Improved the build rule for getfsdev and added getfsdev.o to the
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Apr 2004)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
7
8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9
10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
11
12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
13
14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
15
16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
17
18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
25exists.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
56 single : separator.
57
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
61
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
65
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
69
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
74 also provided.
75
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
81
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
84 local destination.
85)
86
87Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88and destination paths must be local.
89
90manpagesection(SETUP)
91
92See the file README for installation instructions.
93
94Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
99
100You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
102
103One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
104security.
105
106Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
107machines.
108
109manpagesection(USAGE)
110
111You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112and a destination, one of which may be remote.
113
114Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
115
116quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
117
118This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122differences. See the tech report for details.
123
124quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
125
126This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
130in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131size of data portions of the transfer.
132
133quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
134
135A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
142/dest/foo:
143
144quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
145quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
146
147You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149an improved copy command.
150
151quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
152
153This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
155
156
157manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
158
159It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
160transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
161running on TCP port 873.
162
163You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
164environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
165your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
166proxy connections to port 873.
167
168Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
169that:
170
171itemize(
172 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
173 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
174
175 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
176 connect.
177
178 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
179 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
180
181 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
182 specified files on the remote server is provided.
183)
184
185Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
186you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
187password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
188the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
189may be useful when scripting rsync.
190
191WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
192users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
193
194manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
195
196It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
197server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
199to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
200firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
201features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
202below).
203
204From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
205using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
206explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
207--rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
208this functionality.)
209
210In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
211server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
212
213quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
214
215The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
216used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
217
218manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
219
220An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
221rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
222file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
223shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
224is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
225(typically $HOME).
226
227manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
228
229See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
230server configuration file.
231
232Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
233user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
234configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
235if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
236
237To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
239
240manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
241
242Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
243
244To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
246
247quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
248
249each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
250"arvidsjaur".
251
252To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
253targets:
254
255quote( get:nl()
256 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
257
258 put:nl()
259 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
260
261 sync: get put)
262
263this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
264connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
265lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
266
267I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
268command
269
270quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
271
272this is launched from cron every few hours.
273
274manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
275
276Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
277to the detailed description below for a complete description.
278
279verb(
280 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
281 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
282 -c, --checksum always checksum
283 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
284 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
285 -R, --relative use relative path names
286 --no-relative turn off --relative
287 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
288 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
289 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
290 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
291 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
292 --inplace update the destination files inplace
293 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
294 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
295 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
296 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
297 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
298 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
299 -p, --perms preserve permissions
300 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
301 -g, --group preserve group
302 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
303 -t, --times preserve times
304 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
305 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
306 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
307 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
308 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
309 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
310 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
311 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
312 --existing only update files that already exist
313 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
314 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
315 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
316 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
317 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
318 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
319 --partial keep partially transferred files
320 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
321 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
322 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
323 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
324 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
325 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
326 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
327 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
328 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
329 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
330 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
331 -z, --compress compress file data
332 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
333 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
334 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
335 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
336 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
337 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
338 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
339 --version print version number
340 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
341 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
342 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
343 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
344 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
345 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
346 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
347 --stats give some file transfer stats
348 --progress show progress during transfer
349 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
350 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
351 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
352 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
353 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
354 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
355 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
356 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
357 -h, --help show this help screen
358
359
360)
361
362manpageoptions()
363
364rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
365options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
366below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
367The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
368can be used instead.
369
370startdit()
371dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
372available in rsync
373
374dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
375
376dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
377are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
378single -v will give you information about what files are being
379transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
380information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
381information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
382you are debugging rsync.
383
384dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
385are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
386from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
387cron.
388
389dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
390already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
391This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
392
393dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
394already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
395--size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
396regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
397after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
398exactly.
399
400dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
401the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
402modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
403set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
404transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
405with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
406
407dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
408a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
409explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
410which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
411receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
412
413dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
414way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
415everything.
416
417Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
418finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
419specify bf(-H).
420
421dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
422recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
423directories at all.
424
425dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
426names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
427just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
428you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
429example, if you used the command
430
431verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
432
433then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
434machine. If instead you used
435
436verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
437
438then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
439machine -- the full path name is preserved.
440
441dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
442needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
443file processing.
444
445dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
446implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
447of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
448the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
449path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
450the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
451destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
452the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
453which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
454symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
455
456dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
457renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
458backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
459--backup-dir and --suffix options.
460
461dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
462tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
463very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
464specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
465(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
466will keep their original filenames).
467If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
468(which changes in a recursive transfer).
469
470dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
471backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
472if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
473
474dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
475destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
476file.
477
478In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
479considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
480is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
481symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
482regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
483free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
484
485dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
486pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
487from the sender.
488
489dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
490and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
491file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
492network reduction it might otherwise.
493
494This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based change
495or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound not network bound.
496
497WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
498transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
499should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
500rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
501receiving user.
502
503dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
504symlink on the destination.
505
506dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
507they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
508versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
509receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
510modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
511to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
512an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
513will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
514
515dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
516symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
517are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
518source path itself when --relative is used.
519
520dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
521which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
522also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
523give unexpected results.
524
525dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
526the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
527option hard links are treated like regular files.
528
529Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
530are in the list of files being sent.
531
532This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
533
534dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
535is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
536faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
537destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
538"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
539the source and destination are specified as local paths.
540
541dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
542default.
543
544dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
545permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
546
547Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
548source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
549other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
550(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
551
552dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
553destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
554only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
555is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
556circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
557
558dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
559destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
560program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
561receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
562is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
563circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
564
565dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
566block device information to the remote system to recreate these
567devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
568
569dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
570with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
571option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
572modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
573cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
574updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
575if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
576
577dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
578instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
579
580dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
581up less space on the destination.
582
583NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
584filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
585correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
586
587dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
588boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
589contents of only one filesystem.
590
591dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
592only update files that already exist on the destination.
593
594dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
595This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
596the destination.
597
598dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
599files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
600to prevent disasters.
601
602dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
603side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
604transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
605
606This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
607
608This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
609to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
610deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
611
612If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
613files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
614prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
615sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
616destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
617
618dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
619receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
620delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
621Implies --delete.
622
623dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
624receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
625sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
626after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
627
628dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
629even when there are I/O errors.
630
631dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
632they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
633is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
634Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
635
636dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
637the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
638the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
639
640dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
641remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
642remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
643default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
644
645If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
646remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
647remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
648shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
649running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
650TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
651
652Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
653presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
654
655quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
656
657(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
658options in their .ssh/config file.)
659
660You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
661environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
662
663See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
664
665dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
666rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
667that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
668the binary is in.
669
670dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
671broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
672systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
673a file should be ignored.
674
675The exclude list is initialized to:
676
677quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
678.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
679.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
680
681then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
682files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
683are delimited by whitespace).
684
685Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
686.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
687See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
688
689dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
690certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
691useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
692
693You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
694to build up the list of files to exclude.
695
696See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
697
698dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
699option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
700FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
701';' or '#' are ignored.
702If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
703
704dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
705specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
706build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
707
708See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
709
710dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
711from a file.
712If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
713
714dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
715exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
716for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
717transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
718instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
719is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
720directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
721than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
722behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
723you want it.
724
725The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
726source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
727allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
728command:
729
730quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
731
732If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
733directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
734contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
735or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
736that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
737duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
738force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
739
740In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
741instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
742(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
743specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
744transfer". For example:
745
746quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
747
748This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
749was located on the remote "src" host.
750
751dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
752file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
753This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
754It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
755file are split on whitespace).
756
757dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
758scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
759transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
760the temporary files in the receiving directory.
761
762dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
763the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
764files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
765destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
766destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
767flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
768example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
769although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
770This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
771transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
772have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
773to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
774
775dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
776also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
777unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
778linked.
779Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
780to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
781An example:
782
783verb(
784 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
785)
786
787dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
788the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
789option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
790same method that gzip uses.
791
792Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
793that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
794compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
795information sent for matching data blocks.
796
797dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
798and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
799at both ends.
800
801By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
802what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
8030 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
804option is not specified.
805
806If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
807on the destination system, then the numeric ID
808from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
809"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
810the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
811users and groups and what you can do about it.
812
813dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
814timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
815then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
816
817dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
818daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
819bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
820
821If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
822run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
823become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
824(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
825requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
826details.
827
828dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
829rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
830option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
831be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
832bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
833bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
834debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
835sshd.
836
837dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
838when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
839rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
840address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
841in conjunction with the --config option.
842
843dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
844the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
845The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
846a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
847the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
848
849dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
850rather than the default port 873.
851
852dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
853a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
854rsync defaults to using
855blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
856ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
857
858dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
859default.
860
861dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
862rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
863specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
864rsyncd.conf.
865
866dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
867on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
868algorithm is for your data.
869
870dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
871transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
872it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
873--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
874make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
875
876dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
877put a partially transferred file into DIR instead of writing out the
878file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
879dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
880rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
881its purpose.
882
883Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
884whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
885"--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
886in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the DIR
887if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
888DIR was specified as a relative path).
889
890If you are deleting files on the destination and your partial-dir is
891inside the destination hierarchy, make sure you specify an exclude to
892prevent the partial file from being deleted (it could get deleted at the
893end of the transfer when using --delete-after, or at the beginning of the
894transfer when using --delete). E.g. "--exclude=.rsync-partial/".
895
896IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users to
897avoid a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
898
899dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
900showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
901something to watch.
902Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
903
904When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
905
906verb(
907 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
908)
909
910This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
911is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
912data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
913remaining in this transfer.
914
915After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
916
917verb(
918 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
919)
920
921This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
922transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
923the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
924These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
925what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
926
927dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
928found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
929option to make it easier.
930
931dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
932in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
933is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
934transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
935must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
936single line.
937
938dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
939transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
940using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
941of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
942transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
943result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
944of zero specifies no limit.
945
946dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
947another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
948section for details.
949
950dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
951file previously generated by --write-batch.
952If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
953See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
954
955dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
956when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
957control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
958rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
959listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
960versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
961an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
962try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
963
964dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
965NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
966MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
967by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
968is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
969applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
970in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
971Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
972for checksum seed.
973
974enddit()
975
976manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
977
978The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
979selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
980
981Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
982the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
983name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
984pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
985skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
986skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
987filename is not skipped.
988
989The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
990to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
991subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
992is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
993This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
994
995Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
996trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
997option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
998changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
999system). The following examples demonstrate this.
1000
1001Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1002path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1003Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1004
1005verb(
1006 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1007 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1008 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1009 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1010 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1011
1012 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1013 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1014 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1015 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1016 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1017
1018 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1019 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1020 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1021 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1022 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1023
1024 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1025 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1026 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1027 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1028 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1029)
1030
1031The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1032look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1033(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1034
1035Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1036every subcomponent of
1037every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1038applied recursively to each subcomponent.
1039The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1040when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1041parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1042because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1043hierarchy.
1044
1045Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1046each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1047--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1048
1049The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1050
1051itemize(
1052
1053 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1054 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1055 the filename.
1056 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1057 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1058 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1059 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1060 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1061 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1062 end of the file name.
1063
1064 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1065 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1066
1067 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1068 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1069 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1070
1071 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1072 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1073
1074 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1075 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1076 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1077 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1078 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1079 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1080
1081 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1082 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1083 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1084
1085 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1086 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1087 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1088
1089 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1090 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1091)
1092
1093The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1094you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1095options in the proper order.
1096
1097Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1098directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1099the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1100important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1101
1102verb(
1103 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1104 + /file-is-included
1105 - *
1106)
1107
1108This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1109so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1110directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1111to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1112before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1113include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1114instance, this set of rules works fine:
1115
1116verb(
1117 + /some/
1118 + /some/path/
1119 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1120 + /file-also-included
1121 - *
1122)
1123
1124Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1125
1126itemize(
1127 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1128 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1129 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1130 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1131 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1132 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1133 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1134 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1135 directories and C source files
1136 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1137 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1138 it would be excluded by the "*")
1139)
1140
1141manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1142
1143bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1144of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1145feel free to try this out.
1146
1147Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1148identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1149number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1150source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1151hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1152write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1153of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1154client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1155this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1156
1157To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1158with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1159file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1160using the information stored in the batch file.
1161
1162For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1163option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1164".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1165a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1166batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1167passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1168instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1169path differs from the original destination tree path.
1170
1171Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1172status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1173updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1174be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1175at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1176
1177Examples:
1178
1179verb(
1180 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1181 $ scp foo* remote:
1182 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1183)
1184
1185verb(
1186 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1187 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1188)
1189
1190In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1191and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1192"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1193into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1194reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1195
1196itemize(
1197
1198 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1199 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1200 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1201
1202 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1203 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1204
1205 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1206 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1207 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1208 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1209 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1210 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1211
1212)
1213
1214Caveats:
1215
1216The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1217to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1218batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1219is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1220appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1221and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1222error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1223if the command got updated. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1224always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1225option. If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1226partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1227be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1228destination tree.
1229
1230The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1231one used to generate the batch file.
1232
1233The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1234error.
1235
1236When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1237to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1238as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1239For instance
1240--write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1241--include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1242without --delete-excluded.
1243
1244The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1245options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1246shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1247list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1248user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1249to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1250
1251See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1252reports.
1253
1254manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1255
1256Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1257link in the source directory.
1258
1259By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1260"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1261
1262If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1263target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1264bf(--links).
1265
1266If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1267copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1268
1269rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1270example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1271ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1272bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1273bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1274they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1275unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1276
1277Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1278(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1279components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1280
1281manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1282
1283rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1284cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1285version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1286
1287This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1288facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1289for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1290remote shell like this:
1291
1292verb(
1293 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1294)
1295
1296then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1297should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1298rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1299data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1300it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1301scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1302for non-interactive logins.
1303
1304If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1305try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1306show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1307
1308manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1309
1310startdit()
1311dit(bf(0)) Success
1312dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1313dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1314dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1315dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1316was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1317them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1318not by the server.
1319dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1320dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1321dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1322dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1323dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1324dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1325dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1326dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1327dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1328dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1329dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1330dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1331enddit()
1332
1333manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1334
1335startdit()
1336
1337dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1338ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1339more details.
1340
1341dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1342override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1343options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1344
1345dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1346redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1347rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1348
1349dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1350password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1351daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1352password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1353
1354dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1355are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1356If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1357
1358dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1359default .cvsignore file.
1360
1361enddit()
1362
1363manpagefiles()
1364
1365/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1366
1367manpageseealso()
1368
1369rsyncd.conf(5)
1370
1371manpagediagnostics()
1372
1373manpagebugs()
1374
1375times are transferred as unix time_t values
1376
1377When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1378unmodified files.
1379See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1380
1381file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1382values
1383
1384see also the comments on the --delete option
1385
1386Please report bugs! See the website at
1387url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1388
1389manpagesection(CREDITS)
1390
1391rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1392COPYING for details.
1393
1394A WEB site is available at
1395url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1396includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1397manual page.
1398
1399The primary ftp site for rsync is
1400url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1401
1402We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1403
1404This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1405Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1406
1407manpagesection(THANKS)
1408
1409Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1410and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1411I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1412
1413Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1414Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1415
1416manpageauthor()
1417
1418rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1419Many people have later contributed to it.
1420
1421Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1422url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)