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second |
| 279 | -f, --read-batch=FILE read batch file |
| 280 | -F, --write-batch write batch file |
| 281 | -h, --help show this help screen |
| 282 | |
| 283 | |
| 284 | ) |
| 285 | |
| 286 | manpageoptions() |
| 287 | |
| 288 | rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line |
| 289 | options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown |
| 290 | below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant. |
| 291 | The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace |
| 292 | can be used instead. |
| 293 | |
| 294 | startdit() |
| 295 | dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options |
| 296 | available in rsync |
| 297 | |
| 298 | dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit |
| 299 | |
| 300 | dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you |
| 301 | are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A |
| 302 | single -v will give you information about what files are being |
| 303 | transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you |
| 304 | information on what files are being skipped and slightly more |
| 305 | information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if |
| 306 | you are debugging rsync. |
| 307 | |
| 308 | dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you |
| 309 | are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages |
| 310 | from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from |
| 311 | cron. |
| 312 | |
| 313 | dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are |
| 314 | already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns |
| 315 | off this behavior. |
| 316 | |
| 317 | dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are |
| 318 | already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the |
| 319 | --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size, |
| 320 | regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync |
| 321 | after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps |
| 322 | exactly. |
| 323 | |
| 324 | dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats |
| 325 | the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of |
| 326 | modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to |
| 327 | set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when |
| 328 | transferring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with |
| 329 | a 1 second resolution this option is useful. |
| 330 | |
| 331 | dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using |
| 332 | a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then |
| 333 | explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name |
| 334 | which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the |
| 335 | receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick |
| 338 | way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost |
| 339 | everything. |
| 340 | |
| 341 | Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because |
| 342 | finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately |
| 343 | specify bf(-H). |
| 344 | |
| 345 | dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories |
| 346 | recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy |
| 347 | directories at all. |
| 348 | |
| 349 | dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path |
| 350 | names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than |
| 351 | just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when |
| 352 | you want to send several different directories at the same time. For |
| 353 | example, if you used the command |
| 354 | |
| 355 | verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/) |
| 356 | |
| 357 | then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote |
| 358 | machine. If instead you used |
| 359 | |
| 360 | verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/) |
| 361 | |
| 362 | then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote |
| 363 | machine. The full path name is preserved. |
| 364 | |
| 365 | dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are |
| 366 | renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can |
| 367 | control the backup suffix using the --suffix option. |
| 368 | |
| 369 | dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this |
| 370 | tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is |
| 371 | very useful for incremental backups. |
| 372 | |
| 373 | dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default |
| 374 | backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~. |
| 375 | |
| 376 | dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the |
| 377 | destination file already exists and has a date later than the source |
| 378 | file. |
| 379 | |
| 380 | dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the |
| 381 | remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this |
| 382 | option, all symbolic links are skipped. |
| 383 | |
| 384 | dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just |
| 385 | like ordinary files. |
| 386 | |
| 387 | dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that |
| 388 | point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are |
| 389 | also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source |
| 390 | path itself when --relative is used. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links |
| 393 | which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are |
| 394 | also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may |
| 395 | give unexpected results. |
| 396 | |
| 397 | dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on |
| 398 | the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this |
| 399 | option hard links are treated like regular files. |
| 400 | |
| 401 | Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link |
| 402 | are in the list of files being sent. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it. |
| 405 | |
| 406 | dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm |
| 407 | is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be |
| 408 | faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and |
| 409 | target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the |
| 410 | "disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both |
| 411 | the source and target are on the local machine. |
| 412 | |
| 413 | dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote |
| 414 | permissions to be the same as the local permissions. |
| 415 | |
| 416 | dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner |
| 417 | of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available |
| 418 | to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot, |
| 419 | the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get |
| 420 | access to the usernames. |
| 421 | |
| 422 | dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group |
| 423 | of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is |
| 424 | not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of |
| 425 | will be preserved (by group name, not group id number). |
| 426 | |
| 427 | dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and |
| 428 | block device information to the remote system to recreate these |
| 429 | devices. This option is only available to the super-user. |
| 430 | |
| 431 | dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along |
| 432 | with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this |
| 433 | option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been |
| 434 | modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will |
| 435 | cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have |
| 436 | their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't |
| 437 | changed. |
| 438 | |
| 439 | dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers, |
| 440 | instead it will just report the actions it would have taken. |
| 441 | |
| 442 | dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take |
| 443 | up less space on the destination. |
| 444 | |
| 445 | NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs" |
| 446 | filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions |
| 447 | correctly and ends up corrupting the files. |
| 448 | |
| 449 | dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem |
| 450 | boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the |
| 451 | contents of only one filesystem. |
| 452 | |
| 453 | dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files - |
| 454 | only update files that already exist on the destination. |
| 455 | |
| 456 | dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM |
| 457 | files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees |
| 458 | to prevent disasters. |
| 459 | |
| 460 | dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving |
| 461 | side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from |
| 462 | transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded. |
| 463 | |
| 464 | This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected. |
| 465 | |
| 466 | This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea |
| 467 | to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be |
| 468 | deleted to make sure important files aren't listed. |
| 469 | |
| 470 | If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any |
| 471 | files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to |
| 472 | prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the |
| 473 | sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the |
| 474 | destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option. |
| 475 | |
| 476 | dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the |
| 477 | receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also |
| 478 | delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude). |
| 479 | |
| 480 | dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before |
| 481 | transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on |
| 482 | the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring |
| 483 | then use the --delete-after switch. |
| 484 | |
| 485 | dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files |
| 486 | even when there are IO errors. |
| 487 | |
| 488 | dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if |
| 489 | they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to |
| 490 | cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination |
| 491 | contains a directory of the same name. |
| 492 | |
| 493 | Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first |
| 494 | so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases. |
| 495 | |
| 496 | dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in |
| 497 | the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details. |
| 498 | |
| 499 | dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative |
| 500 | remote shell program to use for communication between the local and |
| 501 | remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may |
| 502 | like to instead use ssh because of its high security. |
| 503 | |
| 504 | You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH |
| 505 | environment variable. |
| 506 | |
| 507 | See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option. |
| 508 | |
| 509 | dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of |
| 510 | rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note |
| 511 | that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that |
| 512 | the binary is in. |
| 513 | |
| 514 | dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude |
| 515 | certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most |
| 516 | useful in combination with a recursive transfer. |
| 517 | |
| 518 | You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like |
| 519 | to build up the list of files to exclude. |
| 520 | |
| 521 | See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of |
| 522 | this option. |
| 523 | |
| 524 | dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude |
| 525 | option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file |
| 526 | FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with |
| 527 | ';' or '#' are ignored. |
| 528 | |
| 529 | dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the |
| 530 | specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to |
| 531 | build up quite complex exclude/include rules. |
| 532 | |
| 533 | See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of |
| 534 | this option. |
| 535 | |
| 536 | dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns |
| 537 | from a file. |
| 538 | |
| 539 | dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a |
| 540 | broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between |
| 541 | systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if |
| 542 | a file should be ignored. |
| 543 | |
| 544 | The exclude list is initialized to: |
| 545 | |
| 546 | quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state |
| 547 | .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-* |
| 548 | *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core) |
| 549 | |
| 550 | then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any |
| 551 | files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited). |
| 552 | |
| 553 | Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in |
| 554 | that directory are added to the list. |
| 555 | |
| 556 | dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in |
| 557 | rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will |
| 558 | find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and |
| 559 | this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link, |
| 560 | making things faster. |
| 561 | |
| 562 | You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the |
| 563 | --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid. |
| 564 | |
| 565 | Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up |
| 566 | with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is |
| 567 | microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end |
| 568 | before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher. |
| 569 | |
| 570 | Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the |
| 571 | checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine |
| 572 | if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this |
| 573 | option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing. |
| 574 | |
| 575 | dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a |
| 576 | scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files |
| 577 | transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create |
| 578 | the temporary files in the receiving directory. |
| 579 | |
| 580 | dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on |
| 581 | the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination |
| 582 | files against when doing transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to |
| 583 | a new destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a |
| 584 | flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for |
| 585 | example by moving directories around and removing the old directory, |
| 586 | although this requires also doing the transfer with -I to avoid skipping |
| 587 | files that haven't changed). This option increases the usefulness of |
| 588 | --partial because partially transferred files will remain in the new |
| 589 | temporary destination until they have a chance to be completed. If DIR is |
| 590 | a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory. |
| 591 | |
| 592 | dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from |
| 593 | the files that it sends to the destination machine. This |
| 594 | option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the |
| 595 | same method that gzip uses. |
| 596 | |
| 597 | Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios |
| 598 | that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a |
| 599 | compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit |
| 600 | information sent for matching data blocks. |
| 601 | |
| 602 | dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group |
| 603 | and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them |
| 604 | at both ends. |
| 605 | |
| 606 | By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine |
| 607 | what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group |
| 608 | 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids |
| 609 | option is not specified. |
| 610 | |
| 611 | If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name |
| 612 | does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the |
| 613 | source system is used instead. |
| 614 | |
| 615 | dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO |
| 616 | timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time |
| 617 | then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout. |
| 618 | |
| 619 | dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync |
| 620 | daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it |
| 621 | is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current |
| 622 | terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the |
| 623 | config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and |
| 624 | respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more |
| 625 | details. |
| 626 | |
| 627 | dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address |
| 628 | when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a |
| 629 | rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP |
| 630 | address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible |
| 631 | in conjunction with the --config option. |
| 632 | |
| 633 | dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than |
| 634 | the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is |
| 635 | specified. |
| 636 | |
| 637 | dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use |
| 638 | rather than the default port 873. |
| 639 | |
| 640 | dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching |
| 641 | a remote shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to |
| 642 | the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to |
| 643 | non-blocking IO. You may find the --blocking-io option is needed for some |
| 644 | remote shells that can't handle non-blocking IO. Ssh prefers blocking IO. |
| 645 | |
| 646 | dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the |
| 647 | rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is |
| 648 | specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in |
| 649 | rsyncd.conf. |
| 650 | |
| 651 | dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics |
| 652 | on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync |
| 653 | algorithm is for your data. |
| 654 | |
| 655 | dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially |
| 656 | transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances |
| 657 | it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the |
| 658 | --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should |
| 659 | make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster. |
| 660 | |
| 661 | dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information |
| 662 | showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user |
| 663 | something to watch. |
| 664 | |
| 665 | This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without |
| 666 | the -v option will produce weird results on your display. |
| 667 | |
| 668 | dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I |
| 669 | found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an |
| 670 | option to make it easier. |
| 671 | |
| 672 | dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password |
| 673 | in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option |
| 674 | is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in |
| 675 | transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file |
| 676 | must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a |
| 677 | single line. |
| 678 | |
| 679 | dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum |
| 680 | transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when |
| 681 | using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature |
| 682 | of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the |
| 683 | transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The |
| 684 | result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value |
| 685 | of zero specifies no limit. |
| 686 | |
| 687 | dit(bf(--read-batch)) Apply a previously generated change batch. |
| 688 | |
| 689 | dit(bf(--write-batch)) Generate a set of files that can be transferred |
| 690 | as a batch update. |
| 691 | |
| 692 | enddit() |
| 693 | |
| 694 | manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS) |
| 695 | |
| 696 | The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible |
| 697 | selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip. |
| 698 | |
| 699 | rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on |
| 700 | the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the |
| 701 | name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching |
| 702 | pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is |
| 703 | skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not |
| 704 | skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the |
| 705 | filename is not skipped. |
| 706 | |
| 707 | Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of |
| 708 | every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get |
| 709 | applied recursively to each subcomponent. |
| 710 | |
| 711 | Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern |
| 712 | each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and |
| 713 | --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options. |
| 714 | |
| 715 | The patterns can take several forms. The rules are: |
| 716 | |
| 717 | itemize( |
| 718 | it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the |
| 719 | start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of |
| 720 | the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of |
| 721 | the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo" |
| 722 | anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from |
| 723 | top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the |
| 724 | end of the file name. |
| 725 | |
| 726 | it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a |
| 727 | directory, not a file, link or device. |
| 728 | |
| 729 | it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set |
| 730 | *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename |
| 731 | matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used. |
| 732 | |
| 733 | it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in |
| 734 | the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes. |
| 735 | |
| 736 | it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it |
| 737 | is matched against the full filename, including any leading |
| 738 | directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched |
| 739 | only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember |
| 740 | that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can |
| 741 | actually be any portion of a path. |
| 742 | |
| 743 | it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space) |
| 744 | then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as |
| 745 | part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching. |
| 746 | |
| 747 | it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space) |
| 748 | then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as |
| 749 | part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching. |
| 750 | |
| 751 | it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current |
| 752 | exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns. |
| 753 | ) |
| 754 | |
| 755 | The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a |
| 756 | single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options. |
| 757 | |
| 758 | If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the |
| 759 | algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include |
| 760 | parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm |
| 761 | will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below |
| 762 | them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the |
| 763 | --exclude '*'. |
| 764 | |
| 765 | Here are some exclude/include examples: |
| 766 | |
| 767 | itemize( |
| 768 | it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o |
| 769 | it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo |
| 770 | it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo |
| 771 | it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two |
| 772 | levels below a base directory called foo |
| 773 | it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two |
| 774 | or more levels below a base directory called foo |
| 775 | it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all |
| 776 | directories and C source files |
| 777 | it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include |
| 778 | only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or |
| 779 | it would be excluded by the "*") |
| 780 | ) |
| 781 | |
| 782 | manpagesection(BATCH MODE) |
| 783 | |
| 784 | The following call generates 4 files that encapsulate the information |
| 785 | for synchronizing the contents of bf(target_dir) with the updates found in |
| 786 | bf(src_dir) |
| 787 | |
| 788 | quote( |
| 789 | $ rsync -F [other rsync options here] \nl() |
| 790 | /somewhere/src_dir /somewhere/target_dir |
| 791 | ) |
| 792 | |
| 793 | The generated files are labeled with a common timestamp: |
| 794 | |
| 795 | itemize( |
| 796 | it() bf(rsync_argvs.<timestamp>) command-line arguments |
| 797 | it() bf(rsync_flist.<timestamp>) rsync internal file metadata |
| 798 | it() bf(rsync_csums.<timestamp>) rsync checksums |
| 799 | it() bf(rsync_delta.<timestamp>) data blocks for file update & change |
| 800 | ) |
| 801 | |
| 802 | See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical |
| 803 | reports. |
| 804 | |
| 805 | manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS) |
| 806 | |
| 807 | rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little |
| 808 | cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol |
| 809 | version mismatch - is your shell clean?". |
| 810 | |
| 811 | This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell |
| 812 | facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using |
| 813 | for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your |
| 814 | remote shell like this: |
| 815 | |
| 816 | verb( |
| 817 | rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat |
| 818 | ) |
| 819 | |
| 820 | then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat |
| 821 | should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from |
| 822 | rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or |
| 823 | data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing |
| 824 | it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup |
| 825 | scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements |
| 826 | for non-interactive logins. |
| 827 | |
| 828 | If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then |
| 829 | try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will |
| 830 | show why each individual file is included or excluded. |
| 831 | |
| 832 | manpagesection(EXIT VALUES) |
| 833 | |
| 834 | startdit() |
| 835 | dit(bf(RERR_SYNTAX 1)) Syntax or usage error |
| 836 | dit(bf(RERR_PROTOCOL 2)) Protocol incompatibility |
| 837 | dit(bf(RERR_FILESELECT 3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs |
| 838 | |
| 839 | dit(bf(RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt |
| 840 | was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support |
| 841 | them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and |
| 842 | not by the server. |
| 843 | |
| 844 | dit(bf(RERR_SOCKETIO 10)) Error in socket IO |
| 845 | dit(bf(RERR_FILEIO 11)) Error in file IO |
| 846 | dit(bf(RERR_STREAMIO 12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream |
| 847 | dit(bf(RERR_MESSAGEIO 13)) Errors with program diagnostics |
| 848 | dit(bf(RERR_IPC 14)) Error in IPC code |
| 849 | dit(bf(RERR_SIGNAL 20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT |
| 850 | dit(bf(RERR_WAITCHILD 21)) Some error returned by waitpid() |
| 851 | dit(bf(RERR_MALLOC 22)) Error allocating core memory buffers |
| 852 | dit(bf(RERR_TIMEOUT 30)) Timeout in data send/receive |
| 853 | enddit() |
| 854 | |
| 855 | manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) |
| 856 | |
| 857 | startdit() |
| 858 | |
| 859 | dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any |
| 860 | ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for |
| 861 | more details. |
| 862 | |
| 863 | dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to |
| 864 | override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can |
| 865 | be used instead of the -e option. |
| 866 | |
| 867 | dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to |
| 868 | redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a |
| 869 | rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair. |
| 870 | |
| 871 | dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required |
| 872 | password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync |
| 873 | daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a |
| 874 | password to a shell transport such as ssh. |
| 875 | |
| 876 | dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables |
| 877 | are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server. |
| 878 | |
| 879 | dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's |
| 880 | default .cvsignore file. |
| 881 | |
| 882 | enddit() |
| 883 | |
| 884 | manpagefiles() |
| 885 | |
| 886 | /etc/rsyncd.conf |
| 887 | |
| 888 | manpageseealso() |
| 889 | |
| 890 | rsyncd.conf(5) |
| 891 | |
| 892 | manpagediagnostics() |
| 893 | |
| 894 | manpagebugs() |
| 895 | |
| 896 | times are transferred as unix time_t values |
| 897 | |
| 898 | file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical |
| 899 | values |
| 900 | |
| 901 | see also the comments on the --delete option |
| 902 | |
| 903 | Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at |
| 904 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/) |
| 905 | |
| 906 | manpagesection(VERSION) |
| 907 | This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync |
| 908 | |
| 909 | manpagesection(CREDITS) |
| 910 | |
| 911 | rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file |
| 912 | COPYING for details. |
| 913 | |
| 914 | A WEB site is available at |
| 915 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site |
| 916 | includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this |
| 917 | manual page. |
| 918 | |
| 919 | The primary ftp site for rsync is |
| 920 | url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync). |
| 921 | |
| 922 | We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. |
| 923 | |
| 924 | This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by |
| 925 | Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler. |
| 926 | |
| 927 | manpagesection(THANKS) |
| 928 | |
| 929 | Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell |
| 930 | and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've |
| 931 | probably missed some people, my apologies if I have. |
| 932 | |
| 933 | |
| 934 | manpageauthor() |
| 935 | |
| 936 | rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be |
| 937 | contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and |
| 938 | Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au |
| 939 | |
| 940 | rsync is now also maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org> |
| 941 | |
| 942 | |