removed spurious error message
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()()
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
18manpagedescription()
19
20rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23exists.
24
25The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28report that accompanies this package.
29
30Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31
32itemize(
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
43manpagesection(GENERAL)
44
45There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
46
47itemize(
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
73Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74and destination paths must be local.
75
76manpagesection(SETUP)
77
78See the file README for installation instructions.
79
80Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82destination are local.
83
84You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
85command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
86
87One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
88security.
89
90Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91machines.
92
93manpagesection(USAGE)
94
95You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97
98Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
99
100quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
101
102this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106differences. See the tech report for details.
107
108quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
109
110this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
111machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
114in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
115size of data portions of the transfer.
116
117quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
118
119a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
120all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
121/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
122contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124using the --delete option.
125
126You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128an improved copy command.
129
130quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
131
132this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
134
135
136manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
137
138It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140running on TCP port 873.
141
142You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
146
147Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
148that:
149
150itemize(
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
164Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
167the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168may be useful when scripting rsync.
169
170WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
171users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
172
173manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
174
175An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
177information.
178
179manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
180
181Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
182
183To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
185
186quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
187
188each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
189"arvidsjaur".
190
191To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
192targets:
193
194quote( get:nl()
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
196
197 put:nl()
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
199
200 sync: get put)
201
202this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
205
206I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
207command
208
209quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
210
211this is launched from cron every few hours.
212
213manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
214
215Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
216to the detailed description below for a complete description.
217
218verb(
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=DIR put backups in the specified 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 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
260 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
261 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
262 -z, --compress compress file data
263 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
264 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
265 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
266 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
267 --version print version number
268 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
269 --address bind to the specified address
270 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
271 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
272 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
273 --stats give some file transfer stats
274 --progress show progress during transfer
275 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
276 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
277 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
278 -h, --help show this help screen
279)
280
281manpageoptions()
282
283rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
284options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
285below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
286The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
287can be used instead.
288
289startdit()
290dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
291available in rsync
292
293dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
294
295dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
296are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
297single -v will give you information about what files are being
298transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
299information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
300information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
301you are debugging rsync.
302
303dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
304are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
305from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
306cron.
307
308dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
309already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
310off this behavior.
311
312dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
313already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
314--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
315regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
316after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
317exactly.
318
319dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
320a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
321explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
322which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
323receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
324
325dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way
326of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
327
328dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
329recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
330directories at all.
331
332dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
333names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
334just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
335you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
336example, if you used the command
337
338verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
339
340then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
341machine. If instead you used
342
343verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
344
345then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
346machine. The full path name is preserved.
347
348dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
349renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
350control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
351
352dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
353tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
354very useful for incremental backups.
355
356dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
357backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
358
359dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
360destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
361file.
362
363dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
364remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
365option, all symbolic links are skipped.
366
367dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
368like ordinary files.
369
370dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
371point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
372also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
373path itself when --relative is used.
374
375dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
376which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
377also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
378give unexpected results.
379
380dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
381the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
382option hard links are treated like regular files.
383
384Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
385are in the list of files being sent.
386
387This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
388
389dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
390is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
391useful when using rsync with a local machine.
392
393dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
394permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
395
396dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
397of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
398to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
399the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
400access to the usernames.
401
402dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
403of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
404not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
405will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
406
407dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
408block device information to the remote system to recreate these
409devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
410
411dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
412with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
413option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
414modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
415cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
416their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
417changed.
418
419dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
420instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
421
422dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
423up less space on the destination.
424
425NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
426filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
427correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
428
429dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
430boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
431contents of only one filesystem.
432
433dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
434only update files that already exist on the destination.
435
436dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
437files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
438to prevent disasters.
439
440dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
441side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
442transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
443
444This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
445
446This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
447to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
448deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
449
450If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
451files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
452prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
453sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
454destination.
455
456dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
457receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
458delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
459
460dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
461transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
462the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
463then use the --delete-after switch.
464
465dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
466they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
467cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
468contains a directory of the same name.
469
470Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
471so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
472
473dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
474the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
475
476dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
477remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
478remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
479like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
480
481You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
482environment variable.
483
484dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
485rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
486that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
487the binary is in.
488
489dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
490certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
491useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
492
493You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
494to build up the list of files to exclude.
495
496See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
497this option.
498
499dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
500option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
501the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
502are ignored.
503
504dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
505specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
506build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
507
508See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
509this option.
510
511dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
512from a file.
513
514dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
515broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
516systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
517a file should be ignored.
518
519The exclude list is initialized to:
520
521quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
522.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
523*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
524
525then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
526files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
527
528Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
529that directory are added to the list.
530
531dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
532rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
533find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
534this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
535making things faster.
536
537You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
538--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
539
540Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
541with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
542microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
543before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
544
545Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
546checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
547if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
548option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
549
550dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
551scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
552transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
553the temporary files in the receiving directory.
554
555dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
556additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
557transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
558leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
559files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
560around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
561the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
562option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
563files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
564to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
565destination directory.
566
567dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
568the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
569option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
570same method that gzip uses.
571
572Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
573that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
574compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
575information sent for matching data blocks.
576
577dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
578and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
579at both ends.
580
581By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
582what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
5830 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
584option is not specified.
585
586If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
587does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
588source system is used instead.
589
590dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
591timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
592then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
593
594dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
595daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
596is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
597terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
598config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
599respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
600details.
601
602dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
603when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
604rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
605address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
606in conjunction with the --config option.
607
608dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
609the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
610specified.
611
612dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
613rather than the default port 873.
614
615dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This specifies whether rsync will use blocking
616IO when launching a remote shell transport. You may find this is
617needed for some remote shells that can't handle the default
618non-blocking IO.
619
620dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
621rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
622specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
623rsyncd.conf.
624
625dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
626on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
627algorithm is for your data.
628
629dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
630transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
631it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
632--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
633make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
634
635dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
636showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
637something to watch.
638
639This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
640the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
641
642dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
643found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
644option to make it easier.
645
646dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
647in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
648is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
649transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
650must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
651single line.
652
653dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
654transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
655using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
656of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
657transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
658result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
659of zero specifies no limit.
660
661enddit()
662
663manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
664
665The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
666selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
667
668rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
669the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
670name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
671pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
672skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
673skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
674filename is not skipped.
675
676Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
677every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
678applied recursively to each subcomponent.
679
680Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
681each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
682--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
683
684The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
685
686itemize(
687 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
688 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
689 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
690 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
691 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
692 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
693 end of the file name.
694
695 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
696 directory, not a file, link or device.
697
698 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
699 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
700 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
701
702 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
703 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
704
705 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
706 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
707 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
708 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
709 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
710 actually be any portion of a path.
711
712 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
713 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
714 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
715
716 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
717 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
718 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
719
720 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
721 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
722)
723
724The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
725single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
726
727If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
728algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
729parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
730will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
731them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
732--exclude '*'.
733
734Here are some exclude/include examples:
735
736itemize(
737 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
738 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
739 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
740 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
741 levels below a base directory called foo
742 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
743 or more levels below a base directory called foo
744 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
745 directories and C source files
746 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
747 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
748 it would be excluded by the "*")
749)
750
751manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
752
753rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
754cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
755version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
756
757This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
758facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
759for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
760remote shell like this:
761
762verb(
763 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
764)
765
766then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
767should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
768rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
769data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
770it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
771scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
772for non-interactive logins.
773
774manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
775
776startdit()
777
778dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
779ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
780more details.
781
782dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
783override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
784be used instead of the -e option.
785
786dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
787redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
788rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
789
790dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
791password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
792daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
793password to a shell transport such as ssh.
794
795dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
796are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
797
798dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
799default .cvsignore file.
800
801enddit()
802
803manpagefiles()
804
805/etc/rsyncd.conf
806
807manpageseealso()
808
809rsyncd.conf(5)
810
811manpagediagnostics()
812
813manpagebugs()
814
815times are transferred as unix time_t values
816
817file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
818values
819
820see also the comments on the --delete option
821
822Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
823url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
824
825manpagesection(VERSION)
826This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
827
828manpagesection(CREDITS)
829
830rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
831COPYING for details.
832
833A WEB site is available at
834url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
835
836The primary ftp site for rsync is
837url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
838
839We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
840
841This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
842Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
843
844manpagesection(THANKS)
845
846Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
847and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
848probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
849
850
851manpageauthor()
852
853rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
854contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
855Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
856