One call to link_stat() (in set_perms()) needed to honor the setting
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
7
8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9
10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
11
12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
13
14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
15
16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
17
18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
25exists.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52
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
87Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88and destination paths must be local.
89
90manpagesection(SETUP)
91
92See the file README for installation instructions.
93
94Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
99
100You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
102
103One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
104security.
105
106Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
107machines.
108
109manpagesection(USAGE)
110
111You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112and a destination, one of which may be remote.
113
114Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
115
116quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
117
118This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122differences. See the tech report for details.
123
124quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
125
126This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
130in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131size of data portions of the transfer.
132
133quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
134
135A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136additional 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
138to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
142/dest/foo:
143
144quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
145quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
146
147You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149an improved copy command.
150
151quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
152
153This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
155
156
157manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
158
159It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
160transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
161running on TCP port 873.
162
163You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
164environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
165your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
166proxy connections to port 873.
167
168Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
169that:
170
171itemize(
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
185Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
186you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
187password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
188the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
189may be useful when scripting rsync.
190
191WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
192users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
193
194manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
195
196It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
197server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
199to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
200firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
201features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
202below).
203
204From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
205using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
206explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
207--rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
208this functionality.)
209
210In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
211server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
212
213quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
214
215The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
216used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
217
218manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
219
220An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
221rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
222file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
223shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
224is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
225(typically $HOME).
226
227manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
228
229See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
230server configuration file.
231
232Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
233user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
234configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
235if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
236
237To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
239
240manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
241
242Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
243
244To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
246
247quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
248
249each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
250"arvidsjaur".
251
252To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
253targets:
254
255quote( get:nl()
256 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
257
258 put:nl()
259 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
260
261 sync: get put)
262
263this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
264connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
265lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
266
267I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
268command
269
270quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
271
272this is launched from cron every few hours.
273
274manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
275
276Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
277to the detailed description below for a complete description.
278
279verb(
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 --inplace update the destination files inplace
293 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
294 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
295 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
296 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
297 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
298 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
299 -p, --perms preserve permissions
300 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
301 -g, --group preserve group
302 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
303 -t, --times preserve times
304 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
305 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
306 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
307 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
308 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
309 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
310 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
311 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
312 --existing only update files that already exist
313 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
314 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
315 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
316 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
317 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
318 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
319 --partial keep partially transferred files
320 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
321 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
322 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
323 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
324 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
325 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
326 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
327 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
328 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
329 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
330 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
331 -z, --compress compress file data
332 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
333 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
334 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
335 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
336 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
337 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
338 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
339 --version print version number
340 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
341 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
342 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
343 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
344 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
345 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
346 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
347 --stats give some file transfer stats
348 --progress show progress during transfer
349 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
350 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
351 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
352 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
353 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
354 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
355 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
356 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
357 -h, --help show this help screen
358
359
360)
361
362manpageoptions()
363
364rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
365options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
366below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
367The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
368can be used instead.
369
370startdit()
371dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
372available in rsync
373
374dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
375
376dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
377are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
378single -v will give you information about what files are being
379transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
380information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
381information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
382you are debugging rsync.
383
384dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
385are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
386from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
387cron.
388
389dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
390already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
391This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
392
393dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
394already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
395--size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
396regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
397after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
398exactly.
399
400dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
401the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
402modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
403set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
404transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
405with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
406
407dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
408a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
409explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
410which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
411receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
412
413dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
414way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
415everything.
416
417Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
418finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
419specify bf(-H).
420
421dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
422recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
423directories at all.
424
425dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
426names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
427just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
428you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
429example, if you used the command
430
431verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
432
433then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
434machine. If instead you used
435
436verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
437
438then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
439machine -- the full path name is preserved.
440
441dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
442needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
443file processing.
444
445dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
446implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
447of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
448the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
449path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
450the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
451destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
452the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
453which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
454symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
455
456dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
457renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
458backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
459--backup-dir and --suffix options.
460
461dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
462tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
463very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
464specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
465(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
466will keep their original filenames).
467If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
468(which changes in a recursive transfer).
469
470dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
471backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
472if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
473
474dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
475destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
476file.
477
478In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
479considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
480is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
481symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
482regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
483free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
484
485dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
486pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
487from the sender.
488
489dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
490and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
491file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
492network reduction it might otherwise.
493
494This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based change
495or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound not network bound.
496
497WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
498transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
499should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
500rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
501receiving user.
502
503dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
504symlink on the destination.
505
506dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
507they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.
508
509dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
510symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
511are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
512source path itself when --relative is used.
513
514dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
515which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
516also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
517give unexpected results.
518
519dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
520the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
521option hard links are treated like regular files.
522
523Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
524are in the list of files being sent.
525
526This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
527
528dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
529is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
530faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
531destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
532"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
533the source and destination are specified as local paths.
534
535dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
536default.
537
538dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
539permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
540
541Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
542source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
543other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
544(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
545
546dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
547destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
548only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
549is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
550circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
551
552dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
553destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
554program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
555receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
556is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
557circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
558
559dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
560block device information to the remote system to recreate these
561devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
562
563dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
564with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
565option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
566modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
567cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
568their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
569changed.
570
571dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
572instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
573
574dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
575up less space on the destination.
576
577NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
578filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
579correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
580
581dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
582boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
583contents of only one filesystem.
584
585dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
586only update files that already exist on the destination.
587
588dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
589This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
590the destination.
591
592dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
593files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
594to prevent disasters.
595
596dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
597side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
598transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
599
600This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
601
602This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
603to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
604deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
605
606If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
607files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
608prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
609sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
610destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
611
612dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
613receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
614delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
615Implies --delete.
616
617dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
618receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
619sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
620after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
621
622dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
623even when there are I/O errors.
624
625dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
626they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
627is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
628Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
629
630dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
631the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
632
633dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
634remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
635remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
636default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
637
638If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
639remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
640remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
641shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
642running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
643TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
644
645Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
646presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
647
648quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
649
650(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
651options in their .ssh/config file.)
652
653You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
654environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
655
656See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
657
658dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
659rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
660that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
661the binary is in.
662
663dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
664broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
665systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
666a file should be ignored.
667
668The exclude list is initialized to:
669
670quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
671.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
672.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
673
674then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
675files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
676are delimited by whitespace).
677
678Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
679.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
680See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
681
682dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
683certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
684useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
685
686You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
687to build up the list of files to exclude.
688
689See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
690
691dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
692option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
693FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
694';' or '#' are ignored.
695If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
696
697dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
698specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
699build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
700
701See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
702
703dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
704from a file.
705If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
706
707dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
708exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
709for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
710transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
711instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
712is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
713directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
714than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
715behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
716you want it.
717
718The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
719source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
720allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
721command:
722
723quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
724
725If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
726directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
727contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
728or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
729that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
730duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
731force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
732
733In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
734instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
735(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
736specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
737transfer". For example:
738
739quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
740
741This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
742was located on the remote "src" host.
743
744dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
745file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
746This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
747It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
748file are split on whitespace).
749
750dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
751scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
752transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
753the temporary files in the receiving directory.
754
755dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
756the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
757files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
758destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
759destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
760flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
761example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
762although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
763This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
764transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
765have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
766to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
767
768dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
769also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
770unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
771linked.
772Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
773to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
774An example:
775
776verb(
777 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
778)
779
780dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
781the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
782option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
783same method that gzip uses.
784
785Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
786that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
787compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
788information sent for matching data blocks.
789
790dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
791and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
792at both ends.
793
794By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
795what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
7960 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
797option is not specified.
798
799If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
800on the destination system, then the numeric ID
801from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
802"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
803the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
804users and groups and what you can do about it.
805
806dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
807timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
808then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
809
810dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
811daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
812bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
813
814If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
815run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
816become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
817(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
818requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
819details.
820
821dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
822rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
823option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
824be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
825bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
826bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
827debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
828sshd.
829
830dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
831when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
832rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
833address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
834in conjunction with the --config option.
835
836dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
837the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
838The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
839a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
840the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
841
842dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
843rather than the default port 873.
844
845dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
846a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
847rsync defaults to using
848blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
849ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
850
851dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
852default.
853
854dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
855rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
856specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
857rsyncd.conf.
858
859dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
860on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
861algorithm is for your data.
862
863dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
864transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
865it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
866--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
867make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
868
869dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
870put a partially transferred file into DIR instead of writing out the
871file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
872dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
873rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
874its purpose.
875
876Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
877whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
878"--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
879in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the DIR
880if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
881DIR was specified as a relative path).
882
883If you are deleting files on the destination and your partial-dir is
884inside the destination hierarchy, make sure you specify an exclude to
885prevent the partial file from being deleted (it could get deleted at the
886end of the transfer when using --delete-after, or at the beginning of the
887transfer when using --delete). E.g. "--exclude=.rsync-partial/".
888
889IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users to
890avoid a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
891
892dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
893showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
894something to watch.
895Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
896
897When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
898
899verb(
900 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
901)
902
903This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
904is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
905data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
906remaining in this transfer.
907
908After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
909
910verb(
911 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
912)
913
914This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
915transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
916the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
917These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
918what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
919
920dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
921found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
922option to make it easier.
923
924dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
925in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
926is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
927transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
928must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
929single line.
930
931dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
932transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
933using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
934of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
935transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
936result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
937of zero specifies no limit.
938
939dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
940another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
941section for details.
942
943dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
944file previously generated by --write-batch.
945If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
946See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
947
948dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
949when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
950control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
951rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
952listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
953versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
954an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
955try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
956
957dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
958NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
959MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
960by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
961is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
962applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
963in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
964Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
965for checksum seed.
966
967enddit()
968
969manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
970
971The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
972selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
973
974Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
975the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
976name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
977pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
978skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
979skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
980filename is not skipped.
981
982The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
983to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
984subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
985is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
986This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
987
988Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
989trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
990option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
991changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
992system). The following examples demonstrate this.
993
994Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
995path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
996Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
997
998verb(
999 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1000 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1001 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1002 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1003 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1004
1005 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1006 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1007 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1008 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1009 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1010
1011 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1012 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1013 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1014 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1015 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1016
1017 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1018 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1019 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1020 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1021 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1022)
1023
1024The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1025look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1026(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1027
1028Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1029every subcomponent of
1030every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1031applied recursively to each subcomponent.
1032The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1033when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1034parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1035because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1036hierarchy.
1037
1038Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1039each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1040--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1041
1042The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1043
1044itemize(
1045
1046 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1047 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1048 the filename.
1049 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1050 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1051 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1052 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1053 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1054 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1055 end of the file name.
1056
1057 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1058 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1059
1060 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1061 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1062 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1063
1064 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1065 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1066
1067 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1068 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1069 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1070 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1071 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1072 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1073
1074 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1075 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1076 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1077
1078 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1079 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1080 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1081
1082 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1083 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1084)
1085
1086The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1087you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1088options in the proper order.
1089
1090Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1091directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1092the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1093important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1094
1095verb(
1096 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1097 + /file-is-included
1098 - *
1099)
1100
1101This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1102so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1103directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1104to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1105before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1106include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1107instance, this set of rules works fine:
1108
1109verb(
1110 + /some/
1111 + /some/path/
1112 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1113 + /file-also-included
1114 - *
1115)
1116
1117Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1118
1119itemize(
1120 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1121 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1122 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1123 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1124 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1125 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1126 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1127 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1128 directories and C source files
1129 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1130 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1131 it would be excluded by the "*")
1132)
1133
1134manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1135
1136bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1137of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1138feel free to try this out.
1139
1140Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1141identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1142number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1143source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1144hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1145write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1146of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1147client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1148this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1149
1150To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1151with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1152file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1153using the information stored in the batch file.
1154
1155For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1156option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1157".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1158a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1159batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1160passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1161instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1162path differs from the original destination tree path.
1163
1164Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1165status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1166updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1167be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1168at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1169
1170Examples:
1171
1172verb(
1173 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1174 $ scp foo* remote:
1175 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1176)
1177
1178verb(
1179 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1180 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1181)
1182
1183In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1184and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1185"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1186into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1187reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1188
1189itemize(
1190
1191 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1192 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1193 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1194
1195 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1196 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1197
1198 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1199 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1200 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1201 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1202 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1203 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1204
1205)
1206
1207Caveats:
1208
1209The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1210to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1211batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1212is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1213appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1214and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1215error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1216if the command got updated. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1217always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1218option. If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1219partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1220be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1221destination tree.
1222
1223The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1224one used to generate the batch file.
1225
1226The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1227error.
1228
1229When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1230to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1231as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1232For instance
1233--write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1234--include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1235without --delete-excluded.
1236
1237The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1238options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1239shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1240list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1241user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1242to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1243
1244See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1245reports.
1246
1247manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1248
1249Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1250link in the source directory.
1251
1252By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1253"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1254
1255If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1256target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1257bf(--links).
1258
1259If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1260copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1261
1262rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1263example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1264ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1265bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1266bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1267they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1268unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1269
1270Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1271(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1272components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1273
1274manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1275
1276rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1277cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1278version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1279
1280This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1281facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1282for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1283remote shell like this:
1284
1285verb(
1286 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1287)
1288
1289then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1290should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1291rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1292data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1293it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1294scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1295for non-interactive logins.
1296
1297If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1298try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1299show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1300
1301manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1302
1303startdit()
1304dit(bf(0)) Success
1305dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1306dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1307dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1308dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1309was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1310them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1311not by the server.
1312dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1313dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1314dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1315dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1316dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1317dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1318dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1319dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1320dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1321dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1322dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1323dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1324enddit()
1325
1326manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1327
1328startdit()
1329
1330dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1331ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1332more details.
1333
1334dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1335override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1336options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1337
1338dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1339redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1340rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1341
1342dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1343password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1344daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1345password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1346
1347dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1348are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1349If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1350
1351dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1352default .cvsignore file.
1353
1354enddit()
1355
1356manpagefiles()
1357
1358/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1359
1360manpageseealso()
1361
1362rsyncd.conf(5)
1363
1364manpagediagnostics()
1365
1366manpagebugs()
1367
1368times are transferred as unix time_t values
1369
1370When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1371unmodified files.
1372See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1373
1374file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1375values
1376
1377see also the comments on the --delete option
1378
1379Please report bugs! See the website at
1380url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1381
1382manpagesection(CREDITS)
1383
1384rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1385COPYING for details.
1386
1387A WEB site is available at
1388url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1389includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1390manual page.
1391
1392The primary ftp site for rsync is
1393url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1394
1395We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1396
1397This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1398Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1399
1400manpagesection(THANKS)
1401
1402Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1403and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1404I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1405
1406Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1407Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1408
1409manpageauthor()
1410
1411rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1412Many people have later contributed to it.
1413
1414Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1415url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)