added *.bz2 and *.tbz to default dont compress list
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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 --stats give some file transfer stats
273 --progress show progress during transfer
274 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
275 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
276 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
277 -h, --help show this help screen
278)
279
280manpageoptions()
281
282rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
283options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
284below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
285The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
286can be used instead.
287
288startdit()
289dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
290available in rsync
291
292dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
293
294dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
295are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
296single -v will give you information about what files are being
297transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
298information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
299information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
300you are debugging rsync.
301
302dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
303are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
304from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
305cron.
306
307dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
308already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
309off this behavior.
310
311dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
312already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
313--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
314regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
315after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
316exactly.
317
318dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
319a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
320explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
321which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
322receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
323
324dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way
325of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
326
327dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
328recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
329directories at all.
330
331dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
332names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
333just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
334you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
335example, if you used the command
336
337verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
338
339then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
340machine. If instead you used
341
342verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
343
344then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
345machine. The full path name is preserved.
346
347dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
348renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
349control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
350
351dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
352tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
353very useful for incremental backups.
354
355dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
356backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
357
358dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
359destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
360file.
361
362dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
363remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
364option, all symbolic links are skipped.
365
366dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
367like ordinary files.
368
369dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
370point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
371also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
372path itself when --relative is used.
373
374dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
375which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
376also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
377give unexpected results.
378
379dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
380the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
381option hard links are treated like regular files.
382
383Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
384are in the list of files being sent.
385
386This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
387
388dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
389is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
390useful when using rsync with a local machine.
391
392dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
393permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
394
395dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
396of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
397to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
398the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
399access to the usernames.
400
401dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
402of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
403not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
404will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
405
406dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
407block device information to the remote system to recreate these
408devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
409
410dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
411with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
412option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
413modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
414cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
415their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
416changed.
417
418dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
419instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
420
421dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
422up less space on the destination.
423
424NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
425filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
426correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
427
428dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
429boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
430contents of only one filesystem.
431
432dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
433only update files that already exist on the destination.
434
435dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
436files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
437to prevent disasters.
438
439dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
440side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
441transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
442
443This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
444
445This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
446to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
447deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
448
449If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
450files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
451prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
452sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
453destination.
454
455dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
456receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
457delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
458
459dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
460transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
461the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
462then use the --delete-after switch.
463
464dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
465they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
466cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
467contains a directory of the same name.
468
469Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
470so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
471
472dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
473the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
474
475dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
476remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
477remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
478like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
479
480You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
481environment variable.
482
483dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
484rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
485that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
486the binary is in.
487
488dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
489certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
490useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
491
492You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
493to build up the list of files to exclude.
494
495See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
496this option.
497
498dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
499option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
500the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
501are ignored.
502
503dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
504specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
505build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
506
507See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
508this option.
509
510dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
511from a file.
512
513dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
514broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
515systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
516a file should be ignored.
517
518The exclude list is initialized to:
519
520quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
521.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
522*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
523
524then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
525files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
526
527Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
528that directory are added to the list.
529
530dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
531rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
532find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
533this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
534making things faster.
535
536You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
537--csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
538
539Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
540with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
541microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
542before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
543
544Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
545checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
546if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
547option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
548
549dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
550scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
551transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
552the temporary files in the receiving directory.
553
554dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
555additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
556transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
557leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
558files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
559around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
560the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
561option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
562files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
563to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
564destination directory.
565
566dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
567the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
568option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
569same method that gzip uses.
570
571Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
572that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
573compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
574information sent for matching data blocks.
575
576dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
577and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
578at both ends.
579
580By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
581what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
5820 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
583option is not specified.
584
585If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
586does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
587source system is used instead.
588
589dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
590timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
591then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
592
593dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
594daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
595is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
596terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
597config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
598respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
599details.
600
601dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
602when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
603rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
604address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
605in conjunction with the --config option.
606
607dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
608the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
609specified.
610
611dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
612rather than the default port 873.
613
614dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
615rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
616specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
617rsyncd.conf.
618
619dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
620on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
621algorithm is for your data.
622
623dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
624transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
625it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
626--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
627make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
628
629dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
630showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
631something to watch.
632
633This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
634the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
635
636dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
637found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
638option to make it easier.
639
640dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
641in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
642is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
643transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
644must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
645single line.
646
647dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
648transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
649using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
650of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
651transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
652result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
653of zero specifies no limit.
654
655enddit()
656
657manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
658
659The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
660selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
661
662rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
663the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
664name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
665pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
666skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
667skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
668filename is not skipped.
669
670Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
671every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
672applied recursively to each subcomponent.
673
674Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
675each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
676--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
677
678The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
679
680itemize(
681 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
682 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
683 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
684 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
685 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
686 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
687 end of the file name.
688
689 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
690 directory, not a file, link or device.
691
692 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
693 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
694 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
695
696 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
697 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
698
699 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
700 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
701 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
702 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
703 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
704 actually be any portion of a path.
705
706 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
707 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
708 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
709
710 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
711 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
712 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
713
714 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
715 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
716)
717
718The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
719single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
720
721If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
722algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
723parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
724will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
725them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
726--exclude '*'.
727
728Here are some exclude/include examples:
729
730itemize(
731 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
732 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
733 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
734 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
735 levels below a base directory called foo
736 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
737 or more levels below a base directory called foo
738 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
739 directories and C source files
740 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
741 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
742 it would be excluded by the "*")
743)
744
745manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
746
747rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
748cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
749version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
750
751This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
752facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
753for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
754remote shell like this:
755
756verb(
757 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
758)
759
760then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
761should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
762rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
763data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
764it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
765scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
766for non-interactive logins.
767
768manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
769
770startdit()
771
772dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
773ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
774more details.
775
776dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
777override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
778be used instead of the -e option.
779
780dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
781redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
782rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
783
784dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
785password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
786daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
787password to a shell transport such as ssh.
788
789dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
790are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
791
792dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
793default .cvsignore file.
794
795enddit()
796
797manpagefiles()
798
799/etc/rsyncd.conf
800
801manpageseealso()
802
803rsyncd.conf(5)
804
805manpagediagnostics()
806
807manpagebugs()
808
809times are transferred as unix time_t values
810
811file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
812values
813
814see also the comments on the --delete option
815
816Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
817url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
818
819manpagesection(VERSION)
820This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
821
822manpagesection(CREDITS)
823
824rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
825COPYING for details.
826
827A WEB site is available at
828url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
829
830The primary ftp site for rsync is
831url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
832
833We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
834
835This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
836Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
837
838manpagesection(THANKS)
839
840Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
841and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
842probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
843
844
845manpageauthor()
846
847rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
848contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
849Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
850