1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(10 Feb 2008)()()
3 manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync in daemon mode)
10 The rsyncd.conf file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when
11 run as an rsync daemon.
13 The rsyncd.conf file controls authentication, access, logging and
16 manpagesection(FILE FORMAT)
18 The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
19 name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next
20 module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form "name = value".
22 The file is line-based -- that is, each newline-terminated line represents
23 either a comment, a module name or a parameter.
25 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
26 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
27 whitespace in module and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
28 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
29 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
31 Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing
34 Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the
35 customary UNIX fashion.
37 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
38 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
39 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
42 manpagesection(LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON)
44 The rsync daemon is launched by specifying the bf(--daemon) option to
47 The daemon must run with root privileges if you wish to use chroot, to
48 bind to a port numbered under 1024 (as is the default 873), or to set
49 file ownership. Otherwise, it must just have permission to read and
50 write the appropriate data, log, and lock files.
52 You can launch it either via inetd, as a stand-alone daemon, or from
53 an rsync client via a remote shell. If run as a stand-alone daemon then
54 just run the command "bf(rsync --daemon)" from a suitable startup script.
56 When run via inetd you should add a line like this to /etc/services:
60 and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf:
62 verb( rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon)
64 Replace "/usr/bin/rsync" with the path to where you have rsync installed on
65 your system. You will then need to send inetd a HUP signal to tell it to
66 reread its config file.
68 Note that you should bf(not) send the rsync daemon a HUP signal to force
69 it to reread the tt(rsyncd.conf) file. The file is re-read on each client
72 manpagesection(GLOBAL OPTIONS)
74 The first parameters in the file (before a [module] header) are the
77 You may also include any module parameters in the global part of the
78 config file in which case the supplied value will override the
79 default for that parameter.
82 dit(bf(motd file)) The "motd file" option allows you to specify a
83 "message of the day" to display to clients on each connect. This
84 usually contains site information and any legal notices. The default
87 dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write
88 its process ID to that file. If the file already exists, the rsync
89 daemon will abort rather than overwrite the file.
91 dit(bf(port)) You can override the default port the daemon will listen on
92 by specifying this value (defaults to 873). This is ignored if the daemon
93 is being run by inetd, and is superseded by the bf(--port) command-line option.
95 dit(bf(address)) You can override the default IP address the daemon
96 will listen on by specifying this value. This is ignored if the daemon is
97 being run by inetd, and is superseded by the bf(--address) command-line option.
99 dit(bf(socket options)) This option can provide endless fun for people
100 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
101 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
102 slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
103 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
104 special socket options are set. These settings are superseded by the
105 bf(--sockopts) command-line option.
110 manpagesection(MODULE OPTIONS)
112 After the global options you should define a number of modules, each
113 module exports a directory tree as a symbolic name. Modules are
114 exported by specifying a module name in square brackets [module]
115 followed by the options for that module.
116 The module name cannot contain a slash or a closing square bracket. If the
117 name contains whitespace, each internal sequence of whitespace will be
118 changed into a single space, while leading or trailing whitespace will be
123 dit(bf(comment)) The "comment" option specifies a description string
124 that is displayed next to the module name when clients obtain a list
125 of available modules. The default is no comment.
127 dit(bf(path)) The "path" option specifies the directory in the daemon's
128 filesystem to make available in this module. You must specify this option
129 for each module in tt(rsyncd.conf).
131 dit(bf(use chroot)) If "use chroot" is true, the rsync daemon will chroot
132 to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has
133 the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security
134 holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
135 of not being able to follow symbolic links that are either absolute or outside
136 of the new root path, and of complicating the preservation of users and groups
138 When "use chroot" is false, rsync will: (1) munge symlinks by
139 default for security reasons (see "munge symlinks" for a way to turn this
140 off, but only if you trust your users), (2) substitute leading slashes in
141 absolute paths with the module's path (so that options such as
142 bf(--backup-dir), bf(--compare-dest), etc. interpret an absolute path as
143 rooted in the module's "path" dir), and (3) trim ".." path elements from
144 args if rsync believes they would escape the chroot.
145 The default for "use chroot" is true, and is the safer choice (especially
146 if the module is not read-only).
148 When this option is enabled, rsync will not attempt to map users and groups
149 by name (by default), but instead copy IDs as though bf(--numeric-ids) had
150 been specified. In order to enable name-mapping, rsync needs to be able to
151 use the standard library functions for looking up names and IDs (i.e.
152 code(getpwuid()), code(getgrgid()), code(getpwname()), and code(getgrnam())).
154 process in the chroot hierarchy will need to have access to the resources
155 used by these library functions (traditionally /etc/passwd and
156 /etc/group, but perhaps additional dynamic libraries as well).
158 If you copy the necessary resources into the module's chroot area, you
159 should protect them through your OS's normal user/group or ACL settings (to
160 prevent the rsync module's user from being able to change them), and then
161 hide them from the user's view via "exclude" (see how in the discussion of
162 that option). At that point it will be safe to enable the mapping of users
163 and groups by name using the "numeric ids" daemon option (see below).
165 Note also that you are free to setup custom user/group information in the
166 chroot area that is different from your normal system. For example, you
167 could abbreviate the list of users and groups.
169 dit(bf(numeric ids)) Enabling the "numeric ids" option disables the mapping
170 of users and groups by name for the current daemon module. This prevents
171 the daemon from trying to load any user/group-related files or libraries.
172 Enabling this option makes the transfer behave as if the client had passed
173 the bf(--numeric-ids) command-line option. By default, this parameter is
174 enabled for chroot modules and disabled for non-chroot modules.
176 A chroot-enabled module should not have this option enabled unless you've
177 taken steps to ensure that the module has the necessary resources it needs
178 to translate names, and that it is not possible for a user to change those
181 dit(bf(munge symlinks)) The "munge symlinks" option tells rsync to modify
182 all incoming symlinks in a way that makes them unusable but recoverable
183 (see below). This should help protect your files from user trickery when
184 your daemon module is writable. The default is disabled when "use chroot"
185 is on and enabled when "use chroot" is off.
187 If you disable this option on a daemon that is not read-only, there
188 are tricks that a user can play with uploaded symlinks to access
189 daemon-excluded items (if your module has any), and, if "use chroot"
190 is off, rsync can even be tricked into showing or changing data that
191 is outside the module's path (as access-permissions allow).
193 The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with
194 the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used
195 as long as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled,
196 rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to
197 a directory. When using the "munge symlinks" option in a chroot area,
198 you should add this path to the exclude setting for the module so that
199 a user can't try to create it.
201 Note: rsync makes no attempt to verify that any pre-existing symlinks in
202 the hierarchy are as safe as you want them to be. If you setup an rsync
203 daemon on a new area or locally add symlinks, you can manually protect your
204 symlinks from being abused by prefixing "/rsyncd-munged/" to the start of
205 every symlink's value. There is a perl script in the support directory
206 of the source code named "munge-symlinks" that can be used to add or remove
207 this prefix from your symlinks.
209 When this option is disabled on a writable module and "use chroot" is off,
210 incoming symlinks will be modified to drop a leading slash and to remove ".."
211 path elements that rsync believes will allow a symlink to escape the module's
212 hierarchy. There are tricky ways to work around this, though, so you had
213 better trust your users if you choose this combination of options.
215 dit(bf(charset)) This specifies the name of the character set in which the
216 module's filenames are stored. If the client uses an bf(--iconv) option,
217 the daemon will use the value of the "charset" parameter regardless of the
218 character set the client actually passed. This allows the daemon to
219 support charset conversion in a chroot module without extra files in the
220 chroot area, and also ensures that name-translation is done in a consistent
221 manner. If the "charset" parameter is not set, the bf(--iconv) option is
222 refused, just as if "iconv" had been specified via "refuse options".
224 If you wish to force users to always use bf(--iconv) for a particular
225 module, add "no-iconv" to the "refuse options" parameter. Keep in mind
226 that this will restrict access to your module to very new rsync clients.
228 dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
229 specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
230 Any clients connecting when the maximum has been reached will receive a
231 message telling them to try later. The default is 0, which means no limit.
232 A negative value disables the module.
233 See also the "lock file" option.
235 dit(bf(log file)) When the "log file" option is set to a non-empty
236 string, the rsync daemon will log messages to the indicated file rather
237 than using syslog. This is particularly useful on systems (such as AIX)
238 where code(syslog()) doesn't work for chrooted programs. The file is
239 opened before code(chroot()) is called, allowing it to be placed outside
240 the transfer. If this value is set on a per-module basis instead of
241 globally, the global log will still contain any authorization failures
242 or config-file error messages.
244 If the daemon fails to open to specified file, it will fall back to
245 using syslog and output an error about the failure. (Note that the
246 failure to open the specified log file used to be a fatal error.)
248 dit(bf(syslog facility)) The "syslog facility" option allows you to
249 specify the syslog facility name to use when logging messages from the
250 rsync daemon. You may use any standard syslog facility name which is
251 defined on your system. Common names are auth, authpriv, cron, daemon,
252 ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, security, syslog, user, uucp, local0,
253 local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 and local7. The default
254 is daemon. This setting has no effect if the "log file" setting is a
255 non-empty string (either set in the per-modules settings, or inherited
256 from the global settings).
258 dit(bf(max verbosity)) The "max verbosity" option allows you to control
259 the maximum amount of verbose information that you'll allow the daemon to
260 generate (since the information goes into the log file). The default is 1,
261 which allows the client to request one level of verbosity.
263 dit(bf(lock file)) The "lock file" option specifies the file to use to
264 support the "max connections" option. The rsync daemon uses record
265 locking on this file to ensure that the max connections limit is not
266 exceeded for the modules sharing the lock file.
267 The default is tt(/var/run/rsyncd.lock).
269 dit(bf(read only)) The "read only" option determines whether clients
270 will be able to upload files or not. If "read only" is true then any
271 attempted uploads will fail. If "read only" is false then uploads will
272 be possible if file permissions on the daemon side allow them. The default
273 is for all modules to be read only.
275 dit(bf(write only)) The "write only" option determines whether clients
276 will be able to download files or not. If "write only" is true then any
277 attempted downloads will fail. If "write only" is false then downloads
278 will be possible if file permissions on the daemon side allow them. The
279 default is for this option to be disabled.
281 dit(bf(list)) The "list" option determines if this module should be
282 listed when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By
283 setting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is
284 for modules to be listable.
286 dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user ID that
287 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
288 was run as root. In combination with the "gid" option this determines what
289 file permissions are available. The default is uid -2, which is normally
292 dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group ID that
293 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
294 was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
295 which is normally the group "nobody".
297 dit(bf(fake super)) Setting "fake super = yes" for a module causes the
298 daemon side to behave as if the bf(--fake-user) command-line option had
299 been specified. This allows the full attributes of a file to be stored
300 without having to have the daemon actually running as root.
302 dit(bf(filter)) The "filter" option allows you to specify a space-separated
303 list of filter rules that the daemon will not allow to be read or written.
304 This is only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these
305 patterns with the bf(--filter) option. Only one "filter" option may be
306 specified, but it may contain as many rules as you like, including
307 merge-file rules. Note that per-directory merge-file rules do not provide
308 as much protection as global rules, but they can be used to make bf(--delete)
309 work better when a client downloads the daemon's files (if the per-dir
310 merge files are included in the transfer).
312 dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a
313 space-separated list of patterns that the daemon will not allow to be read
314 or written. This is only superficially equivalent to the client
315 specifying these patterns with the bf(--exclude) option. Only one "exclude"
316 option may be specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to
317 specify exclude/include.
319 Because this exclude list is not passed to the client it only applies on
320 the daemon: that is, it excludes files received by a client when receiving
321 from a daemon and files deleted on a daemon when sending to a daemon, but
322 it doesn't exclude files from being deleted on a client when receiving
325 When you want to exclude a directory and all its contents, it is safest to
326 use a rule that does both, such as "/some/dir/***" (the three stars tells
327 rsync to exclude the directory itself and everything inside it). This is
328 better than just excluding the directory alone with "/some/dir/", as it
329 helps to guard against attempts to trick rsync into accessing files deeper
332 dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename
333 on the daemon that contains exclude patterns, one per line.
334 This is only superficially equivalent
335 to the client specifying the bf(--exclude-from) option with an equivalent file.
336 See the "exclude" option above.
338 dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a
339 space-separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is
340 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with
341 the bf(--include) option because it applies only on the daemon. This is
342 useful as it allows you to build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
343 Only one "include" option may be specified, but you can use "+" and "-"
344 before patterns to switch include/exclude. See the "exclude" option
347 dit(bf(include from)) The "include from" option specifies a filename
348 on the daemon that contains include patterns, one per line. This is
349 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying the
350 bf(--include-from) option with a equivalent file.
351 See the "exclude" option above.
353 dit(bf(incoming chmod)) This option allows you to specify a set of
354 comma-separated chmod strings that will affect the permissions of all
355 incoming files (files that are being received by the daemon). These
356 changes happen after all other permission calculations, and this will
357 even override destination-default and/or existing permissions when the
358 client does not specify bf(--perms).
359 See the description of the bf(--chmod) rsync option and the bf(chmod)(1)
360 manpage for information on the format of this string.
362 dit(bf(outgoing chmod)) This option allows you to specify a set of
363 comma-separated chmod strings that will affect the permissions of all
364 outgoing files (files that are being sent out from the daemon). These
365 changes happen first, making the sent permissions appear to be different
366 than those stored in the filesystem itself. For instance, you could
367 disable group write permissions on the server while having it appear to
368 be on to the clients.
369 See the description of the bf(--chmod) rsync option and the bf(chmod)(1)
370 manpage for information on the format of this string.
372 dit(bf(auth users)) The "auth users" option specifies a comma and
373 space-separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to
374 this module. The usernames do not need to exist on the local
375 system. The usernames may also contain shell wildcard characters. If
376 "auth users" is set then the client will be challenged to supply a
377 username and password to connect to the module. A challenge response
378 authentication protocol is used for this exchange. The plain text
379 usernames and passwords are stored in the file specified by the
380 "secrets file" option. The default is for all users to be able to
381 connect without a password (this is called "anonymous rsync").
383 See also the "CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL
384 PROGRAM" section in bf(rsync)(1) for information on how handle an
385 rsyncd.conf-level username that differs from the remote-shell-level
386 username when using a remote shell to connect to an rsync daemon.
388 dit(bf(secrets file)) The "secrets file" option specifies the name of
389 a file that contains the username:password pairs used for
390 authenticating this module. This file is only consulted if the "auth
391 users" option is specified. The file is line based and contains
392 username:password pairs separated by a single colon. Any line starting
393 with a hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped. The passwords
394 can contain any characters but be warned that many operating systems
395 limit the length of passwords that can be typed at the client end, so
396 you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work.
398 There is no default for the "secrets file" option, you must choose a name
399 (such as tt(/etc/rsyncd.secrets)). The file must normally not be readable
400 by "other"; see "strict modes".
402 dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
403 the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is
404 true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user ID other
405 than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is
406 false, the check is not performed. The default is true. This option
407 was added to accommodate rsync running on the Windows operating system.
409 dit(bf(hosts allow)) The "hosts allow" option allows you to specify a
410 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
411 hostname and IP address. If none of the patterns match then the
412 connection is rejected.
414 Each pattern can be in one of five forms:
417 it() a dotted decimal IPv4 address of the form a.b.c.d, or an IPv6 address
418 of the form a:b:c::d:e:f. In this case the incoming machine's IP address
420 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/n where ipaddr is the IP address
421 and n is the number of one bits in the netmask. All IP addresses which
422 match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
423 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/maskaddr where ipaddr is the
424 IP address and maskaddr is the netmask in dotted decimal notation for IPv4,
425 or similar for IPv6, e.g. ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:: instead of /64. All IP
426 addresses which match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
427 it() a hostname. The hostname as determined by a reverse lookup will
428 be matched (case insensitive) against the pattern. Only an exact
430 it() a hostname pattern using wildcards. These are matched using the
431 same rules as normal unix filename matching. If the pattern matches
432 then the client is allowed in.
435 Note IPv6 link-local addresses can have a scope in the address specification:
438 tt( fe80::1%link1)nl()
439 tt( fe80::%link1/64)nl()
440 tt( fe80::%link1/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::)nl()
443 You can also combine "hosts allow" with a separate "hosts deny"
444 option. If both options are specified then the "hosts allow" option s
445 checked first and a match results in the client being able to
446 connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a match means
447 that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the
448 "hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then it is allowed to
451 The default is no "hosts allow" option, which means all hosts can connect.
453 dit(bf(hosts deny)) The "hosts deny" option allows you to specify a
454 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
455 hostname and IP address. If the pattern matches then the connection is
456 rejected. See the "hosts allow" option for more information.
458 The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can connect.
460 dit(bf(ignore errors)) The "ignore errors" option tells rsyncd to
461 ignore I/O errors on the daemon when deciding whether to run the delete
462 phase of the transfer. Normally rsync skips the bf(--delete) step if any
463 I/O errors have occurred in order to prevent disastrous deletion due
464 to a temporary resource shortage or other I/O error. In some cases this
465 test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this
468 dit(bf(ignore nonreadable)) This tells the rsync daemon to completely
469 ignore files that are not readable by the user. This is useful for
470 public archives that may have some non-readable files among the
471 directories, and the sysadmin doesn't want those files to be seen at all.
473 dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file
474 logging of downloads and uploads in a format somewhat similar to that
475 used by ftp daemons. The daemon always logs the transfer at the end, so
476 if a transfer is aborted, no mention will be made in the log file.
478 If you want to customize the log lines, see the "log format" option.
480 dit(bf(log format)) The "log format" option allows you to specify the
481 format used for logging file transfers when transfer logging is enabled.
482 The format is a text string containing embedded single-character escape
483 sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character. An optional numeric
484 field width may also be specified between the percent and the escape
485 letter (e.g. "bf(%-50n %8l %07p)").
487 The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] "
488 is always prefixed when using the "log file" option.
489 (A perl script that will summarize this default log format is included
490 in the rsync source code distribution in the "support" subdirectory:
493 The single-character escapes that are understood are as follows:
496 it() %a the remote IP address
497 it() %b the number of bytes actually transferred
498 it() %B the permission bits of the file (e.g. rwxrwxrwt)
499 it() %c the checksum bytes received for this file (only when sending)
500 it() %f the filename (long form on sender; no trailing "/")
501 it() %G the gid of the file (decimal) or "DEFAULT"
502 it() %h the remote host name
503 it() %i an itemized list of what is being updated
504 it() %l the length of the file in bytes
505 it() %L the string " -> SYMLINK", " => HARDLINK", or "" (where bf(SYMLINK) or bf(HARDLINK) is a filename)
506 it() %m the module name
507 it() %M the last-modified time of the file
508 it() %n the filename (short form; trailing "/" on dir)
509 it() %o the operation, which is "send", "recv", or "del." (the latter includes the trailing period)
510 it() %p the process ID of this rsync session
511 it() %P the module path
512 it() %t the current date time
513 it() %u the authenticated username or an empty string
514 it() %U the uid of the file (decimal)
517 For a list of what the characters mean that are output by "%i", see the
518 bf(--itemize-changes) option in the rsync manpage.
520 Note that some of the logged output changes when talking with older
521 rsync versions. For instance, deleted files were only output as verbose
522 messages prior to rsync 2.6.4.
524 dit(bf(timeout)) The "timeout" option allows you to override the
525 clients choice for I/O timeout for this module. Using this option you
526 can ensure that rsync won't wait on a dead client forever. The timeout
527 is specified in seconds. A value of zero means no timeout and is the
528 default. A good choice for anonymous rsync daemons may be 600 (giving
529 a 10 minute timeout).
531 dit(bf(refuse options)) The "refuse options" option allows you to
532 specify a space-separated list of rsync command line options that will
533 be refused by your rsync daemon.
534 You may specify the full option name, its one-letter abbreviation, or a
535 wild-card string that matches multiple options.
536 For example, this would refuse bf(--checksum) (bf(-c)) and all the various
539 quote(tt( refuse options = c delete))
541 The reason the above refuses all delete options is that the options imply
542 bf(--delete), and implied options are refused just like explicit options.
543 As an additional safety feature, the refusal of "delete" also refuses
544 bf(remove-source-files) when the daemon is the sender; if you want the latter
545 without the former, instead refuse "delete-*" -- that refuses all the
546 delete modes without affecting bf(--remove-source-files).
548 When an option is refused, the daemon prints an error message and exits.
549 To prevent all compression when serving files,
550 you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
551 instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a
552 client that requests compression.
554 dit(bf(dont compress)) The "dont compress" option allows you to select
555 filenames based on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed
556 when pulling files from the daemon (no analogous option exists to
557 govern the pushing of files to a daemon).
558 Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage, so it
559 is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well,
560 such as already compressed files.
562 The "dont compress" option takes a space-separated list of
563 case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
564 of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
566 See the bf(--skip-compress) option in the bf(rsync)(1) manpage for the list
567 of file suffixes that are not compressed by default. Specifying a value
568 for the "dont compress" option changes the default when the daemon is
571 dit(bf(pre-xfer exec), bf(post-xfer exec)) You may specify a command to be run
572 before and/or after the transfer. If the bf(pre-xfer exec) command fails, the
573 transfer is aborted before it begins.
575 The following environment variables will be set, though some are
576 specific to the pre-xfer or the post-xfer environment:
579 it() bf(RSYNC_MODULE_NAME): The name of the module being accessed.
580 it() bf(RSYNC_MODULE_PATH): The path configured for the module.
581 it() bf(RSYNC_HOST_ADDR): The accessing host's IP address.
582 it() bf(RSYNC_HOST_NAME): The accessing host's name.
583 it() bf(RSYNC_USER_NAME): The accessing user's name (empty if no user).
584 it() bf(RSYNC_PID): A unique number for this transfer.
585 it() bf(RSYNC_REQUEST): (pre-xfer only) The module/path info specified
586 by the user (note that the user can specify multiple source files,
587 so the request can be something like "mod/path1 mod/path2", etc.).
588 it() bf(RSYNC_ARG#): (pre-xfer only) The pre-request arguments are set
589 in these numbered values. RSYNC_ARG0 is always "rsyncd", and the last
590 value contains a single period.
591 it() bf(RSYNC_EXIT_STATUS): (post-xfer only) the server side's exit value.
592 This will be 0 for a successful run, a positive value for an error that the
593 server generated, or a -1 if rsync failed to exit properly. Note that an
594 error that occurs on the client side does not currently get sent to the
595 server side, so this is not the final exit status for the whole transfer.
596 it() bf(RSYNC_RAW_STATUS): (post-xfer only) the raw exit value from code(waitpid()).
599 Even though the commands can be associated with a particular module, they
600 are run using the permissions of the user that started the daemon (not the
601 module's uid/gid setting) without any chroot restrictions.
605 manpagesection(AUTHENTICATION STRENGTH)
607 The authentication protocol used in rsync is a 128 bit MD4 based
608 challenge response system. This is fairly weak protection, though (with
609 at least one brute-force hash-finding algorithm publicly available), so
610 if you want really top-quality security, then I recommend that you run
611 rsync over ssh. (Yes, a future version of rsync will switch over to a
612 stronger hashing method.)
614 Also note that the rsync daemon protocol does not currently provide any
615 encryption of the data that is transferred over the connection. Only
616 authentication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want
619 Future versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and
620 encryption, but that is still being investigated.
622 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
624 A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp area at
625 tt(/home/ftp) would be:
630 comment = ftp export area
633 A more sophisticated example would be:
640 syslog facility = local5
641 pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
645 comment = whole ftp area (approx 6.1 GB)
648 path = /var/ftp/pub/samba
649 comment = Samba ftp area (approx 300 MB)
652 path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync
653 comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB)
656 path = /public_html/samba
657 comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB)
661 comment = CVS repository (requires authentication)
662 auth users = tridge, susan
663 secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
666 The /etc/rsyncd.secrets file would look something like this:
669 tt(tridge:mypass)nl()
670 tt(susan:herpass)nl()
675 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
685 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
686 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
688 manpagesection(VERSION)
690 This man page is current for version 3.0.0pre9 of rsync.
692 manpagesection(CREDITS)
694 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
697 The primary ftp site for rsync is
698 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
700 A WEB site is available at
701 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
703 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
705 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
706 Gailly and Mark Adler.
708 manpagesection(THANKS)
710 Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the rsync
711 daemon. Thanks to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and
716 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
717 Many people have later contributed to it.
719 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
720 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)