The -h was missing from the daemon's option summary.
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(8 Feb 2006)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
7
8rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
9
10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
11
12rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
13
14rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
15
16rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
17
18rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [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 super-user privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
47Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
48current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
49
50There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
51remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
52rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
53the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
54a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
55source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
56host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
57"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
58an exception to this latter rule).
59
60As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
61the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
62
63As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
64host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
65
66manpagesection(SETUP)
67
68See the file README for installation instructions.
69
70Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
71a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
72daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
73for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
74different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
75
76You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
77command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
78
79Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
80machines.
81
82manpagesection(USAGE)
83
84You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
85and a destination, one of which may be remote.
86
87Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
88
89quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
90
91This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
92current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
93the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
94remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
95differences. See the tech report for details.
96
97quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
98
99This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
100machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
101files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
102links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
103in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
104size of data portions of the transfer.
105
106quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
107
108A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
109additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
110/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
111to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
112containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
113destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
114files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
115/dest/foo:
116
117quote(
118tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
119tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
120)
121
122Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
123copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
124copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
125
126quote(
127tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
128tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
129)
130
131You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
132destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
133an improved copy command.
134
135Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
136particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
137
138quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
139
140See the following section for more details.
141
142manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
143
144The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
145quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
146
147quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
148
149This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
150additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
151and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
152to be a part of the filenames.
153
154quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
155
156This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
157word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
158that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
159whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
160a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
161whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
162in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
163
164quote(
165tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
166tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
167)
168
169This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
170wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
171
172manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
173
174It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
175In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
176using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
177the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
178CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
179
180Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
181that:
182
183itemize(
184 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
185 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
186 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
187 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
188 connect.
189 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
190 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
191 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
192 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
193 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
194)
195
196An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
197
198verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
199
200Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
201you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
202password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
203the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
204may be useful when scripting rsync.
205
206WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
207users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
208
209You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
210environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
211your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
212proxy connections to port 873.
213
214manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
215
216It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
217named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
218system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
219Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
220a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
221home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
222daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
223the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
224change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
225transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
226configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
227connections from "localhost".)
228
229From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
230connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
231rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
232explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
233bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
234will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
235
236verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
237
238If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
239user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
240module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
241give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
242
243verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
244
245The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
246used to log-in to the "module".
247
248manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
249
250In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
251daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
252to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
253For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
254socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
255file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
256daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
257
258If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
259no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
260
261manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
262
263Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
264
265To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
266files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
267
268quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
269
270each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
271"arvidsjaur".
272
273To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
274targets:
275
276verb( get:
277 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
278 put:
279 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
280 sync: get put)
281
282this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
283connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
284lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
285
286I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
287command:
288
289tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
290
291This is launched from cron every few hours.
292
293manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
294
295Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
296to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
297 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
298 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
299 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
300 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
301 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
302 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
303 -R, --relative use relative path names
304 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
305 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
306 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
307 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
308 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
309 --inplace update destination files in-place
310 --append append data onto shorter files
311 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
312 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
313 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
314 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
315 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
316 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
317 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
318 -p, --perms preserve permissions
319 -E, --executability preserve executability
320 --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
321 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
322 -g, --group preserve group
323 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
324 --specials preserve special files
325 -D same as --devices --specials
326 -t, --times preserve times
327 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
328 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
329 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
330 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
331 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
332 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
333 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
334 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
335 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
336 --existing ignore non-existing files on receiving side
337 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
338 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
339 --del an alias for --delete-during
340 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
341 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
342 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
343 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
344 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
345 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
346 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
347 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
348 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
349 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
350 --partial keep partially transferred files
351 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
352 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
353 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
354 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
355 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
356 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
357 --size-only skip files that match in size
358 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
359 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
360 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
361 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
362 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
363 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
364 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
365 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
366 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
367 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
368 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
369 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
370 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
371 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
372 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
373 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
374 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
375 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
376 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
377 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
378 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
379 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
380 --stats give some file-transfer stats
381 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
382 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
383 --progress show progress during transfer
384 -P same as --partial --progress
385 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
386 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
387 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
388 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
389 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
390 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
391 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
392 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
393 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
394 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
395 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 --version print version number
398 --help show this help screen)
399
400Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
401accepted: verb(
402 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
403 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
404 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
405 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
406 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
407 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
408 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
409 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
410 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
411 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
412 -h, --help show this help screen)
413
414manpageoptions()
415
416rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
417options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
418below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
419The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
420can be used instead.
421
422startdit()
423dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
424available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
425versions of rsync, the same help output can also be requested by using
426the bf(-h) option without any other args.
427
428dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
429
430dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
431are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
432single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
433transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
434information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
435information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
436you are debugging rsync.
437
438Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
439a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
440file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
441level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
442changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
443bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
444output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
445any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
446
447dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
448are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
449from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
450cron.
451
452dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
453already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
454This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
455
456dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
457already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
458bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
459regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
460after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
461exactly.
462
463dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
464timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
465value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
466to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
467transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
468times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
469(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
470
471dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
472a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
473explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
474which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
475receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
476
477dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
478way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
479everything (with -H being a notable omission).
480The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
481specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
482
483Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
484finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
485specify bf(-H).
486
487dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
488the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
489only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
490bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
491(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
492specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
493(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
494
495For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
496bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
497could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
498
499The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
500bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
501Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
502positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
503changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
504details).
505
506dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
507recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
508
509dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
510names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
511just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
512you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
513example, if you used this command:
514
515quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
516
517... this would create a file called baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
518machine. If instead you used
519
520quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
521
522then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
523machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
524path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
525a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
526insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
527
528quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
529
530That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
531dot dir must followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
532(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
533source path. For example, when pushing files:
534
535quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
536
537(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
538"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
539If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
540rsync daemon):
541
542quote(
543tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
544tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
545)
546
547dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
548implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
549of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
550the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
551path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
552the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
553destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
554the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
555which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
556symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
557
558dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
559renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
560backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
561bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
562
563Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
564bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
565also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
566filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
567(e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
568deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
569need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
570in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
571your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
572rule would never be reached).
573
574dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
575tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
576very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
577specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
578(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
579will keep their original filenames).
580
581dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
582backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
583if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
584
585dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
586the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
587file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
588source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
589
590In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
591between the sender and receiver is always
592considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
593is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
594symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
595regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
596free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
597
598dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
599and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
600file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
601network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
602to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
603with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
604basis file for the transfer.
605
606This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
607or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
608bound.
609
610The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
611the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
612Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
613and bf(--link-dest).
614
615WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
616transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
617should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
618rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
619receiving user.
620
621dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
622the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
623the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
624side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
625resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
626Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
627file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
628Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
629bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
630data is required).
631
632dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
633are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
634unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
635(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
636bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
637output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
638bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
639
640dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
641symlink on the destination.
642
643dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
644they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
645versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
646receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
647modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
648to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
649an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
650will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
651
652dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
653symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
654are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
655source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
656
657dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
658which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
659also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
660give unexpected results.
661
662dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
663the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
664option hard links are treated like regular files.
665
666Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
667are in the list of files being sent.
668
669This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
670
671dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
672pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
673from the sender.
674
675dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
676is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
677faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
678destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
679"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
680the source and destination are specified as local paths.
681
682dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
683destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
684also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
685be the source permissions.)
686
687When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
688
689quote(itemize(
690 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
691 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
692 the execute permission for the file.
693 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
694 file's permissions masked with the receiving end's umask setting, and
695 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
696 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
697))
698
699Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
700rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
701such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
702
703In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
704permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
705permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
706bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
707all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
708behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
709putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
710and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
711
712quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
713
714You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
715
716quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
717
718(Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
719the "--no-*" options.)
720
721The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
722directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
723versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
724newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
725destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. (Keep in
726mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects this
727behavior.)
728
729dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
730executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
731not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
732'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
733executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
734modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
735
736quote(itemize(
737 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
738 permissions.
739 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
740 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
741))
742
743If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
744
745dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
746comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
747transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
748that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
749can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
750
751In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
752manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
753prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
754file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
755
756quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
757
758It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
759additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
760
761See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
762permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
763
764dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
765destination file to be the same as the source file. By default, the
766preservation is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number
767in some circumstances (see the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full
768discussion).
769This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
770super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
771
772dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
773destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
774program is not running as the super-user (or with the bf(--no-super)
775option), only groups that the
776receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
777is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
778circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
779
780dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
781block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
782This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
783super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
784
785dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
786such as named sockets and fifos.
787
788dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
789
790dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
791with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
792option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
793modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
794cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
795updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
796if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
797
798dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
799it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
800the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
801This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
802
803dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
804activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
805activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
806all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
807option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
808for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
809also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
810being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
811super-user can use bf(--no-super).
812
813dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
814instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
815
816dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
817up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
818not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
819
820NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
821filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
822correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
823
824dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
825filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
826to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
827through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
828the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
829in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
830same filesystem.
831
832If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
833the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
834encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
835the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
836
837If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
838bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
839treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
840by this option.
841
842dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
843updating files that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is
844combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
845(which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete missing files).
846
847dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
848already exist on the destination. See also bf(--ignore-non-existing).
849
850dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
851side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
852updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
853nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
854
855dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
856receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
857directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
858send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
859for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
860by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
861the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
862also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
863option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
864include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
865
866Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
867was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
868(bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
869
870This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
871to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
872deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
873
874If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
875files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
876prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
877sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
878destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
879
880The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
881without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
882--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
883bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
884bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
885
886dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
887side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
888or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
889See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
890
891Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
892and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
893However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
894and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
895specified).
896
897dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
898receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
899a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
900but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
901See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
902
903dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
904side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
905are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
906you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
907current transfer.
908See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
909
910dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
911receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
912delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
913See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
914this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
915bf(--delete-excluded).
916See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
917
918dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
919even when there are I/O errors.
920
921dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
922when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
923deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
924
925Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
926using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
927bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
928
929dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
930files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
931This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
932
933dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
934file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
935suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
936may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
937
938The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
939"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
940gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
941If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
942"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
943Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
944be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
945
946Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
9472147483649 bytes.
948
949dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
950file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
951transferring small, junk files.
952See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
953
954dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
955the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
956the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
957
958dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
959remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
960remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
961default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
962
963If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
964remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
965remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
966shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
967running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
968RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
969
970Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
971presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
972or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
973and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
974argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
975inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
976double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
977shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
978
979quote(
980tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
981tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
982)
983
984(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
985options in their .ssh/config file.)
986
987You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
988environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
989
990See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
991
992dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
993on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
994the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
995Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
996program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
997not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
998communicate.
999
1000One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1001machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1002
1003quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
1004
1005dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1006broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1007systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
1008a file should be ignored.
1009
1010The exclude list is initialized to:
1011
1012quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1013.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
1014.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
1015
1016then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1017files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1018are delimited by whitespace).
1019
1020Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1021.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1022rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1023See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
1024
1025If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1026note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1027regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1028a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1029control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1030should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1031bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1032putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1033The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1034file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1035mentioned above.
1036
1037dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1038exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1039most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1040
1041You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1042to build up the list of files to exclude.
1043
1044See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1045
1046dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1047your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1048
1049quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1050
1051This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1052been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1053files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1054rule:
1055
1056quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1057
1058This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1059
1060See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1061work.
1062
1063dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1064bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1065the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1066
1067See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1068
1069dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1070option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1071Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1072If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1073
1074dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1075bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1076the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1077
1078See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1079
1080dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1081option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1082Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1083If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1084
1085dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1086exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1087for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1088transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1089
1090quote(itemize(
1091 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1092 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1093 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1094 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1095 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1096 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1097 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1098 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1099 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1100 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1101 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1102 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1103))
1104
1105The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1106source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1107allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1108command:
1109
1110quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1111
1112If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1113directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1114contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1115the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1116mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1117if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1118also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1119explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1120Also note
1121that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1122duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1123force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1124
1125In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1126instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1127(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1128specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1129transfer". For example:
1130
1131quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1132
1133This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1134was located on the remote "src" host.
1135
1136dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1137file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1138This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1139merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1140It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1141file are split on whitespace).
1142
1143dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1144scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1145on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1146file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1147
1148This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1149have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1150In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1151partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1152over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1153into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1154destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1155truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1156the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1157temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1158it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1159someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1160new version on the disk at the same time.
1161
1162If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1163space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1164which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1165destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1166have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1167partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1168about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1169path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1170single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1171partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1172rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1173an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1174
1175dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1176basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1177looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1178has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1179found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1180
1181Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1182fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1183filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1184
1185dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1186the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1187files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1188directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1189sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1190directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1191have changed from an earlier backup.
1192
1193Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1194provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1195for an exact match.
1196If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1197and the attributes updated.
1198If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1199selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1200
1201If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1202See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1203
1204dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1205rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1206directory using a local copy.
1207This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1208existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1209been successfully transferred.
1210
1211Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1212rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1213If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1214selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1215
1216If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1217See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1218
1219dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1220unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1221The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1222possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1223An example:
1224
1225quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1226
1227Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1228provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1229for an exact match.
1230If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1231and the attributes updated.
1232If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1233selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1234
1235If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1236See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1237
1238Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1239bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1240specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1241the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1242
1243dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1244as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1245being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1246
1247Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
1248be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1249because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1250blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1251
1252dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1253(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1254the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1255
1256dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1257and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1258at both ends.
1259
1260By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1261what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
12620 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1263option is not specified.
1264
1265If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1266on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1267from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1268"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1269the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1270users and groups and what you can do about it.
1271
1272dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1273timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1274then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1275
1276dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1277connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1278specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1279option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1280
1281dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1282rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1283double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1284syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1285option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1286
1287dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1288who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1289sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1290slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
1291details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1292special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1293connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1294bf(--daemon) mode section.
1295
1296dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1297a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1298rsync defaults to using
1299blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1300ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1301
1302dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1303changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1304This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
1305If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1306if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1307with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1308verbose messages).
1309
1310The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1311format is like the string bf(YXcstpogz), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1312type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1313other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1314modified.
1315
1316The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1317
1318quote(itemize(
1319 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1320 (sent).
1321 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1322 (received).
1323 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1324 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1325 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
1326 bf(--hard-links)).
1327 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1328 have attributes that are being modified).
1329))
1330
1331The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1332directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1333special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1334
1335The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1336will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1337a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1338item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1339dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1340a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1341
1342The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1343
1344quote(itemize(
1345 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1346 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1347 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1348 by the file transfer.
1349 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1350 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1351 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1352 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1353 without bf(--times).
1354 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1355 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1356 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1357 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1358 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1359 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1360 it() The bf(z) slot is reserved for future use.
1361))
1362
1363One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1364the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1365you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1366outputting them as a verbose message).
1367
1368dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1369rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1370string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1371a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1372the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1373option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1374
1375Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1376in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1377touched directory) unless the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
1378the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
1379item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
13802.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1381output of "%i".
1382
1383The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1384bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1385the format of its per-file output using this option.
1386
1387Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1388one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1389logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1390is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1391the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1392(followed, of course, by the log-format output).
1393
1394dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1395on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1396algorithm is for your data.
1397
1398dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1399unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1400valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1401characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1402setting.
1403
1404The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1405and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1406would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1407escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1408
1409dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1410This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1411this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1412G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1413instead of 1000.
1414
1415dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1416transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1417it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1418bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1419make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1420
1421dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1422bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1423partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1424On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1425dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1426after it has served its purpose.
1427
1428Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1429file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1430(since
1431rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1432
1433Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1434the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1435"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1436partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1437remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1438
1439If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1440rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1441sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1442will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1443receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1444the equivalent of "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)" at the end of any other
1445filter rules.
1446
1447If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1448exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1449rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1450to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1451rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1452should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1453bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1454bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1455left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1456
1457IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1458is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1459
1460You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1461variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1462enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1463specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1464along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1465environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1466.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1467option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1468specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1469bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1470
1471For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1472bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1473refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1474of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1475safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1476
1477dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1478updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1479transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1480succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1481atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1482each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1483bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1484comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1485".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1486you wnat rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1487Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1488
1489This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1490transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1491side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1492you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1493there is no
1494chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1495the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1496absolute)
1497and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1498delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1499
1500See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1501update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1502parallel hierarchy of files).
1503
1504dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1505rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1506that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1507creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1508recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1509rules.
1510
1511Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1512what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1513mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1514being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1515destination files).
1516
1517You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1518by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1519that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1520
1521quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1522
1523Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1524the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1525that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1526(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1527
1528quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide! */' src/ dest)
1529
1530If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1531time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
1532in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1533
1534dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1535showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1536something to watch.
1537Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1538
1539When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1540
1541verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1542
1543This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1544is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1545data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1546remaining in this transfer.
1547
1548After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1549
1550verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1551
1552This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1553transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1554the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1555These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1556what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1557
1558dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1559purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1560transfer that may be interrupted.
1561
1562dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1563in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1564is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1565transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1566must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1567single line.
1568
1569dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1570instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1571specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1572come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1573options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1574non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1575copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1576must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
1577
1578dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1579transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1580using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1581of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1582transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1583result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1584of zero specifies no limit.
1585
1586dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1587another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1588section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1589
1590dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1591no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1592This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1593other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1594
1595Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1596media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1597can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1598whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1599partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1600happening).
1601
1602Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1603system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1604into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1605(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1606
1607dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1608file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1609If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1610See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1611
1612dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1613is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1614version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1615bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1616bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1617batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1618file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1619
1620dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1621when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1622control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1623rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1624
1625dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1626NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1627MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1628by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1629is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1630applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1631in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1632Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1633for checksum seed.
1634enddit()
1635
1636manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1637
1638The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1639
1640startdit()
1641dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1642daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1643the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1644
1645If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1646run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1647become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1648(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1649requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1650details.
1651
1652dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1653run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1654allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1655makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1656See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1657
1658dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1659transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1660The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1661requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1662client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1663
1664dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1665the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1666The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1667a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
1668the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1669
1670dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1671rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1672option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1673be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1674bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1675bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1676debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1677sshd.
1678
1679dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1680daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1681global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1682
1683dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
1684rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
1685
1686dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1687daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1688daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1689used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1690
1691dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1692when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1693listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1694versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1695an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1696try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1697
1698dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1699page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1700enddit()
1701
1702manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1703
1704The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1705(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1706specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1707include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1708
1709As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1710name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1711turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1712pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1713filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1714filename is not skipped.
1715
1716Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1717command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1718
1719quote(
1720tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1721tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1722)
1723
1724You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1725below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1726MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1727must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1728Here are the available rule prefixes:
1729
1730quote(
1731bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1732bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1733bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1734bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1735bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1736bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1737bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1738bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1739bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1740)
1741
1742When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1743comment lines that start with a "#".
1744
1745Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1746full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1747specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1748list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1749If a pattern
1750does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1751rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1752an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1753the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1754start of the rule.
1755
1756Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1757rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1758the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1759the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1760
1761manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1762
1763You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1764"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1765The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1766the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1767can take several forms:
1768
1769itemize(
1770 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1771 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1772 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1773 regular expressions.
1774 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1775 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1776 per-directory rule).
1777 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1778 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1779 the
1780 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1781 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1782 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1783 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1784 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1785 of the transfer.
1786 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1787 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1788
1789 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
1790 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
1791 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
1792 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
1793 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
1794 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
1795 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
1796 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
1797 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
1798 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
1799 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1800 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1801 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1802 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1803 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1804 down.)
1805 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
1806 "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
1807 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
1808 version 2.6.7.)
1809)
1810
1811Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1812bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1813include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1814full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1815"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1816The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1817when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1818parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1819because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1820hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1821For instance, this won't work:
1822
1823quote(
1824tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1825tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1826tt(- *)nl()
1827)
1828
1829This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1830rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1831directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1832to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1833"- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1834the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1835works fine:
1836
1837quote(
1838tt(+ /some/)nl()
1839tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1840tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1841tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1842tt(- *)nl()
1843)
1844
1845Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1846
1847itemize(
1848 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1849 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1850 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1851 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1852 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1853 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1854 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1855 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1856 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1857 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1858 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1859 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1860)
1861
1862manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1863
1864You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1865merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1866section above).
1867
1868There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1869per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1870its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1871rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1872it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1873into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1874must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1875being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1876also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1877affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1878below).
1879
1880Some examples:
1881
1882quote(
1883tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1884tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1885tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1886tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1887tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1888)
1889
1890The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1891
1892itemize(
1893 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1894 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1895 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1896 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1897 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1898 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1899 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1900 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1901 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1902 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1903 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1904 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1905 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1906 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1907 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1908 also disabled).
1909 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1910 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1911 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1912 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1913 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1914 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
1915)
1916
1917The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1918
1919itemize(
1920 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
1921 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
1922 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1923 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
1924 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
1925 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
1926 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1927 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1928 non-directories.
1929 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1930 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1931 follow.
1932 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1933 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1934 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1935 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1936 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1937 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
1938 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1939 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1940 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1941 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1942 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1943)
1944
1945Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1946where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1947subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1948from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1949inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1950the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1951dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1952rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1953file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1954
1955Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1956anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1957merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1958would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1959file was found.
1960
1961Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1962
1963quote(
1964tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1965tt(- *.gz)nl()
1966tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1967tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1968tt(- *.o)nl()
1969)
1970
1971This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1972start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1973filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1974follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1975of the transfer).
1976
1977If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1978directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1979dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1980per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1981
1982quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1983
1984That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1985directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1986transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1987the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1988rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1989
1990Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1991
1992quote(
1993tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1994tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1995tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1996)
1997
1998The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1999"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2000and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2001and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2002a part of the transfer.
2003
2004If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2005you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2006file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2007use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2008per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2009":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2010add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2011rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2012example:
2013
2014quote(
2015tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2016tt(+ foo.o)nl()
2017tt(:C)nl()
2018tt(- *.old)nl()
2019tt(EOT)nl()
2020tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2021)
2022
2023Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2024the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2025at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2026that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2027affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2028the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2029omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2030your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
2031
2032manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2033
2034You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2035rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2036list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2037parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2038inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2039out the parent's rules).
2040
2041manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2042
2043As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2044"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2045anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2046a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2047transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2048directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2049
2050Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2051trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2052option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2053changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2054host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2055
2056Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2057path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2058Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2059
2060quote(
2061 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2062 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2063 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2064 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2065 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2066)
2067
2068quote(
2069 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2070 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2071 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2072 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2073 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2074)
2075
2076quote(
2077 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2078 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2079 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2080 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2081 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2082)
2083
2084quote(
2085 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2086 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2087 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2088 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2089 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2090)
2091
2092The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2093look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2094(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2095
2096manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2097
2098Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2099sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2100without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2101this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2102
2103quote(
2104tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2105tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2106)
2107
2108However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2109files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2110receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2111the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2112because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2113rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2114
2115quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2116
2117However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2118either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2119line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2120the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2121remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2122
2123verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2124 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2125
2126In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2127transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2128merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2129per-directory merge rule.
2130
2131In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2132files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2133to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2134specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2135deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2136should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2137
2138verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2139 host:src/dir /dest
2140 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2141
2142manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2143
2144Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2145identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2146number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2147source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2148hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2149write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2150of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2151client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2152this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2153
2154To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2155with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2156file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2157using the information stored in the batch file.
2158
2159For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2160option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2161".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2162a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2163batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
2164passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2165instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2166path differs from the original destination tree path.
2167
2168Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2169status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2170updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2171be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2172at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2173
2174Examples:
2175
2176quote(
2177tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2178tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2179tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2180)
2181
2182quote(
2183tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2184tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2185)
2186
2187In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2188and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2189"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2190into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2191reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2192
2193itemize(
2194 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2195 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2196 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2197 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2198 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2199 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2200 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2201 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2202 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2203 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2204 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2205)
2206
2207Caveats:
2208
2209The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2210to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2211batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2212is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2213appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2214and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2215error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2216if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2217always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2218option (when reading the batch).
2219If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2220partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2221be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2222destination tree.
2223
2224The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2225one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2226protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2227to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2228creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2229(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2230older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2231
2232When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2233to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2234as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2235For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2236bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2237bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2238one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2239
2240The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2241options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2242shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2243list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2244user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2245to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2246
2247The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2248version uses a new implementation.
2249
2250manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2251
2252Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2253link in the source directory.
2254
2255By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2256"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2257
2258If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2259target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2260bf(--links).
2261
2262If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2263copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2264
2265rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2266example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2267ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2268bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2269bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2270they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2271unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2272bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2273
2274Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2275(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
2276components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2277
2278Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2279in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2280use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2281
2282dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2283symlinks for any other options to affect).
2284
2285dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2286and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2287
2288dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2289skip all safe symlinks.
2290
2291dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2292ones.
2293
2294dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2295
2296manpagediagnostics()
2297
2298rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2299cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2300version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2301
2302This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2303facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2304for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2305remote shell like this:
2306
2307quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2308
2309then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2310should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2311rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2312data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2313it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2314scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2315for non-interactive logins.
2316
2317If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2318try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2319show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2320
2321manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2322
2323startdit()
2324dit(bf(0)) Success
2325dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2326dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2327dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2328dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2329was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2330them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2331not by the server.
2332dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2333dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2334dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2335dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2336dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2337dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2338dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2339dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2340dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2341dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2342dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2343dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2344dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2345dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2346enddit()
2347
2348manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2349
2350startdit()
2351dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2352ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2353more details.
2354dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2355override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2356options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2357dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2358redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2359rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2360dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2361password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2362daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2363password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2364dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2365are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2366If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2367dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2368default .cvsignore file.
2369enddit()
2370
2371manpagefiles()
2372
2373/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2374
2375manpageseealso()
2376
2377rsyncd.conf(5)
2378
2379manpagebugs()
2380
2381times are transferred as unix time_t values
2382
2383When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2384unmodified files.
2385See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2386
2387file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2388values
2389
2390see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2391
2392Please report bugs! See the website at
2393url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2394
2395manpagesection(VERSION)
2396
2397This man page is current for version 2.6.7pre1 of rsync.
2398
2399manpagesection(CREDITS)
2400
2401rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2402COPYING for details.
2403
2404A WEB site is available at
2405url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2406includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2407manual page.
2408
2409The primary ftp site for rsync is
2410url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2411
2412We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2413
2414This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2415Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2416
2417manpagesection(THANKS)
2418
2419Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2420and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2421I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2422
2423Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2424Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2425
2426manpageauthor()
2427
2428rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2429Many people have later contributed to it.
2430
2431Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2432url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)