| 1 | mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org) |
| 2 | manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()() |
| 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 | rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST |
| 19 | |
| 20 | manpagedescription() |
| 21 | |
| 22 | rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does, |
| 23 | but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to |
| 24 | greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already |
| 25 | exists. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the |
| 28 | differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using |
| 29 | an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical |
| 30 | report that accompanies this package. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Some of the additional features of rsync are: |
| 33 | |
| 34 | itemize( |
| 35 | it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions |
| 36 | it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar |
| 37 | it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore |
| 38 | it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh |
| 39 | it() does not require root privileges |
| 40 | it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs |
| 41 | it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for |
| 42 | mirroring) |
| 43 | ) |
| 44 | |
| 45 | manpagesection(GENERAL) |
| 46 | |
| 47 | There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are: |
| 48 | |
| 49 | itemize( |
| 50 | it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither |
| 51 | source nor destination path contains a : separator |
| 52 | |
| 53 | it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using |
| 54 | a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or |
| 55 | rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a |
| 56 | single : separator. |
| 57 | |
| 58 | it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine |
| 59 | using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source |
| 60 | contains a : separator. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local |
| 63 | machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a :: |
| 64 | separator or an rsync:// URL. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync |
| 67 | server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a :: |
| 68 | separator or an rsync:// URL. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell |
| 71 | program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote |
| 72 | machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a :: |
| 73 | separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is |
| 74 | also provided. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine |
| 77 | using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync |
| 78 | server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the |
| 79 | destination path contains a :: separator and the |
| 80 | --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the |
| 83 | same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the |
| 84 | local destination. |
| 85 | ) |
| 86 | |
| 87 | Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source |
| 88 | and destination paths must be local. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | manpagesection(SETUP) |
| 91 | |
| 92 | See the file README for installation instructions. |
| 93 | |
| 94 | Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via |
| 95 | a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync |
| 96 | daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh |
| 97 | for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a |
| 98 | different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e |
| 101 | command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of |
| 104 | security. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination |
| 107 | machines. |
| 108 | |
| 109 | manpagesection(USAGE) |
| 110 | |
| 111 | You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source |
| 112 | and a destination, one of which may be remote. |
| 113 | |
| 114 | Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples: |
| 115 | |
| 116 | quote(rsync *.c foo:src/) |
| 117 | |
| 118 | This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the |
| 119 | current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of |
| 120 | the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync |
| 121 | remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the |
| 122 | differences. See the tech report for details. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp) |
| 125 | |
| 126 | This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the |
| 127 | machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The |
| 128 | files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic |
| 129 | links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved |
| 130 | in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the |
| 131 | size of data portions of the transfer. |
| 132 | |
| 133 | quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp) |
| 134 | |
| 135 | A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an |
| 136 | additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing |
| 137 | / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed |
| 138 | to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the |
| 139 | containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the |
| 140 | destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the |
| 141 | files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of |
| 142 | /dest/foo: |
| 143 | |
| 144 | quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest) |
| 145 | quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo) |
| 146 | |
| 147 | You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and |
| 148 | destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like |
| 149 | an improved copy command. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::) |
| 152 | |
| 153 | This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host |
| 154 | somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.) |
| 155 | |
| 156 | |
| 157 | manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER) |
| 158 | |
| 159 | It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the |
| 160 | transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server |
| 161 | running on TCP port 873. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the |
| 164 | environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to |
| 165 | your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support |
| 166 | proxy connections to port 873. |
| 167 | |
| 168 | Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except |
| 169 | that: |
| 170 | |
| 171 | itemize( |
| 172 | it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to |
| 173 | separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you |
| 176 | connect. |
| 177 | |
| 178 | it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the |
| 179 | list of accessible paths on the server will be shown. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the |
| 182 | specified files on the remote server is provided. |
| 183 | ) |
| 184 | |
| 185 | Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then |
| 186 | you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the |
| 187 | password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to |
| 188 | the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This |
| 189 | may be useful when scripting rsync. |
| 190 | |
| 191 | WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all |
| 192 | users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended. |
| 193 | |
| 194 | manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM) |
| 195 | |
| 196 | It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync |
| 197 | server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or |
| 198 | rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect |
| 199 | to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a |
| 200 | firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server |
| 201 | features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM, |
| 202 | below). |
| 203 | |
| 204 | From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as |
| 205 | using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must |
| 206 | explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with |
| 207 | --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on |
| 208 | this functionality.) |
| 209 | |
| 210 | In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync |
| 211 | server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command: |
| 212 | |
| 213 | quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path) |
| 214 | |
| 215 | The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be |
| 216 | used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER) |
| 219 | |
| 220 | An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the |
| 221 | rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration |
| 222 | file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote |
| 223 | shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name |
| 224 | is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer |
| 225 | (typically $HOME). |
| 226 | |
| 227 | manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM) |
| 228 | |
| 229 | See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync |
| 230 | server configuration file. |
| 231 | |
| 232 | Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote |
| 233 | user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to |
| 234 | configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port |
| 235 | if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program. |
| 236 | |
| 237 | To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section |
| 238 | in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page. |
| 239 | |
| 240 | manpagesection(EXAMPLES) |
| 241 | |
| 242 | Here are some examples of how I use rsync. |
| 243 | |
| 244 | To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word |
| 245 | files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs |
| 246 | |
| 247 | quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup) |
| 248 | |
| 249 | each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine |
| 250 | "arvidsjaur". |
| 251 | |
| 252 | To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile |
| 253 | targets: |
| 254 | |
| 255 | quote( get:nl() |
| 256 | rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ . |
| 257 | |
| 258 | put:nl() |
| 259 | rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/ |
| 260 | |
| 261 | sync: get put) |
| 262 | |
| 263 | this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the |
| 264 | connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a |
| 265 | lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient. |
| 266 | |
| 267 | I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the |
| 268 | command |
| 269 | |
| 270 | quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba") |
| 271 | |
| 272 | this is launched from cron every few hours. |
| 273 | |
| 274 | manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY) |
| 275 | |
| 276 | Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer |
| 277 | to the detailed description below for a complete description. |
| 278 | |
| 279 | verb( |
| 280 | -v, --verbose increase verbosity |
| 281 | -q, --quiet decrease verbosity |
| 282 | -c, --checksum always checksum |
| 283 | -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD |
| 284 | -r, --recursive recurse into directories |
| 285 | -R, --relative use relative path names |
| 286 | --no-relative turn off --relative |
| 287 | --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R |
| 288 | -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir) |
| 289 | --backup-dir make backups into this directory |
| 290 | --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir) |
| 291 | -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files) |
| 292 | -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks |
| 293 | -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks |
| 294 | --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks |
| 295 | --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks |
| 296 | -H, --hard-links preserve hard links |
| 297 | -p, --perms preserve permissions |
| 298 | -o, --owner preserve owner (root only) |
| 299 | -g, --group preserve group |
| 300 | -D, --devices preserve devices (root only) |
| 301 | -t, --times preserve times |
| 302 | -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently |
| 303 | -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred |
| 304 | -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks |
| 305 | --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file |
| 306 | -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries |
| 307 | -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700) |
| 308 | -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell |
| 309 | --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine |
| 310 | --existing only update files that already exist |
| 311 | --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver |
| 312 | --delete delete files that don't exist on sender |
| 313 | --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver |
| 314 | --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before |
| 315 | --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors |
| 316 | --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files |
| 317 | --partial keep partially transferred files |
| 318 | --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty |
| 319 | --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name |
| 320 | --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds |
| 321 | -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check |
| 322 | --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size) |
| 323 | --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy |
| 324 | -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR |
| 325 | --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR |
| 326 | --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files |
| 327 | -P equivalent to --partial --progress |
| 328 | -z, --compress compress file data |
| 329 | -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does |
| 330 | --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN |
| 331 | --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE |
| 332 | --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN |
| 333 | --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE |
| 334 | --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names |
| 335 | -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls |
| 336 | --version print version number |
| 337 | --daemon run as an rsync daemon |
| 338 | --no-detach do not detach from the parent |
| 339 | --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address |
| 340 | --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file |
| 341 | --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number |
| 342 | --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell |
| 343 | --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io |
| 344 | --stats give some file transfer stats |
| 345 | --progress show progress during transfer |
| 346 | --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format |
| 347 | --password-file=FILE get password from FILE |
| 348 | --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second |
| 349 | --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX |
| 350 | --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX |
| 351 | --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed |
| 352 | -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4 |
| 353 | -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6 |
| 354 | -h, --help show this help screen |
| 355 | |
| 356 | |
| 357 | ) |
| 358 | |
| 359 | manpageoptions() |
| 360 | |
| 361 | rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line |
| 362 | options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown |
| 363 | below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant. |
| 364 | The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace |
| 365 | can be used instead. |
| 366 | |
| 367 | startdit() |
| 368 | dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options |
| 369 | available in rsync |
| 370 | |
| 371 | dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit |
| 372 | |
| 373 | dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you |
| 374 | are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A |
| 375 | single -v will give you information about what files are being |
| 376 | transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you |
| 377 | information on what files are being skipped and slightly more |
| 378 | information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if |
| 379 | you are debugging rsync. |
| 380 | |
| 381 | dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you |
| 382 | are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages |
| 383 | from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from |
| 384 | cron. |
| 385 | |
| 386 | dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are |
| 387 | already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. |
| 388 | This option turns off this "quick check" behavior. |
| 389 | |
| 390 | dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are |
| 391 | already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the |
| 392 | --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size, |
| 393 | regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync |
| 394 | after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps |
| 395 | exactly. |
| 396 | |
| 397 | dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats |
| 398 | the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of |
| 399 | modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to |
| 400 | set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when |
| 401 | transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times |
| 402 | with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using |
| 405 | a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then |
| 406 | explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name |
| 407 | which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the |
| 408 | receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow. |
| 409 | |
| 410 | dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick |
| 411 | way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost |
| 412 | everything. |
| 413 | |
| 414 | Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because |
| 415 | finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately |
| 416 | specify bf(-H). |
| 417 | |
| 418 | dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories |
| 419 | recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy |
| 420 | directories at all. |
| 421 | |
| 422 | dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path |
| 423 | names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than |
| 424 | just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when |
| 425 | you want to send several different directories at the same time. For |
| 426 | example, if you used the command |
| 427 | |
| 428 | verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/) |
| 429 | |
| 430 | then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote |
| 431 | machine. If instead you used |
| 432 | |
| 433 | verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/) |
| 434 | |
| 435 | then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote |
| 436 | machine -- the full path name is preserved. |
| 437 | |
| 438 | dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only |
| 439 | needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative |
| 440 | file processing. |
| 441 | |
| 442 | dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the |
| 443 | implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part |
| 444 | of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows |
| 445 | the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the |
| 446 | path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R, |
| 447 | the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the |
| 448 | destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using |
| 449 | the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs, |
| 450 | which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a |
| 451 | symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this. |
| 452 | |
| 453 | dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are |
| 454 | renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the |
| 455 | backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the |
| 456 | --backup-dir and --suffix options. |
| 457 | |
| 458 | dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this |
| 459 | tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is |
| 460 | very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally |
| 461 | specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option |
| 462 | (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory |
| 463 | will keep their original filenames). |
| 464 | If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory |
| 465 | (which changes in a recursive transfer). |
| 466 | |
| 467 | dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default |
| 468 | backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~ |
| 469 | if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string. |
| 470 | |
| 471 | dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the |
| 472 | destination file already exists and has a date later than the source |
| 473 | file. |
| 474 | |
| 475 | In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always |
| 476 | considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date |
| 477 | is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a |
| 478 | symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur |
| 479 | regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel |
| 480 | free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion). |
| 481 | |
| 482 | dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the |
| 483 | symlink on the destination. |
| 484 | |
| 485 | dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that |
| 486 | they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. |
| 487 | |
| 488 | dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of |
| 489 | symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks |
| 490 | are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the |
| 491 | source path itself when --relative is used. |
| 492 | |
| 493 | dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links |
| 494 | which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are |
| 495 | also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may |
| 496 | give unexpected results. |
| 497 | |
| 498 | dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on |
| 499 | the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this |
| 500 | option hard links are treated like regular files. |
| 501 | |
| 502 | Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link |
| 503 | are in the list of files being sent. |
| 504 | |
| 505 | This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it. |
| 506 | |
| 507 | dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm |
| 508 | is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be |
| 509 | faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and |
| 510 | target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the |
| 511 | "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both |
| 512 | the source and target are on the local machine. |
| 513 | |
| 514 | dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the |
| 515 | default. |
| 516 | |
| 517 | dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination |
| 518 | permissions to be the same as the source permissions. |
| 519 | |
| 520 | Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the |
| 521 | source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all |
| 522 | other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions |
| 523 | (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp). |
| 524 | |
| 525 | dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the |
| 526 | destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems, |
| 527 | only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation |
| 528 | is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some |
| 529 | circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion. |
| 530 | |
| 531 | dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the |
| 532 | destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving |
| 533 | program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the |
| 534 | receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation |
| 535 | is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some |
| 536 | circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion. |
| 537 | |
| 538 | dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and |
| 539 | block device information to the remote system to recreate these |
| 540 | devices. This option is only available to the super-user. |
| 541 | |
| 542 | dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along |
| 543 | with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this |
| 544 | option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been |
| 545 | modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will |
| 546 | cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have |
| 547 | their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't |
| 548 | changed. |
| 549 | |
| 550 | dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers, |
| 551 | instead it will just report the actions it would have taken. |
| 552 | |
| 553 | dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take |
| 554 | up less space on the destination. |
| 555 | |
| 556 | NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs" |
| 557 | filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions |
| 558 | correctly and ends up corrupting the files. |
| 559 | |
| 560 | dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem |
| 561 | boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the |
| 562 | contents of only one filesystem. |
| 563 | |
| 564 | dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files - |
| 565 | only update files that already exist on the destination. |
| 566 | |
| 567 | dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) |
| 568 | This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on |
| 569 | the destination. |
| 570 | |
| 571 | dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM |
| 572 | files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees |
| 573 | to prevent disasters. |
| 574 | |
| 575 | dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving |
| 576 | side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from |
| 577 | transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded. |
| 578 | |
| 579 | This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected. |
| 580 | |
| 581 | This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea |
| 582 | to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be |
| 583 | deleted to make sure important files aren't listed. |
| 584 | |
| 585 | If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any |
| 586 | files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to |
| 587 | prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the |
| 588 | sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the |
| 589 | destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option. |
| 590 | |
| 591 | dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the |
| 592 | receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also |
| 593 | delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude). |
| 594 | Implies --delete. |
| 595 | |
| 596 | dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the |
| 597 | receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is |
| 598 | sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete |
| 599 | after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete. |
| 600 | |
| 601 | dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files |
| 602 | even when there are I/O errors. |
| 603 | |
| 604 | dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if |
| 605 | they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This |
| 606 | is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first. |
| 607 | Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect. |
| 608 | |
| 609 | dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in |
| 610 | the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details. |
| 611 | |
| 612 | dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative |
| 613 | remote shell program to use for communication between the local and |
| 614 | remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by |
| 615 | default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network. |
| 616 | |
| 617 | If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the |
| 618 | remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the |
| 619 | remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote |
| 620 | shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a |
| 621 | running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING |
| 622 | TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above. |
| 623 | |
| 624 | Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is |
| 625 | presented to rsync as a single argument. For example: |
| 626 | |
| 627 | quote(-e "ssh -p 2234") |
| 628 | |
| 629 | (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect |
| 630 | options in their .ssh/config file.) |
| 631 | |
| 632 | You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH |
| 633 | environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e. |
| 634 | |
| 635 | See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option. |
| 636 | |
| 637 | dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of |
| 638 | rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note |
| 639 | that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that |
| 640 | the binary is in. |
| 641 | |
| 642 | dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a |
| 643 | broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between |
| 644 | systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if |
| 645 | a file should be ignored. |
| 646 | |
| 647 | The exclude list is initialized to: |
| 648 | |
| 649 | quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state |
| 650 | .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej |
| 651 | .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/) |
| 652 | |
| 653 | then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any |
| 654 | files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names |
| 655 | are delimited by whitespace). |
| 656 | |
| 657 | Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a |
| 658 | .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. |
| 659 | See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information. |
| 660 | |
| 661 | dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude |
| 662 | certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most |
| 663 | useful in combination with a recursive transfer. |
| 664 | |
| 665 | You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like |
| 666 | to build up the list of files to exclude. |
| 667 | |
| 668 | See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option. |
| 669 | |
| 670 | dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude |
| 671 | option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file |
| 672 | FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with |
| 673 | ';' or '#' are ignored. |
| 674 | If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input. |
| 675 | |
| 676 | dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the |
| 677 | specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to |
| 678 | build up quite complex exclude/include rules. |
| 679 | |
| 680 | See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option. |
| 681 | |
| 682 | dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns |
| 683 | from a file. |
| 684 | If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input. |
| 685 | |
| 686 | dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the |
| 687 | exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-" |
| 688 | for stdin). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make |
| 689 | transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For |
| 690 | instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option |
| 691 | is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all |
| 692 | directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather |
| 693 | than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's |
| 694 | behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if |
| 695 | you want it. |
| 696 | |
| 697 | The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the |
| 698 | source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are |
| 699 | allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this |
| 700 | command: |
| 701 | |
| 702 | quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup) |
| 703 | |
| 704 | If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin |
| 705 | directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the |
| 706 | contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r |
| 707 | or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind |
| 708 | that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to |
| 709 | duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not |
| 710 | force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case). |
| 711 | |
| 712 | In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host |
| 713 | instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file |
| 714 | (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can |
| 715 | specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the |
| 716 | transfer". For example: |
| 717 | |
| 718 | quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy) |
| 719 | |
| 720 | This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that |
| 721 | was located on the remote "src" host. |
| 722 | |
| 723 | dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a |
| 724 | file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. |
| 725 | This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from. |
| 726 | It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore |
| 727 | file are split on whitespace). |
| 728 | |
| 729 | dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a |
| 730 | scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files |
| 731 | transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create |
| 732 | the temporary files in the receiving directory. |
| 733 | |
| 734 | dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on |
| 735 | the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination |
| 736 | files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the |
| 737 | destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new |
| 738 | destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a |
| 739 | flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for |
| 740 | example by moving directories around and removing the old directory, |
| 741 | although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest). |
| 742 | This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially |
| 743 | transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they |
| 744 | have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative |
| 745 | to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer). |
| 746 | |
| 747 | dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but |
| 748 | also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for |
| 749 | unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be |
| 750 | linked. |
| 751 | Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative |
| 752 | to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer). |
| 753 | An example: |
| 754 | |
| 755 | verb( |
| 756 | rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/ |
| 757 | ) |
| 758 | |
| 759 | dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from |
| 760 | the files that it sends to the destination machine. This |
| 761 | option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the |
| 762 | same method that gzip uses. |
| 763 | |
| 764 | Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios |
| 765 | that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a |
| 766 | compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit |
| 767 | information sent for matching data blocks. |
| 768 | |
| 769 | dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group |
| 770 | and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them |
| 771 | at both ends. |
| 772 | |
| 773 | By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine |
| 774 | what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group |
| 775 | 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids |
| 776 | option is not specified. |
| 777 | |
| 778 | If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match |
| 779 | on the destination system, then the numeric ID |
| 780 | from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the |
| 781 | "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how |
| 782 | the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the |
| 783 | users and groups and what you can do about it. |
| 784 | |
| 785 | dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O |
| 786 | timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time |
| 787 | then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout. |
| 788 | |
| 789 | dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The |
| 790 | daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or |
| 791 | bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax. |
| 792 | |
| 793 | If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being |
| 794 | run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and |
| 795 | become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file |
| 796 | (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to |
| 797 | requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more |
| 798 | details. |
| 799 | |
| 800 | dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs |
| 801 | rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This |
| 802 | option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also |
| 803 | be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as |
| 804 | bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller). |
| 805 | bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a |
| 806 | debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or |
| 807 | sshd. |
| 808 | |
| 809 | dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address |
| 810 | when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a |
| 811 | rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP |
| 812 | address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible |
| 813 | in conjunction with the --config option. |
| 814 | |
| 815 | dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than |
| 816 | the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified. |
| 817 | The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over |
| 818 | a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case |
| 819 | the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME). |
| 820 | |
| 821 | dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use |
| 822 | rather than the default port 873. |
| 823 | |
| 824 | dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching |
| 825 | a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, |
| 826 | rsync defaults to using |
| 827 | blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that |
| 828 | ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.) |
| 829 | |
| 830 | dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the |
| 831 | default. |
| 832 | |
| 833 | dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the |
| 834 | rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is |
| 835 | specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in |
| 836 | rsyncd.conf. |
| 837 | |
| 838 | dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics |
| 839 | on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync |
| 840 | algorithm is for your data. |
| 841 | |
| 842 | dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially |
| 843 | transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances |
| 844 | it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the |
| 845 | --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should |
| 846 | make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster. |
| 847 | |
| 848 | dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information |
| 849 | showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user |
| 850 | something to watch. |
| 851 | Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity. |
| 852 | |
| 853 | When the file is transferring, the data looks like this: |
| 854 | |
| 855 | verb( |
| 856 | 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04 |
| 857 | ) |
| 858 | |
| 859 | This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that |
| 860 | is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both |
| 861 | data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time |
| 862 | remaining in this transfer. |
| 863 | |
| 864 | After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this: |
| 865 | |
| 866 | verb( |
| 867 | 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396) |
| 868 | ) |
| 869 | |
| 870 | This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final |
| 871 | transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer |
| 872 | the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses. |
| 873 | These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and |
| 874 | what percent of the total number of files has been scanned. |
| 875 | |
| 876 | dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I |
| 877 | found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an |
| 878 | option to make it easier. |
| 879 | |
| 880 | dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password |
| 881 | in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option |
| 882 | is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in |
| 883 | transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file |
| 884 | must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a |
| 885 | single line. |
| 886 | |
| 887 | dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum |
| 888 | transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when |
| 889 | using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature |
| 890 | of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the |
| 891 | transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The |
| 892 | result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value |
| 893 | of zero specifies no limit. |
| 894 | |
| 895 | dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be |
| 896 | transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with |
| 897 | PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details. |
| 898 | |
| 899 | dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch, |
| 900 | using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH |
| 901 | MODE" section for details. |
| 902 | |
| 903 | dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 |
| 904 | when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct |
| 905 | control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an |
| 906 | rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to |
| 907 | listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older |
| 908 | versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see |
| 909 | an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port, |
| 910 | try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon). |
| 911 | |
| 912 | dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer |
| 913 | NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file |
| 914 | MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated |
| 915 | by the server and defaults to the current time(), or 32761 if |
| 916 | bf(--write-batch) or bf(--read-batch) are specified. This option |
| 917 | is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for |
| 918 | applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or |
| 919 | in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed. |
| 920 | Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time() |
| 921 | for checksum seed. Note also that bf(--write-batch) and bf(--read-batch) |
| 922 | set the checksum seed to 32761, so bf(--checksum-seed=NUM) needs to |
| 923 | follow these options if you want to specify a different checksum |
| 924 | seed in batch mode. |
| 925 | |
| 926 | enddit() |
| 927 | |
| 928 | manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS) |
| 929 | |
| 930 | The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible |
| 931 | selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip. |
| 932 | |
| 933 | Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on |
| 934 | the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory |
| 935 | name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching |
| 936 | pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is |
| 937 | skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not |
| 938 | skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the |
| 939 | filename is not skipped. |
| 940 | |
| 941 | The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative |
| 942 | to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a |
| 943 | subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root |
| 944 | is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. |
| 945 | This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below). |
| 946 | |
| 947 | Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the |
| 948 | trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative |
| 949 | option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to |
| 950 | changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination |
| 951 | system). The following examples demonstrate this. |
| 952 | |
| 953 | Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute |
| 954 | path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz". |
| 955 | Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer: |
| 956 | |
| 957 | verb( |
| 958 | Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest |
| 959 | +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar |
| 960 | +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz |
| 961 | Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar |
| 962 | Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz |
| 963 | |
| 964 | Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest |
| 965 | +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") |
| 966 | +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") |
| 967 | Target file: /dest/foo/bar |
| 968 | Target file: /dest/bar/baz |
| 969 | |
| 970 | Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest |
| 971 | +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) |
| 972 | +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) |
| 973 | Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar |
| 974 | Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz |
| 975 | |
| 976 | Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest |
| 977 | +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) |
| 978 | +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) |
| 979 | Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar |
| 980 | Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz |
| 981 | ) |
| 982 | |
| 983 | The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just |
| 984 | look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name |
| 985 | (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files). |
| 986 | |
| 987 | Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a), |
| 988 | every subcomponent of |
| 989 | every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get |
| 990 | applied recursively to each subcomponent. |
| 991 | The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage |
| 992 | when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular |
| 993 | parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual |
| 994 | because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the |
| 995 | hierarchy. |
| 996 | |
| 997 | Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern |
| 998 | each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and |
| 999 | --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options. |
| 1000 | |
| 1001 | The patterns can take several forms. The rules are: |
| 1002 | |
| 1003 | itemize( |
| 1004 | |
| 1005 | it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the |
| 1006 | start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of |
| 1007 | the filename. |
| 1008 | This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions. |
| 1009 | Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root |
| 1010 | (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root). |
| 1011 | On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo" |
| 1012 | anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from |
| 1013 | top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the |
| 1014 | end of the file name. |
| 1015 | |
| 1016 | it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a |
| 1017 | directory, not a file, link, or device. |
| 1018 | |
| 1019 | it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set |
| 1020 | *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename |
| 1021 | matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used. |
| 1022 | |
| 1023 | it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a |
| 1024 | single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes. |
| 1025 | |
| 1026 | it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**" |
| 1027 | then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading |
| 1028 | directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is |
| 1029 | matched only against the final component of the filename. Again, |
| 1030 | remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can |
| 1031 | actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory. |
| 1032 | |
| 1033 | it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space) |
| 1034 | then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as |
| 1035 | part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching. |
| 1036 | |
| 1037 | it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space) |
| 1038 | then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as |
| 1039 | part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching. |
| 1040 | |
| 1041 | it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current |
| 1042 | include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns. |
| 1043 | ) |
| 1044 | |
| 1045 | The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing |
| 1046 | you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude |
| 1047 | options in the proper order. |
| 1048 | |
| 1049 | Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the |
| 1050 | directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of |
| 1051 | the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly |
| 1052 | important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work: |
| 1053 | |
| 1054 | verb( |
| 1055 | + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found |
| 1056 | + /file-is-included |
| 1057 | - * |
| 1058 | ) |
| 1059 | |
| 1060 | This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule, |
| 1061 | so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" |
| 1062 | directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy |
| 1063 | to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere |
| 1064 | before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific |
| 1065 | include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For |
| 1066 | instance, this set of rules works fine: |
| 1067 | |
| 1068 | verb( |
| 1069 | + /some/ |
| 1070 | + /some/path/ |
| 1071 | + /some/path/this-file-is-found |
| 1072 | + /file-also-included |
| 1073 | - * |
| 1074 | ) |
| 1075 | |
| 1076 | Here are some examples of exclude/include matching: |
| 1077 | |
| 1078 | itemize( |
| 1079 | it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o |
| 1080 | it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory |
| 1081 | it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo |
| 1082 | it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two |
| 1083 | levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory |
| 1084 | it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two |
| 1085 | or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory |
| 1086 | it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all |
| 1087 | directories and C source files |
| 1088 | it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include |
| 1089 | only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or |
| 1090 | it would be excluded by the "*") |
| 1091 | ) |
| 1092 | |
| 1093 | manpagesection(BATCH MODE) |
| 1094 | |
| 1095 | bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version |
| 1096 | of rsync. The interface or behavior may change before it stabilizes. |
| 1097 | |
| 1098 | Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many |
| 1099 | identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a |
| 1100 | number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this |
| 1101 | source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other |
| 1102 | hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the |
| 1103 | write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one |
| 1104 | of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync |
| 1105 | client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against |
| 1106 | other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The |
| 1107 | filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by |
| 1108 | the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is |
| 1109 | then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch |
| 1110 | option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree. |
| 1111 | Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the |
| 1112 | batch update fileset. |
| 1113 | |
| 1114 | The fileset consists of 4 files: |
| 1115 | |
| 1116 | itemize( |
| 1117 | it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments |
| 1118 | it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata |
| 1119 | it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums |
| 1120 | it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change |
| 1121 | ) |
| 1122 | |
| 1123 | The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a |
| 1124 | destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed |
| 1125 | using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate |
| 1126 | destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original |
| 1127 | path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the |
| 1128 | original destination tree path. |
| 1129 | |
| 1130 | Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the |
| 1131 | file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when |
| 1132 | updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can |
| 1133 | be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at |
| 1134 | once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually. |
| 1135 | |
| 1136 | Example: |
| 1137 | |
| 1138 | verb( |
| 1139 | $ rsync --write-batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/ |
| 1140 | $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote: |
| 1141 | $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/ |
| 1142 | # or alternatively |
| 1143 | $ ssh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/ |
| 1144 | ) |
| 1145 | |
| 1146 | In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/ |
| 1147 | and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files |
| 1148 | pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote". |
| 1149 | Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as |
| 1150 | /adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to |
| 1151 | invoke rsync. |
| 1152 | |
| 1153 | Caveats: |
| 1154 | |
| 1155 | The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update |
| 1156 | to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the |
| 1157 | batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees |
| 1158 | is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the |
| 1159 | destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can |
| 1160 | be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the |
| 1161 | destination tree. |
| 1162 | |
| 1163 | The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the |
| 1164 | one used on the original destination. |
| 1165 | |
| 1166 | The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage |
| 1167 | error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the |
| 1168 | size of the batch update files for transport to the destination. |
| 1169 | |
| 1170 | The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime |
| 1171 | error. |
| 1172 | |
| 1173 | See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical |
| 1174 | reports. |
| 1175 | |
| 1176 | manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS) |
| 1177 | |
| 1178 | Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic |
| 1179 | link in the source directory. |
| 1180 | |
| 1181 | By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message |
| 1182 | "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist. |
| 1183 | |
| 1184 | If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same |
| 1185 | target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies |
| 1186 | bf(--links). |
| 1187 | |
| 1188 | If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by |
| 1189 | copying their referent, rather than the symlink. |
| 1190 | |
| 1191 | rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An |
| 1192 | example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes |
| 1193 | ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to |
| 1194 | bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using |
| 1195 | bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file |
| 1196 | they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause |
| 1197 | unsafe links to be omitted altogether. |
| 1198 | |
| 1199 | Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks |
| 1200 | (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..") |
| 1201 | components to ascend from the directory being copied. |
| 1202 | |
| 1203 | manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS) |
| 1204 | |
| 1205 | rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little |
| 1206 | cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol |
| 1207 | version mismatch - is your shell clean?". |
| 1208 | |
| 1209 | This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell |
| 1210 | facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using |
| 1211 | for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your |
| 1212 | remote shell like this: |
| 1213 | |
| 1214 | verb( |
| 1215 | ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat |
| 1216 | ) |
| 1217 | |
| 1218 | then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat |
| 1219 | should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from |
| 1220 | rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or |
| 1221 | data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing |
| 1222 | it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup |
| 1223 | scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements |
| 1224 | for non-interactive logins. |
| 1225 | |
| 1226 | If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then |
| 1227 | try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will |
| 1228 | show why each individual file is included or excluded. |
| 1229 | |
| 1230 | manpagesection(EXIT VALUES) |
| 1231 | |
| 1232 | startdit() |
| 1233 | dit(bf(0)) Success |
| 1234 | dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error |
| 1235 | dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility |
| 1236 | dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs |
| 1237 | dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt |
| 1238 | was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support |
| 1239 | them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and |
| 1240 | not by the server. |
| 1241 | dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol |
| 1242 | dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O |
| 1243 | dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O |
| 1244 | dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream |
| 1245 | dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics |
| 1246 | dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code |
| 1247 | dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT |
| 1248 | dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid() |
| 1249 | dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers |
| 1250 | dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error |
| 1251 | dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files |
| 1252 | dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive |
| 1253 | enddit() |
| 1254 | |
| 1255 | manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES) |
| 1256 | |
| 1257 | startdit() |
| 1258 | |
| 1259 | dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any |
| 1260 | ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for |
| 1261 | more details. |
| 1262 | |
| 1263 | dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to |
| 1264 | override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line |
| 1265 | options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option. |
| 1266 | |
| 1267 | dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to |
| 1268 | redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a |
| 1269 | rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair. |
| 1270 | |
| 1271 | dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required |
| 1272 | password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync |
| 1273 | daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a |
| 1274 | password to a shell transport such as ssh. |
| 1275 | |
| 1276 | dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables |
| 1277 | are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server. |
| 1278 | If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody". |
| 1279 | |
| 1280 | dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's |
| 1281 | default .cvsignore file. |
| 1282 | |
| 1283 | enddit() |
| 1284 | |
| 1285 | manpagefiles() |
| 1286 | |
| 1287 | /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf |
| 1288 | |
| 1289 | manpageseealso() |
| 1290 | |
| 1291 | rsyncd.conf(5) |
| 1292 | |
| 1293 | manpagediagnostics() |
| 1294 | |
| 1295 | manpagebugs() |
| 1296 | |
| 1297 | times are transferred as unix time_t values |
| 1298 | |
| 1299 | When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync |
| 1300 | unmodified files. |
| 1301 | See the comments on the --modify-window option. |
| 1302 | |
| 1303 | file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical |
| 1304 | values |
| 1305 | |
| 1306 | see also the comments on the --delete option |
| 1307 | |
| 1308 | Please report bugs! See the website at |
| 1309 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/) |
| 1310 | |
| 1311 | manpagesection(CREDITS) |
| 1312 | |
| 1313 | rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file |
| 1314 | COPYING for details. |
| 1315 | |
| 1316 | A WEB site is available at |
| 1317 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site |
| 1318 | includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this |
| 1319 | manual page. |
| 1320 | |
| 1321 | The primary ftp site for rsync is |
| 1322 | url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync). |
| 1323 | |
| 1324 | We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. |
| 1325 | |
| 1326 | This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by |
| 1327 | Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler. |
| 1328 | |
| 1329 | manpagesection(THANKS) |
| 1330 | |
| 1331 | Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell |
| 1332 | and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync. |
| 1333 | I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have. |
| 1334 | |
| 1335 | Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, |
| 1336 | Martin Pool, Wayne Davison. |
| 1337 | |
| 1338 | manpageauthor() |
| 1339 | |
| 1340 | rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. |
| 1341 | Many people have later contributed to it. |
| 1342 | |
| 1343 | Mailing lists for support and development are available at |
| 1344 | url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org) |