Forgot to make sure that the dir-times on the chkdir got synced
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 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 is being
25updated.
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 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
53 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
54 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
55 single : separator.
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
59 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
60 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
61 separator or an rsync:// URL.
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
65 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
66 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
67 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
68 separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
69 also provided.
70 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
71 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
72 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
73 destination path contains a :: separator and the
74 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option is also provided.
75 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
76 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
77 local destination.
78)
79
80Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
81and destination paths must be local.
82
83manpagesection(SETUP)
84
85See the file README for installation instructions.
86
87Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
88a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
89daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
90for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
91different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
92
93You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
94command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95
96One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
97security.
98
99Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
100machines.
101
102manpagesection(USAGE)
103
104You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
105and a destination, one of which may be remote.
106
107Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
108
109quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
110
111This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
112current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
113the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
114remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
115differences. See the tech report for details.
116
117quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
118
119This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
121files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
122links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
123in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
124size of data portions of the transfer.
125
126quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
127
128A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
130/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
131to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
134files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
135/dest/foo:
136
137quote(
138tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
139tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
140)
141
142You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144an improved copy command.
145
146quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
147
148This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
149somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
150
151manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
152
153The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
154quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
155
156quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
157
158This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
159additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
160and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
161to be a part of the filenames.
162
163quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
164
165This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
166word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
167that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
168whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
169a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
170whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
171in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
172
173quote(
174tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
175tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
176)
177
178This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
179wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
180
181manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
182
183It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
184transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
185running on TCP port 873.
186
187You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
188environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
189your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
190proxy connections to port 873.
191
192Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
193that:
194
195itemize(
196 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
197 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
198 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
199 connect.
200 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
201 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
202 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
203 specified files on the remote server is provided.
204)
205
206Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
207you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
208password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
209the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
210may be useful when scripting rsync.
211
212WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
213users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
214
215manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
216
217It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
218server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
219rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
220to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
221firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
222features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
223below).
224
225From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
226using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
227explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
228bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
229this functionality.)
230
231In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
232server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
233
234verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
235 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
236
237The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
238used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
239
240manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
241
242An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
243rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
244file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
245shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
246is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
247(typically $HOME).
248
249manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
250
251See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
252server configuration file.
253
254Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
255user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
256configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
257if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
258
259To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
260in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
261
262manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263
264Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265
266To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
267files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268
269quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270
271each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
272"arvidsjaur".
273
274To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
275targets:
276
277verb( get:
278 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 put:
280 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
281 sync: get put)
282
283this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
284connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
285lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286
287I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
288command:
289
290tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291
292This is launched from cron every few hours.
293
294manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295
296Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
297to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
298 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
299 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
300 -c, --checksum always checksum
301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
312 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
313 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
314 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
315 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
316 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
317 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
318 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
319 -p, --perms preserve permissions
320 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
321 -g, --group preserve group
322 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
323 -t, --times preserve times
324 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
325 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
326 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
327 -W, --whole-file copy files whole
328 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
329 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
330 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
331 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
332 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
333 --existing only update files that already exist
334 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
335 --del an alias for --delete-during
336 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
337 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
338 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
339 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
340 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
341 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
342 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
343 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
344 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
345 --partial keep partially transferred files
346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
353 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
354 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
355 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
356 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
357 -z, --compress compress file data
358 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
359 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
360 -F same as --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
361 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
363 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
367 -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
368 --version print version number
369 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
370 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
371 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
373 --progress show progress during transfer
374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
377 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
379 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
380 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
384 -h, --help show this help screen)
385
386Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
387accepted: verb(
388 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
389 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
390 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
391 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
392 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
393 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
394 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen)
398
399manpageoptions()
400
401rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
402options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
403below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
404The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
405can be used instead.
406
407startdit()
408dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
409available in rsync.
410
411dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
412
413dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
414are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
415single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
416transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
417information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
418information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
419you are debugging rsync.
420
421dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
422are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
423from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
424cron.
425
426dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
427already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
428This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
429
430dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
431already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
432bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
433regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
434after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
435exactly.
436
437dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
438timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
439value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
440to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
441transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
442times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
443(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
444
445dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
446a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
447explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
448which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
449receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
450
451dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
452way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
453everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
454specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
455
456Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
457finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
458specify bf(-H).
459
460dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
461recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
462
463dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
464names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
465just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
466you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
467example, if you used the command
468
469quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
470
471then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
472machine. If instead you used
473
474quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
475
476then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
477machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
478path information that is sent, do something like this:
479
480quote(
481tt( cd /foo)nl()
482tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
483)
484
485That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
486
487dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
488needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
489file processing.
490
491dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
492implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
493of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
494the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
495path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
496the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
497destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
498the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
499which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
500symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
501
502dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
503renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
504backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
505bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
506
507dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
508tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
509very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
510specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
511(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
512will keep their original filenames).
513If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
514(which changes in a recursive transfer).
515
516dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
517backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
518if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
519
520dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
521the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
522file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
523source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
524
525In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
526between the sender and receiver is always
527considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
528is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
529symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
530regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
531free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
532
533dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
534and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
535file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
536network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
537to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
538with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
539basis file for the transfer.
540
541This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
542or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
543bound.
544
545The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
546the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
547Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
548bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
549
550WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
551transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
552should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
553rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
554receiving user.
555
556dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
557are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
558unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
559name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
560bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
561output a message to that effect for each one).
562
563dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
564symlink on the destination.
565
566dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
567they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
568versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
569receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
570modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
571to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
572an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
573will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
574
575dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
576symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
577are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
578source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
579
580dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
581which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
582also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
583give unexpected results.
584
585dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
586the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
587option hard links are treated like regular files.
588
589Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
590are in the list of files being sent.
591
592This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
593
594dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
595pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
596from the sender.
597
598dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
599is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
600faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
601destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
602"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
603the source and destination are specified as local paths.
604
605dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
606default.
607
608dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
609permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
610
611Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
612source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
613other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
614(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
615
616dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
617destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
618only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
619is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
620circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
621
622dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
623destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
624program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
625receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
626is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
627circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
628
629dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
630block device information to the remote system to recreate these
631devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
632
633dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
634with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
635option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
636modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
637cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
638updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
639if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
640
641dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
642it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
643the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
644
645dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
646instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
647
648dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
649up less space on the destination.
650
651NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
652filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
653correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
654
655dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
656boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
657contents of only one filesystem.
658
659dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
660only update files that already exist on the destination.
661
662dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
663This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
664the destination.
665
666dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
667files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
668to prevent disasters.
669
670dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
671file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
672suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
673may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
674
675dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
676receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
677directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
678send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
679for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
680by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
681the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
682also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
683option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
684include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
685
686This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
687
688This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
689to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
690deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
691
692If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
693files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
694prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
695sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
696destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
697
698The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
699without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
700--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
701bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
702bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
703
704dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
705side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
706or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
707See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
708
709Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
710and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
711However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
712and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
713specified).
714
715dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
716receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
717a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
718but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
719See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
720
721dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
722side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
723are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
724you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
725current transfer.
726See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
727
728dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
729receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
730delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
731See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
732this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
733bf(--delete-excluded).
734See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
735
736dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
737even when there are I/O errors.
738
739dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
740they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
741is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
742Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
743
744dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
745the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
746the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
747
748dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
749remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
750remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
751default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
752
753If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
754remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
755remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
756shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
757running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
758TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
759
760Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
761presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
762
763quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
764
765(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
766options in their .ssh/config file.)
767
768You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
769environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
770
771See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
772
773dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
774rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
775that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
776the binary is in.
777
778dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
779broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
780systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
781a file should be ignored.
782
783The exclude list is initialized to:
784
785quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
786.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
787.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
788
789then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
790files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
791are delimited by whitespace).
792
793Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
794.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
795rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
796See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
797
798If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
799note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
800regardless of where the -C was placed on the command-line. This makes them
801a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
802control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
803should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
804bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
805putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
806The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
807file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
808mentioned above.
809
810dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
811exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
812most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
813
814You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
815to build up the list of files to exclude.
816
817See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
818
819dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
820your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
821
822quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
823
824This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
825been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
826files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
827rule:
828
829quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
830
831This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
832
833See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
834work.
835
836dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
837bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
838the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
839
840See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
841
842dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
843option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
844FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
845';' or '#' are ignored.
846If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
847
848dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
849bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
850the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
851
852See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
853
854dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
855from a file.
856If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
857
858dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
859exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
860for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
861transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
862
863quote(itemize(
864 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
865 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
866 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
867 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
868 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
869 them.
870 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
871 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
872))
873
874The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
875source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
876allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
877command:
878
879quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
880
881If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
882directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
883contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified bf(-r)
884or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
885that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
886duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
887force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
888
889In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
890instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
891(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
892specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
893transfer". For example:
894
895quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
896
897This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
898was located on the remote "src" host.
899
900dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
901file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
902This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
903merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
904It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
905file are split on whitespace).
906
907dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
908scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
909transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
910the temporary files in the receiving directory.
911
912dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
913the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
914files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
915directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
916sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
917directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
918have changed from an earlier backup.
919
920Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
921provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
922finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
923and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
924
925If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
926See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
927
928dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
929rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
930directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
931useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
932files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
933successfully transferred.
934
935If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
936See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
937
938dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
939unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
940The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
941possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
942An example:
943
944quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
945
946Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--link-dest) option is
947specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
948the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
949of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
950
951If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
952See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
953
954Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
955bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
956(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
957when sending to an old rsync.
958
959dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
960the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
961option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
962same method that gzip uses.
963
964Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
965that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
966compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
967information sent for matching data blocks.
968
969dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
970and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
971at both ends.
972
973By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
974what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
9750 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
976option is not specified.
977
978If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
979on the destination system, then the numeric ID
980from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
981"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
982the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
983users and groups and what you can do about it.
984
985dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
986timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
987then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
988
989dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
990rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
991double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
992syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
993option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
994
995dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
996a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
997rsync defaults to using
998blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
999ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1000
1001dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
1002default.
1003
1004dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1005rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
1006specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
1007rsyncd.conf.
1008
1009dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1010on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1011algorithm is for your data.
1012
1013dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1014transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1015it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1016bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1017make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1018
1019dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1020bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1021partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1022On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1023dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
1024after it has served its purpose.
1025Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1026file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1027(since
1028rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1029
1030Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1031the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1032"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1033partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1034remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1035
1036If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
1037bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1038will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1039untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1040the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1041rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1042supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1043rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1044it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1045a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
1046reached).
1047
1048IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1049is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1050
1051You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1052variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1053enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1054specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1055along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1056environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1057.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1058option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1059specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1060bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1061
1062For the purposes of the server-config's "refuse options" setting,
1063bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1064refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1065of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1066safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1067
1068dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1069updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1070transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1071succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1072atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1073each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
1074the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
1075on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
1076purposes of the server-config's "refuse options" setting.)
1077Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1078
1079This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1080transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1081side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1082you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1083chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1084the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1085absolute).
1086
1087See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1088update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1089parallel hierarchy of files).
1090
1091dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1092showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1093something to watch.
1094Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1095
1096When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1097
1098verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1099
1100This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1101is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1102data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1103remaining in this transfer.
1104
1105After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1106
1107verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1108
1109This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1110transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1111the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1112These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1113what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1114
1115dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1116purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1117transfer that may be interrupted.
1118
1119dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1120in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1121is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1122transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1123must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1124single line.
1125
1126dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1127instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1128specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1129come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1130options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1131non-recursive listing.
1132
1133dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1134transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1135using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1136of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1137transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1138result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1139of zero specifies no limit.
1140
1141dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1142another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1143section for details.
1144
1145dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1146file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1147If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1148See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1149
1150dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1151when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1152control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1153rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1154
1155dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1156NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1157MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1158by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1159is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1160applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1161in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1162Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1163for checksum seed.
1164enddit()
1165
1166manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1167
1168The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1169
1170startdit()
1171dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1172daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1173bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1174
1175If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1176run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1177become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1178(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1179requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1180details.
1181
1182dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1183when run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
1184rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
1185address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1186in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
1187option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1188
1189dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1190transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1191The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1192requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1193client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1194
1195dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1196the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1197The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1198a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1199the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1200
1201dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1202rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1203option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1204be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1205bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1206bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1207debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1208sshd.
1209
1210dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1211daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1212global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1213
1214dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1215daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1216daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1217used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1218
1219dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1220when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1221listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1222versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1223an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1224try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1225
1226dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1227page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1228enddit()
1229
1230manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1231
1232The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1233(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1234specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1235include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1236
1237As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1238name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1239turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1240pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1241filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1242filename is not skipped.
1243
1244Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1245command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1246
1247quote(
1248tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1249tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1250)
1251
1252You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1253below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1254MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1255must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1256Here are the available rule prefixes:
1257
1258quote(
1259bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1260bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1261bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1262bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1263bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1264bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1265bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1266bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1267bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1268)
1269
1270When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1271comment lines that start with a "#".
1272
1273Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1274full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1275specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1276list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1277If a pattern
1278does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1279rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1280an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1281the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1282start of the rule.
1283
1284Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1285rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1286the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1287the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1288
1289manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1290
1291You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1292"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1293The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1294the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1295can take several forms:
1296
1297itemize(
1298 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1299 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1300 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1301 regular expressions.
1302 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1303 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1304 per-directory rule).
1305 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1306 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1307 the
1308 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1309 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1310 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1311 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1312 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1313 of the transfer.
1314 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1315 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1316 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1317 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1318 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1319 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1320 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1321 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1322 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1323 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1324 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1325 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1326 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1327 down.)
1328)
1329
1330Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1331bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1332include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1333full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1334"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1335The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1336when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1337parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1338because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1339hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1340For instance, this won't work:
1341
1342quote(
1343tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1344tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1345tt(- *)nl()
1346)
1347
1348This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1349rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1350directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1351to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1352"- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1353the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1354works fine:
1355
1356quote(
1357tt(+ /some/)nl()
1358tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1359tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1360tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1361tt(- *)nl()
1362)
1363
1364Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1365
1366itemize(
1367 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1368 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1369 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1370 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1371 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1372 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1373 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1374 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1375 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1376 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1377 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1378 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1379)
1380
1381manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1382
1383You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1384merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1385section above).
1386
1387There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1388per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1389its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1390rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1391it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1392into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1393must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1394being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1395also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1396affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1397below).
1398
1399Some examples:
1400
1401quote(
1402tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1403tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1404tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1405tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1406tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1407)
1408
1409The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1410
1411itemize(
1412 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1413 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1414 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1415 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1416 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1417 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1418 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1419 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1420 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1421 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1422 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1423 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1424 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1425 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1426 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1427 also disabled).
1428 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1429 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1430 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1431 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1432 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1433 per-directory rules apply only on the server side.
1434)
1435
1436The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1437
1438itemize(
1439 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1440 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1441 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1442 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1443 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1444 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1445 non-directories.
1446 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1447 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1448 follow.
1449 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1450 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1451 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1452 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1453 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1454 which are an alternate way to specify server-side includes/excludes.
1455 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1456 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1457 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1458 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1459 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1460)
1461
1462Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1463where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1464subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1465from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1466inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1467the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1468dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1469rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1470file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1471
1472Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1473anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1474merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1475would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1476file was found.
1477
1478Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1479
1480quote(
1481tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1482tt(- *.gz)nl()
1483tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1484tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1485tt(- *.o)nl()
1486)
1487
1488This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1489start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1490filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1491follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1492of the transfer).
1493
1494If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1495directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1496dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1497per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1498
1499quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1500
1501That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1502directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1503transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1504the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1505rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1506
1507Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1508
1509quote(
1510tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1511tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1512tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1513)
1514
1515The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1516"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1517and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1518and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1519a part of the transfer.
1520
1521If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1522you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1523file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1524use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1525per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1526":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1527add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1528rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1529example:
1530
1531quote(
1532tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1533tt(+ foo.o)nl()
1534tt(:C)nl()
1535tt(- *.old)nl()
1536tt(EOT)nl()
1537tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1538)
1539
1540Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1541the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1542at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1543that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1544affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1545the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1546omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1547your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1548
1549manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1550
1551You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1552rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1553list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1554parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1555inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1556out the parent's rules).
1557
1558manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1559
1560As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1561"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1562anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1563a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1564transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1565directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1566
1567Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1568trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1569option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1570changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1571host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1572
1573Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1574path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1575Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1576
1577quote(
1578 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1579 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1580 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1581 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1582 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1583)
1584
1585quote(
1586 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1587 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1588 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1589 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1590 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1591)
1592
1593quote(
1594 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1595 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1596 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1597 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1598 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1599)
1600
1601quote(
1602 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1603 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1604 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1605 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1606 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1607)
1608
1609The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1610look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1611(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1612
1613manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1614
1615Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1616sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1617without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1618this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1619
1620quote(
1621tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1622tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1623)
1624
1625However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1626files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1627receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1628the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1629because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1630rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1631
1632quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1633
1634However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1635either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1636line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1637the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1638remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1639
1640verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1641 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1642
1643In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1644transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1645merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1646per-directory merge rule.
1647
1648In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1649files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1650to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1651specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1652deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1653should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1654
1655verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1656 host:src/dir /dest
1657 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1658
1659manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1660
1661Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1662identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1663number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1664source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1665hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1666write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1667of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1668client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1669this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1670
1671To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1672with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1673file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1674using the information stored in the batch file.
1675
1676For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1677option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1678".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1679a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1680batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1681passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1682instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1683path differs from the original destination tree path.
1684
1685Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1686status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1687updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1688be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1689at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1690
1691Examples:
1692
1693quote(
1694tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1695tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1696tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1697)
1698
1699quote(
1700tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1701tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1702)
1703
1704In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1705and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1706"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1707into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1708reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1709
1710itemize(
1711 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1712 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1713 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1714 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1715 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1716 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1717 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1718 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1719 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1720 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1721 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1722)
1723
1724Caveats:
1725
1726The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1727to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1728batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1729is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1730appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1731and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1732error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1733if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1734always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1735option (when reading the batch).
1736If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1737partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1738be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1739destination tree.
1740
1741The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1742one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1743protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1744to handle.
1745
1746The bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1747error.
1748
1749When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1750to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1751as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1752For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1753bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1754bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1755one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1756
1757The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1758options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1759shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1760list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1761user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1762to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1763
1764The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1765version uses a new implementation.
1766
1767manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1768
1769Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1770link in the source directory.
1771
1772By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1773"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1774
1775If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1776target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1777bf(--links).
1778
1779If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1780copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1781
1782rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1783example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1784ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1785bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1786bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1787they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1788unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1789
1790Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1791(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1792components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1793
1794manpagediagnostics()
1795
1796rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1797cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1798version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
1799
1800This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1801facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1802for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1803remote shell like this:
1804
1805quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1806
1807then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1808should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1809rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1810data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1811it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1812scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1813for non-interactive logins.
1814
1815If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1816try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1817show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1818
1819manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1820
1821startdit()
1822dit(bf(0)) Success
1823dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1824dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1825dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1826dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1827was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1828them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1829not by the server.
1830dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1831dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1832dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1833dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1834dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1835dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1836dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1837dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1838dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1839dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1840dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1841dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1842enddit()
1843
1844manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1845
1846startdit()
1847dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1848ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
1849more details.
1850dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1851override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1852options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
1853dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1854redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1855rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1856dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1857password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1858daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1859password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1860dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1861are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1862If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1863dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1864default .cvsignore file.
1865enddit()
1866
1867manpagefiles()
1868
1869/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1870
1871manpageseealso()
1872
1873rsyncd.conf(5)
1874
1875manpagebugs()
1876
1877times are transferred as unix time_t values
1878
1879When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1880unmodified files.
1881See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
1882
1883file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1884values
1885
1886see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
1887
1888Please report bugs! See the website at
1889url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1890
1891manpagesection(CREDITS)
1892
1893rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1894COPYING for details.
1895
1896A WEB site is available at
1897url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1898includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1899manual page.
1900
1901The primary ftp site for rsync is
1902url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1903
1904We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1905
1906This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1907Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1908
1909manpagesection(THANKS)
1910
1911Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1912and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1913I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1914
1915Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1916Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1917
1918manpageauthor()
1919
1920rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1921Many people have later contributed to it.
1922
1923Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1924url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)