1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(29 May 2001)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
20 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22 greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
25 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28 report that accompanies this package.
30 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
43 manpagesection(GENERAL)
45 There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
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.
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
73 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74 and destination paths must be local.
78 See the file README for installation instructions.
80 Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81 to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82 destination are local.
84 You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
85 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
87 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
90 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
95 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
98 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
100 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
102 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106 differences. See the tech report for details.
108 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
110 this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
111 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
114 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
115 size of data portions of the transfer.
117 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
119 a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
120 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
121 /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
122 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124 using the --delete option.
126 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128 an improved copy command.
130 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
132 this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
136 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
138 It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140 running on TCP port 873.
142 You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145 873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
147 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
151 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
152 separate the hostname from the path.
154 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
157 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
158 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
160 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
161 specified files on the remote server is provided.
164 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
167 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168 may be useful when scripting rsync.
170 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
171 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
173 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
175 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
179 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
181 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
183 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
186 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
188 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
191 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
202 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
206 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
209 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
211 this is launched from cron every few hours.
213 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
215 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
216 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
219 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
220 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
221 -c, --checksum always checksum
222 -a, --archive archive mode
223 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
224 -R, --relative use relative path names
225 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
226 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
227 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
228 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
229 -l, --links preserve soft links
230 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
231 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
232 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
233 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
234 -p, --perms preserve permissions
235 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
236 -g, --group preserve group
237 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
238 -t, --times preserve times
239 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
240 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
241 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
242 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
243 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
244 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
245 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
246 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
247 --existing only update files that already exist
248 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
249 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
250 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
251 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
252 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
253 --partial keep partially transferred files
254 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
255 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
256 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
257 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
258 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
259 --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0)
260 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
261 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
262 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
263 -z, --compress compress file data
264 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
265 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
266 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
267 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
268 --version print version number
269 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
270 --address bind to the specified address
271 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
272 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
273 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
274 --stats give some file transfer stats
275 --progress show progress during transfer
276 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
277 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
278 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
279 -h, --help show this help screen
284 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
285 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
286 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
287 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
291 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
294 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
296 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
297 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
298 single -v will give you information about what files are being
299 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
300 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
301 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
302 you are debugging rsync.
304 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
305 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
306 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
309 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
310 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
313 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
314 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
315 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
316 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
317 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
320 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
321 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
322 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
323 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
324 transferring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with
325 a 1 second resolution this option is useful.
327 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
328 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
329 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
330 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
331 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
333 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way
334 of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
336 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
337 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
340 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
341 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
342 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
343 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
344 example, if you used the command
346 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
348 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
349 machine. If instead you used
351 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
353 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
354 machine. The full path name is preserved.
356 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
357 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
358 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
360 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
361 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
362 very useful for incremental backups.
364 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
365 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
367 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
368 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
371 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
372 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
373 option, all symbolic links are skipped.
375 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
378 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
379 point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
380 also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
381 path itself when --relative is used.
383 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
384 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
385 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
386 give unexpected results.
388 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
389 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
390 option hard links are treated like regular files.
392 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
393 are in the list of files being sent.
395 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
397 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
398 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
399 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
400 target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
401 "disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both
402 the source and target are on the local machine.
404 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
405 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
407 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
408 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
409 to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
410 the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
411 access to the usernames.
413 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
414 of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
415 not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
416 will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
418 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
419 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
420 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
422 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
423 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
424 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
425 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
426 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
427 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
430 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
431 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
433 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
434 up less space on the destination.
436 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
437 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
438 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
440 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
441 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
442 contents of only one filesystem.
444 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
445 only update files that already exist on the destination.
447 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
448 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
449 to prevent disasters.
451 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
452 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
453 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
455 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
457 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
458 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
459 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
461 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
462 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
463 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
464 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
465 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
467 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
468 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
469 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
471 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
472 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
473 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
474 then use the --delete-after switch.
476 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
477 even when there are IO errors.
479 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
480 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
481 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
482 contains a directory of the same name.
484 Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
485 so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
487 dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
488 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
490 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
491 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
492 remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
493 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
495 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
496 environment variable.
498 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
500 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
501 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
502 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
505 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
506 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
507 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
509 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
510 to build up the list of files to exclude.
512 See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
515 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
516 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
517 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
518 ';' or '#' are ignored.
520 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
521 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
522 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
524 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
527 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
530 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
531 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
532 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
533 a file should be ignored.
535 The exclude list is initialized to:
537 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
538 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
539 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
541 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
542 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
544 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
545 that directory are added to the list.
547 dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
548 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
549 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
550 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
551 making things faster.
553 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
554 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
556 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
557 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
558 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
559 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
561 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
562 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
563 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
564 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
566 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
567 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
568 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
569 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
571 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
572 the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
573 files against when doing transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to
574 a new destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
575 flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
576 example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
577 although this requires also doing the transfer with -I to avoid skipping
578 files that haven't changed). This option increases the usefulness of
579 --partial because partially transferred files will remain in the new
580 temporary destination until they have a chance to be completed. If DIR is
581 a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
583 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
584 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
585 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
586 same method that gzip uses.
588 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
589 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
590 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
591 information sent for matching data blocks.
593 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
594 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
597 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
598 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
599 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
600 option is not specified.
602 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
603 does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
604 source system is used instead.
606 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
607 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
608 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
610 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
611 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
612 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
613 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
614 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
615 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
618 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
619 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
620 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
621 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
622 in conjunction with the --config option.
624 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
625 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
628 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
629 rather than the default port 873.
631 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching
632 a remote shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to
633 the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to
634 non-blocking IO. You may find the --blocking-io option is needed for some
635 remote shells that can't handle non-blocking IO. Ssh prefers blocking IO.
637 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
638 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
639 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
642 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
643 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
644 algorithm is for your data.
646 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
647 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
648 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
649 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
650 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
652 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
653 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
656 This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
657 the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
659 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
660 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
661 option to make it easier.
663 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
664 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
665 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
666 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
667 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
670 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
671 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
672 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
673 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
674 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
675 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
676 of zero specifies no limit.
680 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
682 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
683 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
685 rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
686 the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
687 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
688 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
689 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
690 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
691 filename is not skipped.
693 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
694 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
695 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
697 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
698 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
699 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
701 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
704 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
705 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
706 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
707 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
708 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
709 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
710 end of the file name.
712 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
713 directory, not a file, link or device.
715 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
716 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
717 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
719 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
720 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
722 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
723 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
724 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
725 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
726 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
727 actually be any portion of a path.
729 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
730 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
731 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
733 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
734 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
735 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
737 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
738 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
741 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
742 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
744 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
745 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
746 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
747 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
748 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
751 Here are some exclude/include examples:
754 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
755 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
756 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
757 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
758 levels below a base directory called foo
759 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
760 or more levels below a base directory called foo
761 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
762 directories and C source files
763 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
764 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
765 it would be excluded by the "*")
768 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
770 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
771 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
772 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
774 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
775 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
776 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
777 remote shell like this:
780 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
783 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
784 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
785 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
786 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
787 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
788 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
789 for non-interactive logins.
791 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
792 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
793 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
795 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
798 dit(bf(RERR_SYNTAX 1)) Syntax or usage error
799 dit(bf(RERR_PROTOCOL 2)) Protocol incompatibility
800 dit(bf(RERR_FILESELECT 3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
802 dit(bf(RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
803 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
804 them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and
807 dit(bf(RERR_SOCKETIO 10)) Error in socket IO
808 dit(bf(RERR_FILEIO 11)) Error in file IO
809 dit(bf(RERR_STREAMIO 12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
810 dit(bf(RERR_MESSAGEIO 13)) Errors with program diagnostics
811 dit(bf(RERR_IPC 14)) Error in IPC code
812 dit(bf(RERR_SIGNAL 20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
813 dit(bf(RERR_WAITCHILD 21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
814 dit(bf(RERR_MALLOC 22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
815 dit(bf(RERR_TIMEOUT 30)) Timeout in data send/receive
818 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
822 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
823 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
826 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
827 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
828 be used instead of the -e option.
830 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
831 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
832 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
834 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
835 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
836 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
837 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
839 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
840 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
842 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
843 default .cvsignore file.
859 times are transferred as unix time_t values
861 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
864 see also the comments on the --delete option
866 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
867 url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
869 manpagesection(VERSION)
870 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
872 manpagesection(CREDITS)
874 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
877 A WEB site is available at
878 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
879 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
882 The primary ftp site for rsync is
883 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
885 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
887 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
888 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
890 manpagesection(THANKS)
892 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
893 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
894 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
899 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
900 contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
901 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
903 rsync is now also maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>