- Made receive_file_entry() return the file_struct pointer instead
[rsync/rsync.git] / rsync.yo
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1mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
4manpagesynopsis()
5
6rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
7
8rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
9
10rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
11
12rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
13
14rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
15
16rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
17
18rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
19
20manpagedescription()
21
22rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
25updated.
26
27The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30report that accompanies this package.
31
32Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33
34itemize(
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
42 mirroring)
43)
44
45manpagesection(GENERAL)
46
47There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
48
49itemize(
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
53 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
54 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
55 single : separator.
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
59 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
60 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
61 separator or an rsync:// URL.
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
65 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
66 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
67 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
68 separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
69 also provided.
70 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
71 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
72 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
73 destination path contains a :: separator and the
74 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option is also provided.
75 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
76 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
77 local destination.
78)
79
80Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
81and destination paths must be local.
82
83manpagesection(SETUP)
84
85See the file README for installation instructions.
86
87Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
88a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
89daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
90for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
91different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
92
93You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
94command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95
96One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
97security.
98
99Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
100machines.
101
102manpagesection(USAGE)
103
104You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
105and a destination, one of which may be remote.
106
107Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
108
109quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
110
111This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
112current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
113the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
114remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
115differences. See the tech report for details.
116
117quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
118
119This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
121files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
122links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
123in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
124size of data portions of the transfer.
125
126quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
127
128A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
130/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
131to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
134files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
135/dest/foo:
136
137quote(
138tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
139tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
140)
141
142You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144an improved copy command.
145
146quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
147
148This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
149somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
150
151manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
152
153The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
154quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
155
156quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
157
158This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
159additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
160and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
161to be a part of the filenames.
162
163quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
164
165This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
166word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
167that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
168whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
169a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
170whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
171in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
172
173quote(
174tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
175tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
176)
177
178This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
179wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
180
181manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
182
183It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
184transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
185running on TCP port 873.
186
187You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
188environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
189your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
190proxy connections to port 873.
191
192Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
193that:
194
195itemize(
196 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
197 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
198 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
199 connect.
200 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
201 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
202 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
203 specified files on the remote server is provided.
204)
205
206Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
207you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
208password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
209the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
210may be useful when scripting rsync.
211
212WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
213users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
214
215manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
216
217It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
218server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
219rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
220to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
221firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
222features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
223below).
224
225From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
226using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
227explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
228bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
229this functionality.)
230
231In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
232server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
233
234verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
235 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
236
237The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
238used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
239
240manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
241
242An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
243rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
244file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
245shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
246is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
247(typically $HOME).
248
249manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
250
251See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
252server configuration file.
253
254Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
255user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
256configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
257if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
258
259To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
260in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
261
262manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263
264Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265
266To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
267files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268
269quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270
271each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
272"arvidsjaur".
273
274To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
275targets:
276
277verb( get:
278 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 put:
280 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
281 sync: get put)
282
283this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
284connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
285lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286
287I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
288command:
289
290tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291
292This is launched from cron every few hours.
293
294manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295
296Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
297to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
298 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
299 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
300 -c, --checksum always checksum
301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
312 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
313 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
314 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
315 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
316 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
317 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
318 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
319 -p, --perms preserve permissions
320 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
321 -g, --group preserve group
322 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
323 -t, --times preserve times
324 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
325 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
326 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
327 -W, --whole-file copy files whole
328 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
329 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
330 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
331 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
332 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
333 --existing only update files that already exist
334 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
335 --del an alias for --delete-during
336 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
337 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
338 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
339 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
340 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
341 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
342 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
343 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
344 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
345 --partial keep partially transferred files
346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
353 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
354 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
355 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
356 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
357 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
358 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
359 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
360 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
361 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
363 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
367 -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
368 --version print version number
369 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
370 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
371 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
373 --progress show progress during transfer
374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
377 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
379 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
380 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
384 -h, --help show this help screen)
385
386Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
387accepted: verb(
388 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
389 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
390 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
391 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
392 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
393 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
394 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen)
398
399manpageoptions()
400
401rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
402options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
403below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
404The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
405can be used instead.
406
407startdit()
408dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
409available in rsync.
410
411dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
412
413dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
414are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
415single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
416transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
417information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
418information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
419you are debugging rsync.
420
421dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
422are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
423from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
424cron.
425
426dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
427already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
428This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
429
430dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
431already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
432bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
433regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
434after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
435exactly.
436
437dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
438timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
439value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
440to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
441transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
442times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
443(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
444
445dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
446a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
447explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
448which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
449receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
450
451dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
452way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
453everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
454specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
455
456Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
457finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
458specify bf(-H).
459
460dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
461recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
462
463dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
464names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
465just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
466you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
467example, if you used the command
468
469quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
470
471then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
472machine. If instead you used
473
474quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
475
476then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
477machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
478path information that is sent, do something like this:
479
480quote(
481tt( cd /foo)nl()
482tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
483)
484
485That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
486
487dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
488needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
489file processing.
490
491dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
492implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
493of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
494the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
495path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
496the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
497destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
498the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
499which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
500symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
501
502dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
503renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
504backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
505bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
506
507dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
508tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
509very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
510specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
511(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
512will keep their original filenames).
513If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
514(which changes in a recursive transfer).
515
516dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
517backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
518if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
519
520dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
521the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
522file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
523source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
524
525In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
526between the sender and receiver is always
527considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
528is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
529symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
530regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
531free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
532
533dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
534and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
535file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
536network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
537to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
538with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
539basis file for the transfer.
540
541This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
542or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
543bound.
544
545The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
546the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
547Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
548bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
549
550WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
551transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
552should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
553rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
554receiving user.
555
556dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
557are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
558unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
559name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
560bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
561output a message to that effect for each one).
562
563dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
564symlink on the destination.
565
566dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
567they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
568versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
569receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
570modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
571to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
572an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
573will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
574
575dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
576symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
577are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
578source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
579
580dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
581which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
582also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
583give unexpected results.
584
585dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
586the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
587option hard links are treated like regular files.
588
589Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
590are in the list of files being sent.
591
592This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
593
594dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
595pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
596from the sender.
597
598dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
599is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
600faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
601destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
602"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
603the source and destination are specified as local paths.
604
605dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
606default.
607
608dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
609permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
610
611Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
612source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
613other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
614(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
615
616dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
617destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
618only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
619is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
620circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
621
622dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
623destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
624program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
625receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
626is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
627circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
628
629dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
630block device information to the remote system to recreate these
631devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
632
633dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
634with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
635option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
636modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
637cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
638updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
639if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
640
641dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
642it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
643the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
644
645dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
646instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
647
648dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
649up less space on the destination.
650
651NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
652filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
653correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
654
655dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
656boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
657contents of only one filesystem.
658
659dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
660only update files that already exist on the destination.
661
662dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
663This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
664the destination.
665
666dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
667files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
668to prevent disasters.
669
670dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
671file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
672suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
673may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
674
675dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
676receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
677directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
678send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
679for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
680by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
681the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
682also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
683option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
684include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
685
686This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
687
688This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
689to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
690deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
691
692If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
693files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
694prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
695sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
696destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
697
698The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
699without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
700--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
701bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
702bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
703
704dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
705side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
706or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
707See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
708
709Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
710and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
711However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
712and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
713specified).
714
715dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
716receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
717a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
718but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
719See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
720
721dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
722side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
723are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
724you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
725current transfer.
726See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
727
728dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
729receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
730delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
731See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
732this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
733bf(--delete-excluded).
734See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
735
736dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
737even when there are I/O errors.
738
739dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
740they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
741is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
742Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
743
744dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
745the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
746the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
747
748dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
749remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
750remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
751default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
752
753If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
754remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
755remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
756shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
757running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
758TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
759
760Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
761presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
762
763quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
764
765(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
766options in their .ssh/config file.)
767
768You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
769environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
770
771See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
772
773dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
774rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
775that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
776the binary is in.
777
778dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
779broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
780systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
781a file should be ignored.
782
783The exclude list is initialized to:
784
785quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
786.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
787.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
788
789then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
790files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
791are delimited by whitespace).
792
793Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
794.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
795rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
796See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
797
798If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
799note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
800regardless of where the -C was placed on the command-line. This makes them
801a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
802control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
803should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
804bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
805putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
806The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
807file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
808mentioned above.
809
810dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
811exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
812most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
813
814You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
815to build up the list of files to exclude.
816
817See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
818
819dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
820your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
821
822quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
823
824This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
825been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
826files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
827rule:
828
829quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
830
831This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
832
833See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
834work.
835
836dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
837bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
838the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
839
840See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
841
842dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
843option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
844FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
845';' or '#' are ignored.
846If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
847
848dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
849bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
850the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
851
852See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
853
854dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
855from a file.
856If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
857
858dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
859exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
860for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
861transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
862
863quote(itemize(
864 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
865 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
866 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
867 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
868 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
869 them.
870 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
871 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
872))
873
874The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
875source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
876allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
877command:
878
879quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
880
881If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
882directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
883contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified bf(-r)
884or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
885that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
886duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
887force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
888
889In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
890instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
891(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
892specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
893transfer". For example:
894
895quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
896
897This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
898was located on the remote "src" host.
899
900dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
901file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
902This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
903merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
904It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
905file are split on whitespace).
906
907dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
908scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
909transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
910the temporary files in the receiving directory.
911
912dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
913the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
914files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
915directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
916sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
917directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
918have changed from an earlier backup.
919
920Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
921provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
922finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
923and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
924
925If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
926See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
927
928dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
929rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
930directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
931useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
932files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
933successfully transferred.
934
935If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
936See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
937
938dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
939unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
940The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
941possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
942An example:
943
944quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
945
946Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--link-dest) option is
947specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
948the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
949of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
950
951If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
952See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
953
954Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
955bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
956(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
957when sending to an old rsync.
958
959dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
960as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
961being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
962
963Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
964be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
965because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
966blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
967
968dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
969and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
970at both ends.
971
972By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
973what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
9740 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
975option is not specified.
976
977If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
978on the destination system, then the numeric ID
979from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
980"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
981the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
982users and groups and what you can do about it.
983
984dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
985timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
986then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
987
988dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
989rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
990double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
991syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
992option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
993
994dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
995a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
996rsync defaults to using
997blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
998ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
999
1000dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
1001default.
1002
1003dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1004rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
1005specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
1006rsyncd.conf.
1007
1008dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1009on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1010algorithm is for your data.
1011
1012dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1013transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1014it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1015bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1016make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1017
1018dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1019bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1020partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1021On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1022dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
1023after it has served its purpose.
1024Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1025file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1026(since
1027rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1028
1029Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1030the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1031"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1032partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1033remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1034
1035If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
1036bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1037will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1038untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1039the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1040rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1041supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1042rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1043it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1044a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
1045reached).
1046
1047IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1048is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1049
1050You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1051variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1052enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1053specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1054along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1055environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1056.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1057option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1058specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1059bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1060
1061For the purposes of the server-config's "refuse options" setting,
1062bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1063refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1064of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1065safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1066
1067dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1068updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1069transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1070succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1071atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1072each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
1073the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
1074on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
1075purposes of the server-config's "refuse options" setting.)
1076Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1077
1078This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1079transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1080side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1081you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1082chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1083the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1084absolute).
1085
1086See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1087update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1088parallel hierarchy of files).
1089
1090dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1091showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1092something to watch.
1093Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1094
1095When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1096
1097verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1098
1099This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1100is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1101data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1102remaining in this transfer.
1103
1104After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1105
1106verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1107
1108This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1109transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1110the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1111These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1112what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1113
1114dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1115purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1116transfer that may be interrupted.
1117
1118dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1119in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1120is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1121transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1122must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1123single line.
1124
1125dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1126instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1127specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1128come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1129options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1130non-recursive listing.
1131
1132dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1133transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1134using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1135of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1136transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1137result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1138of zero specifies no limit.
1139
1140dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1141another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1142section for details.
1143
1144dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1145file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1146If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1147See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1148
1149dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1150when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1151control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1152rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1153
1154dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1155NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1156MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1157by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1158is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1159applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1160in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1161Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1162for checksum seed.
1163enddit()
1164
1165manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1166
1167The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1168
1169startdit()
1170dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1171daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1172bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1173
1174If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1175run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1176become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1177(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1178requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1179details.
1180
1181dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1182when run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
1183rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
1184address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1185in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
1186option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1187
1188dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1189transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1190The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1191requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1192client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1193
1194dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1195the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1196The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1197a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1198the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1199
1200dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1201rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1202option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1203be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1204bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1205bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1206debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1207sshd.
1208
1209dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1210daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1211global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1212
1213dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1214daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1215daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1216used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1217
1218dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1219when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1220listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1221versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1222an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1223try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1224
1225dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1226page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1227enddit()
1228
1229manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1230
1231The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1232(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1233specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1234include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1235
1236As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1237name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1238turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1239pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1240filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1241filename is not skipped.
1242
1243Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1244command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1245
1246quote(
1247tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1248tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1249)
1250
1251You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1252below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1253MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1254must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1255Here are the available rule prefixes:
1256
1257quote(
1258bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1259bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1260bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1261bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1262bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1263bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1264bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1265bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1266bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1267)
1268
1269When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1270comment lines that start with a "#".
1271
1272Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1273full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1274specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1275list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1276If a pattern
1277does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1278rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1279an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1280the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1281start of the rule.
1282
1283Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1284rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1285the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1286the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1287
1288manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1289
1290You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1291"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1292The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1293the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1294can take several forms:
1295
1296itemize(
1297 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1298 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1299 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1300 regular expressions.
1301 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1302 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1303 per-directory rule).
1304 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1305 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1306 the
1307 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1308 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1309 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1310 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1311 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1312 of the transfer.
1313 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1314 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1315 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1316 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1317 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1318 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1319 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1320 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1321 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1322 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1323 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1324 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1325 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1326 down.)
1327)
1328
1329Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1330bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1331include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1332full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1333"/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1334The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1335when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1336parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1337because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1338hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1339For instance, this won't work:
1340
1341quote(
1342tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1343tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1344tt(- *)nl()
1345)
1346
1347This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1348rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1349directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1350to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1351"- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1352the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1353works fine:
1354
1355quote(
1356tt(+ /some/)nl()
1357tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1358tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1359tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1360tt(- *)nl()
1361)
1362
1363Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1364
1365itemize(
1366 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1367 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1368 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1369 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1370 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1371 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1372 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1373 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1374 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1375 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1376 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1377 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1378)
1379
1380manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1381
1382You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1383merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1384section above).
1385
1386There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1387per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1388its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1389rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1390it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1391into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1392must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1393being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1394also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1395affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1396below).
1397
1398Some examples:
1399
1400quote(
1401tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1402tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1403tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1404tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1405tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1406)
1407
1408The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1409
1410itemize(
1411 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1412 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1413 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1414 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1415 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1416 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1417 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1418 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1419 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1420 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1421 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1422 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1423 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1424 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1425 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1426 also disabled).
1427 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1428 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1429 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1430 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1431 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1432 per-directory rules apply only on the server side.
1433)
1434
1435The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1436
1437itemize(
1438 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1439 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1440 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1441 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1442 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1443 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1444 non-directories.
1445 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1446 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1447 follow.
1448 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1449 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1450 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1451 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1452 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1453 which are an alternate way to specify server-side includes/excludes.
1454 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1455 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1456 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1457 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1458 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1459)
1460
1461Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1462where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1463subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1464from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1465inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1466the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1467dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1468rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1469file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1470
1471Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1472anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1473merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1474would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1475file was found.
1476
1477Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1478
1479quote(
1480tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1481tt(- *.gz)nl()
1482tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1483tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
1484tt(- *.o)nl()
1485)
1486
1487This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1488start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1489filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1490follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1491of the transfer).
1492
1493If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1494directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1495dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1496per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1497
1498quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1499
1500That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1501directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1502transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1503the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1504rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1505
1506Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1507
1508quote(
1509tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1510tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1511tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1512)
1513
1514The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1515"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1516and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1517and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1518a part of the transfer.
1519
1520If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1521you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1522file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1523use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1524per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1525":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1526add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1527rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1528example:
1529
1530quote(
1531tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1532tt(+ foo.o)nl()
1533tt(:C)nl()
1534tt(- *.old)nl()
1535tt(EOT)nl()
1536tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1537)
1538
1539Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1540the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1541at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1542that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1543affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1544the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1545omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1546your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1547
1548manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1549
1550You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1551rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1552list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1553parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1554inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1555out the parent's rules).
1556
1557manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1558
1559As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1560"root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1561anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1562a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1563transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1564directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1565
1566Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1567trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1568option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1569changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1570host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1571
1572Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1573path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1574Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1575
1576quote(
1577 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1578 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1579 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1580 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1581 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1582)
1583
1584quote(
1585 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1586 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1587 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1588 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1589 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1590)
1591
1592quote(
1593 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1594 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1595 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1596 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1597 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1598)
1599
1600quote(
1601 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1602 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1603 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1604 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1605 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1606)
1607
1608The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1609look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1610(use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1611
1612manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1613
1614Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1615sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1616without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1617this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1618
1619quote(
1620tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1621tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1622)
1623
1624However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1625files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1626receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1627the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1628because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1629rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1630
1631quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1632
1633However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1634either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1635line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1636the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1637remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1638
1639verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1640 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1641
1642In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1643transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1644merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1645per-directory merge rule.
1646
1647In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1648files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1649to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1650specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1651deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1652should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1653
1654verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1655 host:src/dir /dest
1656 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1657
1658manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1659
1660Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1661identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1662number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1663source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1664hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1665write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1666of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1667client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1668this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1669
1670To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1671with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1672file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1673using the information stored in the batch file.
1674
1675For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1676option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1677".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1678a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1679batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1680passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1681instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1682path differs from the original destination tree path.
1683
1684Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1685status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1686updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1687be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1688at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1689
1690Examples:
1691
1692quote(
1693tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1694tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1695tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1696)
1697
1698quote(
1699tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1700tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1701)
1702
1703In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1704and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1705"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1706into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1707reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1708
1709itemize(
1710 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1711 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1712 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1713 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1714 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1715 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1716 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1717 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1718 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1719 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1720 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1721)
1722
1723Caveats:
1724
1725The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1726to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1727batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1728is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1729appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1730and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1731error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1732if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1733always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1734option (when reading the batch).
1735If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1736partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1737be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1738destination tree.
1739
1740The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1741one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1742protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1743to handle.
1744
1745The bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1746error.
1747
1748When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1749to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1750as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1751For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1752bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1753bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1754one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1755
1756The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1757options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1758shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1759list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1760user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1761to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1762
1763The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1764version uses a new implementation.
1765
1766manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1767
1768Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1769link in the source directory.
1770
1771By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1772"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1773
1774If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1775target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1776bf(--links).
1777
1778If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1779copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1780
1781rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1782example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1783ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1784bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1785bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1786they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1787unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1788
1789Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1790(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1791components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1792
1793manpagediagnostics()
1794
1795rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1796cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1797version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
1798
1799This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1800facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1801for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1802remote shell like this:
1803
1804quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1805
1806then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1807should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1808rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1809data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1810it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1811scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1812for non-interactive logins.
1813
1814If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1815try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1816show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1817
1818manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1819
1820startdit()
1821dit(bf(0)) Success
1822dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1823dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1824dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1825dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1826was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1827them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1828not by the server.
1829dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1830dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1831dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1832dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1833dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1834dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1835dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1836dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1837dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1838dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1839dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1840dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1841enddit()
1842
1843manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1844
1845startdit()
1846dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1847ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
1848more details.
1849dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1850override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1851options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
1852dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1853redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1854rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1855dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1856password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1857daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1858password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1859dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1860are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1861If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1862dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1863default .cvsignore file.
1864enddit()
1865
1866manpagefiles()
1867
1868/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1869
1870manpageseealso()
1871
1872rsyncd.conf(5)
1873
1874manpagebugs()
1875
1876times are transferred as unix time_t values
1877
1878When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1879unmodified files.
1880See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
1881
1882file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1883values
1884
1885see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
1886
1887Please report bugs! See the website at
1888url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1889
1890manpagesection(CREDITS)
1891
1892rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1893COPYING for details.
1894
1895A WEB site is available at
1896url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1897includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1898manual page.
1899
1900The primary ftp site for rsync is
1901url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1902
1903We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1904
1905This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1906Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1907
1908manpagesection(THANKS)
1909
1910Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1911and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1912I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1913
1914Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1915Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1916
1917manpageauthor()
1918
1919rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1920Many people have later contributed to it.
1921
1922Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1923url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)