| 1 | mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org) |
| 2 | manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(12 Feb 1999)()() |
| 3 | manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync server) |
| 4 | manpagesynopsis() |
| 5 | |
| 6 | rsyncd.conf |
| 7 | |
| 8 | manpagedescription() |
| 9 | |
| 10 | The rsyncd.conf file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when |
| 11 | run with the --daemon option. When run in this way rsync becomes a |
| 12 | rsync server listening on TCP port 873. Connections from rsync clients |
| 13 | are accepted for either anonymous or authenticated rsync sessions. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The rsyncd.conf file controls authentication, access, logging and |
| 16 | available modules. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | manpagesection(FILE FORMAT) |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the |
| 21 | name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next |
| 22 | module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form 'name = value'. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents |
| 25 | either a comment, a module name or a parameter. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before |
| 28 | or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal |
| 29 | whitespace in module and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and |
| 30 | trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace |
| 31 | within a parameter value is retained verbatim. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing |
| 34 | only whitespace. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the |
| 37 | customary UNIX fashion. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string |
| 40 | (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or |
| 41 | true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved |
| 42 | in string values. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | manpagesection(LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON) |
| 45 | |
| 46 | The rsync daemon is launched by specifying the --daemon option to |
| 47 | rsync. The daemon must run with root privileges. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | You can launch it either via inetd or as a stand-alone daemon. If run |
| 50 | as a daemon then just run the command "rsync --daemon" from a suitable |
| 51 | startup script. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | When run via inetd you should add a line like this to /etc/services: |
| 54 | |
| 55 | quote(rsync 873/tcp) |
| 56 | |
| 57 | and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf: |
| 58 | |
| 59 | quote(rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon) |
| 60 | |
| 61 | Replace "/usr/bin/rsync" with the path to where you have rsync installed on |
| 62 | your system. You will then need to send inetd a HUP signal to tell it to |
| 63 | reread its config file. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | Note that you should not send the rsync server a HUP signal to force |
| 66 | it to reread the tt(/etc/rsyncd.conf). The file is re-read on each client |
| 67 | connection. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | manpagesection(GLOBAL OPTIONS) |
| 70 | |
| 71 | The first parameters in the file (before a [module] header) are the |
| 72 | global parameters. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | You may also include any module parameters in the global part of the |
| 75 | config file in which case the supplied value will override the |
| 76 | default for that parameter. |
| 77 | |
| 78 | startdit() |
| 79 | dit(bf(motd file)) The "motd file" option allows you to specify a |
| 80 | "message of the day" to display to clients on each connect. This |
| 81 | usually contains site information and any legal notices. The default |
| 82 | is no motd file. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | dit(bf(log file)) The "log file" option tells the rsync daemon to log |
| 85 | messages to that file rather than using syslog. This is particularly |
| 86 | useful on systems (such as AIX) where syslog() doesn't work for |
| 87 | chrooted programs. |
| 88 | |
| 89 | dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write |
| 90 | its process id to that file. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | dit(bf(syslog facility)) The "syslog facility" option allows you to |
| 93 | specify the syslog facility name to use when logging messages from the |
| 94 | rsync server. You may use any standard syslog facility name which is |
| 95 | defined on your system. Common names are auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, |
| 96 | ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, security, syslog, user, uucp, local0, |
| 97 | local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 and local7. The default |
| 98 | is daemon. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | dit(bf(socket options)) This option can provide endless fun for people |
| 101 | who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all |
| 102 | sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or |
| 103 | slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for |
| 104 | details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no |
| 105 | special socket options are set. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | enddit() |
| 108 | |
| 109 | |
| 110 | manpagesection(MODULE OPTIONS) |
| 111 | |
| 112 | After the global options you should define a number of modules, each |
| 113 | module exports a directory tree as a symbolic name. Modules are |
| 114 | exported by specifying a module name in square brackets [module] |
| 115 | followed by the options for that module. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | startdit() |
| 118 | |
| 119 | dit(bf(comment)) The "comment" option specifies a description string |
| 120 | that is displayed next to the module name when clients obtain a list |
| 121 | of available modules. The default is no comment. |
| 122 | |
| 123 | dit(bf(path)) The "path" option specifies the directory in the servers |
| 124 | filesystem to make available in this module. You must specify this option |
| 125 | for each module in tt(/etc/rsyncd.conf). |
| 126 | |
| 127 | dit(bf(use chroot)) If "use chroot" is true, the rsync server will chroot |
| 128 | to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has |
| 129 | the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security |
| 130 | holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges and |
| 131 | of not being able to follow symbolic links outside of the new root path |
| 132 | when reading. For writing when "use chroot" is false, for security reasons |
| 133 | symlinks may only be relative paths pointing to other files within the |
| 134 | root path, and leading slashes are removed from absolute paths. The |
| 135 | default for "use chroot" is true. |
| 136 | |
| 137 | dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to |
| 138 | specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow |
| 139 | to this module of your rsync server. Any clients connecting when the |
| 140 | maximum has been reached will receive a message telling them to try |
| 141 | later. The default is 0 which means no limit. |
| 142 | |
| 143 | dit(bf(lock file)) The "lock file" option specifies the file to use to |
| 144 | support the "max connections" option. The rsync server uses record |
| 145 | locking on this file to ensure that the max connections limit is not |
| 146 | exceeded. The default is tt(/var/run/rsyncd.lock). |
| 147 | |
| 148 | dit(bf(read only)) The "read only" option determines whether clients |
| 149 | will be able to upload files or not. If "read only" is true then any |
| 150 | attempted uploads will fail. If "read only" is false then uploads will |
| 151 | be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The default |
| 152 | is for all modules to be read only. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | dit(bf(list)) The "list" option determines if this module should be |
| 155 | listed when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By |
| 156 | setting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is |
| 157 | for modules to be listable. |
| 158 | |
| 159 | dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user id that |
| 160 | file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon |
| 161 | was run as root. In combination with the "gid" option this determines what |
| 162 | file permissions are available. The default is the user "nobody". |
| 163 | |
| 164 | dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group id that |
| 165 | file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon |
| 166 | was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is the |
| 167 | group "nobody". |
| 168 | |
| 169 | dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a space |
| 170 | separated list of patterns to add to the exclude list. This is |
| 171 | equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with the --exclude |
| 172 | option except that the exclude list is not passed to the client and |
| 173 | thus only apply on the server. Only one "exclude" option may be |
| 174 | specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to specify |
| 175 | exclude/include. |
| 176 | |
| 177 | Note that this option is not designed with strong security in |
| 178 | mind, it is quite possible that a client may find a way to bypass this |
| 179 | exclude list. If you want to absolutely ensure that certain files |
| 180 | cannot be accessed then use the uid/gid options in combination with |
| 181 | file permissions. |
| 182 | |
| 183 | dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename |
| 184 | on the server that contains exclude patterns, one per line. This is |
| 185 | equivalent to the client specifying the --exclude-from option with a |
| 186 | equivalent file except that the resulting exclude patterns are not |
| 187 | passed to the client and thus only apply on the server. See also the |
| 188 | note about security for the exclude option above. |
| 189 | |
| 190 | dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a space |
| 191 | separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is |
| 192 | equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with the --include |
| 193 | option. This is useful as it allows you to build up quite complex |
| 194 | exclude/include rules. Only one "include" option may be specified, but you |
| 195 | can use "+" and "-" before patterns to switch include/exclude. |
| 196 | |
| 197 | See the section of exclude patterns in the rsync man page for information |
| 198 | on the syntax of this option. |
| 199 | |
| 200 | dit(bf(include from)) The "include from" option specifies a filename |
| 201 | on the server that contains include patterns, one per line. This is |
| 202 | equivalent to the client specifying the --include-from option with a |
| 203 | equivalent file. |
| 204 | |
| 205 | dit(bf(auth users)) The "auth users" option specifies a comma |
| 206 | and space separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect |
| 207 | to this module. The usernames do not need to exist on the local |
| 208 | system. If "auth users" is set then the client will be challenged to |
| 209 | supply a username and password to connect to the module. A challenge |
| 210 | response authentication protocol is used for this exchange. The plain |
| 211 | text usernames are passwords are stored in the file specified by the |
| 212 | "secrets file" option. The default is for all users to be able to |
| 213 | connect without a password (this is called "anonymous rsync"). |
| 214 | |
| 215 | dit(bf(secrets file)) The "secrets file" option specifies the name of |
| 216 | a file that contains the username:password pairs used for |
| 217 | authenticating this module. This file is only consulted if the "auth |
| 218 | users" option is specified. The file is line based and contains |
| 219 | username:password pairs separated by a single colon. Any line starting |
| 220 | with a hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped. The passwords |
| 221 | can contain any characters but be warned that many operating systems |
| 222 | limit the length of passwords that can be typed at the client end, so |
| 223 | you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work. |
| 224 | |
| 225 | There is no default for the "secrets file" option, you must choose a name |
| 226 | (such as tt(/etc/rsyncd.secrets)). |
| 227 | |
| 228 | dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not |
| 229 | the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is |
| 230 | true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user id other |
| 231 | than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is |
| 232 | false, the check is not performed. The default is true. This option |
| 233 | was added to accommodate rsync running on the Windows operating system. |
| 234 | |
| 235 | dit(bf(hosts allow)) The "hosts allow" option allows you to specify a |
| 236 | list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients |
| 237 | hostname and IP address. If none of the patterns match then the |
| 238 | connection is rejected. |
| 239 | |
| 240 | Each pattern can be in one of five forms: |
| 241 | |
| 242 | itemize( |
| 243 | it() a dotted decimal IP address. In this case the incoming machines |
| 244 | IP address must match exactly. |
| 245 | |
| 246 | it() a address/mask in the form a.b.c.d/n were n is the number of |
| 247 | one bits in in the netmask. All IP addresses which match the masked |
| 248 | IP address will be allowed in. |
| 249 | |
| 250 | it() a address/mask in the form a.b.c.d/e.f.g.h where e.f.g.h is a |
| 251 | netmask in dotted decimal notation. All IP addresses which match the masked |
| 252 | IP address will be allowed in. |
| 253 | |
| 254 | it() a hostname. The hostname as determined by a reverse lookup will |
| 255 | be matched (case insensitive) against the pattern. Only an exact |
| 256 | match is allowed in. |
| 257 | |
| 258 | it() a hostname pattern using wildcards. These are matched using the |
| 259 | same rules as normal unix filename matching. If the pattern matches |
| 260 | then the client is allowed in. |
| 261 | ) |
| 262 | |
| 263 | You can also combine "hosts allow" with a separate "hosts deny" |
| 264 | option. If both options are specified then the "hosts allow" option s |
| 265 | checked first and a match results in the client being able to |
| 266 | connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a match means |
| 267 | that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the |
| 268 | "hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then it is allowed to |
| 269 | connect. |
| 270 | |
| 271 | The default is no "hosts allow" option, which means all hosts can connect. |
| 272 | |
| 273 | dit(bf(hosts deny)) The "hosts deny" option allows you to specify a |
| 274 | list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients |
| 275 | hostname and IP address. If the pattern matches then the connection is |
| 276 | rejected. See the "hosts allow" option for more information. |
| 277 | |
| 278 | The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can connect. |
| 279 | |
| 280 | dit(bf(ignore errors)) The "ignore errors" option tells rsyncd to |
| 281 | ignore IO errors on the server when deciding whether to run the delete |
| 282 | phase of the transfer. Normally rsync skips the --delete step if any |
| 283 | IO errors have occurred in order to prevent disasterous deletion due |
| 284 | to a temporary resource shortage or other IO error. In some cases this |
| 285 | test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this |
| 286 | behaviour. |
| 287 | |
| 288 | dit(bf(ignore nonreadable)) This tells the rsync server to completely |
| 289 | ignore files that are not readable by the user. This is useful for |
| 290 | public archives that may have some non-readable files among the |
| 291 | directories, and the sysadmin doesn't want those files to be seen at all. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file |
| 294 | logging of downloads and uploads in a format somewhat similar to that |
| 295 | used by ftp daemons. If you want to customize the log formats look at |
| 296 | the log format option. |
| 297 | |
| 298 | dit(bf(log format)) The "log format" option allows you to specify the |
| 299 | format used for logging file transfers when transfer logging is |
| 300 | enabled. The format is a text string containing embedded single |
| 301 | character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character. |
| 302 | |
| 303 | The prefixes that are understood are: |
| 304 | |
| 305 | itemize( |
| 306 | it() %h for the remote host name |
| 307 | it() %a for the remote IP address |
| 308 | it() %l for the length of the file in bytes |
| 309 | it() %p for the process id of this rsync session |
| 310 | it() %o for the operation, which is either "send" or "recv" |
| 311 | it() %f for the filename |
| 312 | it() %P for the module path |
| 313 | it() %m for the module name |
| 314 | it() %t for the current date time |
| 315 | it() %u for the authenticated username (or the null string) |
| 316 | it() %b for the number of bytes actually transferred |
| 317 | it() %c when sending files this gives the number of checksum bytes |
| 318 | received for this file |
| 319 | ) |
| 320 | |
| 321 | The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] " |
| 322 | is always added to the beginning when using the "log file" option. |
| 323 | |
| 324 | A perl script called rsyncstats to summarize this format is included |
| 325 | in the rsync source code distribution. |
| 326 | |
| 327 | dit(bf(timeout)) The "timeout" option allows you to override the |
| 328 | clients choice for IO timeout for this module. Using this option you |
| 329 | can ensure that rsync won't wait on a dead client forever. The timeout |
| 330 | is specified in seconds. A value of zero means no timeout and is the |
| 331 | default. A good choice for anonymous rsync servers may be 600 (giving |
| 332 | a 10 minute timeout). |
| 333 | |
| 334 | dit(bf(refuse options)) The "refuse options" option allows you to |
| 335 | specify a space separated list of rsync command line options that will |
| 336 | be refused by your rsync server. The full names of the options must be |
| 337 | used (i.e., you must use "checksum" not "c" to disable checksumming). |
| 338 | When an option is refused, the server prints an error message and exits. |
| 339 | To prevent all compression, you can use "dont compress = *" (see below) |
| 340 | instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a |
| 341 | client that requests compression. |
| 342 | |
| 343 | dit(bf(dont compress)) The "dont compress" option allows you to select |
| 344 | filenames based on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed |
| 345 | during transfer. Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage so it |
| 346 | is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well, |
| 347 | such as already compressed files. |
| 348 | |
| 349 | The "dont compress" option takes a space separated list of |
| 350 | case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one |
| 351 | of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer. |
| 352 | |
| 353 | The default setting is verb(*.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz) |
| 354 | |
| 355 | enddit() |
| 356 | |
| 357 | manpagesection(AUTHENTICATION STRENGTH) |
| 358 | |
| 359 | The authentication protocol used in rsync is a 128 bit MD4 based |
| 360 | challenge response system. Although I believe that no one has ever |
| 361 | demonstrated a brute-force break of this sort of system you should |
| 362 | realize that this is not a "military strength" authentication system. |
| 363 | It should be good enough for most purposes but if you want really top |
| 364 | quality security then I recommend that you run rsync over ssh. |
| 365 | |
| 366 | Also note that the rsync server protocol does not currently provide any |
| 367 | encryption of the data that is transferred over the link. Only |
| 368 | authentication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want |
| 369 | encryption. |
| 370 | |
| 371 | Future versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and |
| 372 | encryption, but that is still being investigated. |
| 373 | |
| 374 | manpagesection(EXAMPLES) |
| 375 | |
| 376 | A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp area at |
| 377 | tt(/home/ftp) would be: |
| 378 | |
| 379 | verb( |
| 380 | [ftp] |
| 381 | path = /home/ftp |
| 382 | comment = ftp export area |
| 383 | ) |
| 384 | |
| 385 | |
| 386 | A more sophisticated example would be: |
| 387 | |
| 388 | uid = nobody nl() |
| 389 | gid = nobody nl() |
| 390 | use chroot = no nl() |
| 391 | max connections = 4 nl() |
| 392 | syslog facility = local5 nl() |
| 393 | pid file = /etc/rsyncd.pid |
| 394 | |
| 395 | verb([ftp] |
| 396 | path = /var/ftp/pub |
| 397 | comment = whole ftp area (approx 6.1 GB) |
| 398 | |
| 399 | [sambaftp] |
| 400 | path = /var/ftp/pub/samba |
| 401 | comment = Samba ftp area (approx 300 MB) |
| 402 | |
| 403 | [rsyncftp] |
| 404 | path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync |
| 405 | comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB) |
| 406 | |
| 407 | [sambawww] |
| 408 | path = /public_html/samba |
| 409 | comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB) |
| 410 | |
| 411 | [cvs] |
| 412 | path = /data/cvs |
| 413 | comment = CVS repository (requires authentication) |
| 414 | auth users = tridge, susan |
| 415 | secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets |
| 416 | ) |
| 417 | |
| 418 | The /etc/rsyncd.secrets file would look something like this: |
| 419 | |
| 420 | tridge:mypass nl() |
| 421 | susan:herpass |
| 422 | |
| 423 | manpagefiles() |
| 424 | |
| 425 | /etc/rsyncd.conf |
| 426 | |
| 427 | manpageseealso() |
| 428 | |
| 429 | rsync(1) |
| 430 | |
| 431 | manpagediagnostics() |
| 432 | |
| 433 | manpagebugs() |
| 434 | |
| 435 | The rsync server does not send all types of error messages to the |
| 436 | client. this means a client may be mystified as to why a transfer |
| 437 | failed. The error will have been logged by syslog on the server. |
| 438 | |
| 439 | Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at |
| 440 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/) |
| 441 | |
| 442 | manpagesection(VERSION) |
| 443 | This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync |
| 444 | |
| 445 | manpagesection(CREDITS) |
| 446 | |
| 447 | rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file |
| 448 | COPYING for details. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | The primary ftp site for rsync is |
| 451 | url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync). |
| 452 | |
| 453 | A WEB site is available at |
| 454 | url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/) |
| 455 | |
| 456 | We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. |
| 457 | |
| 458 | This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup |
| 459 | Gailly and Mark Adler. |
| 460 | |
| 461 | manpagesection(THANKS) |
| 462 | |
| 463 | Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the rsync |
| 464 | server. Thanks to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and |
| 465 | documentation! |
| 466 | |
| 467 | manpageauthor() |
| 468 | |
| 469 | rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be |
| 470 | contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and |
| 471 | Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au |
| 472 | |