1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
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]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
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
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
87 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88 and destination paths must be local.
92 See the file README for installation instructions.
94 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
100 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
106 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
109 manpagesection(USAGE)
111 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
114 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
116 quote(rsync -t *.c foo:src/)
118 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122 differences. See the tech report for details.
124 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
126 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
130 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131 size of data portions of the transfer.
133 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
135 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
144 quote(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)
145 quote(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
147 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149 an improved copy command.
151 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
153 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
157 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
159 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
160 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
162 quote(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest)
164 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
165 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
166 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
167 to be a part of the filenames.
169 quote(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)
171 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
172 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
173 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
174 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
175 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
176 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
177 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
179 quote(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)
180 quote(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)
182 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
183 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
186 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
188 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
189 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
190 running on TCP port 873.
192 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
193 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
194 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
195 proxy connections to port 873.
197 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
201 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
202 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
204 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
207 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
208 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
210 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
211 specified files on the remote server is provided.
214 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
215 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
216 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
217 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
218 may be useful when scripting rsync.
220 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
221 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
223 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
225 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
226 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
227 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
228 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
229 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
230 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
233 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
234 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
235 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
236 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
239 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
240 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
242 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
244 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
245 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
247 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
249 An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
250 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
251 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
252 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
253 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
256 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
258 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
259 server configuration file.
261 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
262 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
263 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
264 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
266 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
267 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
269 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
271 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
273 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
274 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
276 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
278 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
281 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
285 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
288 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
292 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
293 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
294 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
296 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
299 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
301 this is launched from cron every few hours.
303 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
305 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
306 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
309 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
310 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
311 -c, --checksum always checksum
312 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
313 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
314 -R, --relative use relative path names
315 --no-relative turn off --relative
316 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
317 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
318 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
319 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
320 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
321 --inplace update the destination files inplace
322 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
323 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
324 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
325 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
326 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
327 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
328 -p, --perms preserve permissions
329 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
330 -g, --group preserve group
331 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
332 -t, --times preserve times
333 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
334 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
335 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
336 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
337 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
338 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
339 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
340 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
341 --existing only update files that already exist
342 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
343 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
344 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
345 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
346 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
347 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
348 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
349 --partial keep partially transferred files
350 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
351 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
352 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
353 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
354 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
355 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
356 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
357 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
358 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
359 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
360 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
361 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
362 -z, --compress compress file data
363 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
364 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
366 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
367 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
368 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
369 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
370 --version print version number
371 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
372 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
373 --stats give some file transfer stats
374 --progress show progress during transfer
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
377 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
378 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
379 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
380 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
381 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
382 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
383 -h, --help show this help screen
386 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:
389 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
390 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
391 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
392 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
393 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
394 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen
402 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
403 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
404 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
405 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
409 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
412 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
414 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
415 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
416 single -v will give you information about what files are being
417 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
418 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
419 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
420 you are debugging rsync.
422 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
423 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
424 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
427 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
428 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
429 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
431 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
432 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
433 --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
434 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
435 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
438 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
439 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
440 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
441 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
442 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
443 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
445 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
446 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
447 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
448 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
449 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
451 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
452 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
455 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
456 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
459 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
460 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
463 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
464 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
465 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
466 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
467 example, if you used the command
469 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
471 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
472 machine. If instead you used
474 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
476 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
477 machine -- the full path name is preserved.
479 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
480 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
483 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
484 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
485 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
486 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
487 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
488 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
489 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
490 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
491 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
492 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
494 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
495 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
496 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
497 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
499 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
500 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
501 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
502 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
503 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
504 will keep their original filenames).
505 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
506 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
508 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
509 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
510 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
512 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
513 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
516 In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
517 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
518 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
519 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
520 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
521 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
523 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
524 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
527 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
528 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
529 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
530 network reduction it might otherwise (since it does not yet try to sort
531 data matches -- a future version may improve this).
533 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
534 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
537 The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
538 the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir, --compare-dest, --copy-dest, and
539 --link-dest (a future rsync version will hopefully update the protocol to
540 remove some of these restrictions).
542 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
543 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
544 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
545 rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
548 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
549 symlink on the destination.
551 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
552 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
553 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
554 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
555 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
556 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
557 an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
558 will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
560 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
561 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
562 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
563 source path itself when --relative is used.
565 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
566 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
567 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
568 give unexpected results.
570 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
571 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
572 option hard links are treated like regular files.
574 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
575 are in the list of files being sent.
577 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
579 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
580 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
581 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
582 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
583 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
584 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
586 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
589 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
590 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
592 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
593 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
594 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
595 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
597 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
598 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
599 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
600 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
601 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
603 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
604 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
605 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
606 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
607 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
608 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
610 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
611 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
612 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
614 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
615 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
616 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
617 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
618 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
619 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
620 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
622 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
623 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
625 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
626 up less space on the destination.
628 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
629 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
630 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
632 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
633 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
634 contents of only one filesystem.
636 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
637 only update files that already exist on the destination.
639 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
640 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
643 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
644 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
645 to prevent disasters.
647 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
648 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
649 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
650 may be a fractional value (e.g. "--max-size=1.5m").
652 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
653 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
654 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
656 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
658 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
659 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
660 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
662 If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
663 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
664 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
665 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
666 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
668 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
669 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
670 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
673 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
674 receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
675 sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
676 after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
678 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
679 even when there are I/O errors.
681 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
682 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
683 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
684 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
686 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
687 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
688 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
690 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
691 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
692 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
693 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
695 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
696 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
697 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
698 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
699 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
700 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
702 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
703 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
705 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
707 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
708 options in their .ssh/config file.)
710 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
711 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
713 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
715 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
716 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
717 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
720 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
721 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
722 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
723 a file should be ignored.
725 The exclude list is initialized to:
727 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
728 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
729 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
731 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
732 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
733 are delimited by whitespace).
735 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
736 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
737 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
739 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
740 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
741 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
743 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
744 to build up the list of files to exclude.
746 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
748 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
749 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
750 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
751 ';' or '#' are ignored.
752 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
754 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
755 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
756 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
758 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
760 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
762 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
764 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
765 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
766 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
767 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
768 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
769 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
770 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
771 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
772 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
775 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
776 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
777 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
780 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
782 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
783 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
784 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
785 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
786 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
787 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
788 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
790 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
791 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
792 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
793 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
794 transfer". For example:
796 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
798 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
799 was located on the remote "src" host.
801 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
802 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
803 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
804 It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
805 file are split on whitespace).
807 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
808 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
809 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
810 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
812 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
813 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
814 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
815 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
816 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
817 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
818 have changed from an earlier backup.
820 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --compare-dest directories may be
821 provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
822 finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
823 and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
825 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
826 See also --copy-dest and --link-dest.
828 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
829 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
830 directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
831 useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
832 files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
833 successfully transferred.
835 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
836 See also --compare-dest and --link-dest.
838 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
839 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
840 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
841 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
845 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
848 Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one --link-dest option is
849 specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
850 the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
851 of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
853 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
854 See also --compare-dest and --copy-dest.
856 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
857 --link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
858 (or implied by -a). If the receiving rsync is not new enough, you can work
859 around this bug by avoiding the -o option.
861 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
862 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
863 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
864 same method that gzip uses.
866 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
867 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
868 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
869 information sent for matching data blocks.
871 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
872 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
875 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
876 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
877 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
878 option is not specified.
880 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
881 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
882 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
883 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
884 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
885 users and groups and what you can do about it.
887 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
888 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
889 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
891 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
892 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
893 rsync defaults to using
894 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
895 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
897 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
900 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
901 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
902 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
905 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
906 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
907 algorithm is for your data.
909 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
910 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
911 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
912 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
913 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
915 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
916 put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
917 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
918 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
919 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
920 its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
921 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
922 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
924 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
925 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
926 "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
927 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
928 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
929 DIR was specified as a relative path).
931 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
932 --exclude of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
933 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
934 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
935 the above --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
936 rule at the end of any other include/exclude rules. Note that if you are
937 supplying your own include/exclude rules, you may need to manually insert a
938 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
939 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
940 a trailing --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
942 IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users or it
943 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
945 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
946 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force --partial to be
947 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial (or
948 -P) is used. For instance, instead of specifying --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
949 along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
950 environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
951 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time the --partial option
952 does not look for this environment value is when --inplace was also
953 specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir).
955 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
956 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
958 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
960 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
963 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
966 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
967 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
968 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
969 remaining in this transfer.
971 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
974 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
977 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
978 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
979 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
980 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
981 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
983 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
984 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
985 transfer that may be interrupted.
987 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
988 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
989 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
990 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
991 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
994 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
995 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
996 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
997 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
998 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
999 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1000 of zero specifies no limit.
1002 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1003 another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
1004 section for details.
1006 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1007 file previously generated by --write-batch.
1008 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1009 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1011 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1012 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1013 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1014 rsync daemon (see also these options in the --daemon mode section).
1016 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1017 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1018 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1019 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1020 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1021 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1022 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1023 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1028 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1032 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1033 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1034 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1036 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1037 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1038 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1039 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1040 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1043 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1044 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
1045 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
1046 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1047 in conjunction with the --config option.
1049 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1050 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1051 The client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value, but their
1052 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1053 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1055 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1056 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
1057 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1058 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1059 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1061 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1062 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1063 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1064 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1065 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1066 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1067 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1070 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1071 rather than the default port 873.
1073 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1074 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1075 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1076 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1077 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1078 try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
1080 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after --daemon, print a short help
1081 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1085 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1087 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
1088 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
1090 Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
1091 the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
1092 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
1093 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
1094 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
1095 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
1096 filename is not skipped.
1098 The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
1099 to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
1100 subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
1101 is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
1102 This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
1104 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1105 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
1106 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1107 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1108 system). The following examples demonstrate this.
1110 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1111 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1112 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1115 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1116 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1117 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1118 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1119 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1121 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1122 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1123 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1124 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1125 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1127 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1128 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1129 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1130 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1131 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1133 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1134 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1135 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1136 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1137 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1140 The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1141 look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1142 (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1144 Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1145 every subcomponent of
1146 every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1147 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
1148 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1149 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1150 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1151 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1154 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1155 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1156 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1158 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1162 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1163 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1165 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1166 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1167 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1168 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1169 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1170 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1171 end of the file name.
1173 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1174 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1176 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1177 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1178 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1180 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1181 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1183 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1184 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1185 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1186 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1187 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1188 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1190 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1191 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1192 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1194 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1195 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1196 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1198 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1199 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1202 The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1203 you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1204 options in the proper order.
1206 Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1207 directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1208 the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1209 important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1212 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1217 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1218 so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1219 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1220 to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1221 before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1222 include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1223 instance, this set of rules works fine:
1228 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1229 + /file-also-included
1233 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1236 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1237 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1238 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1239 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1240 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1241 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1242 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1243 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1244 directories and C source files
1245 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1246 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1247 it would be excluded by the "*")
1250 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1252 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1253 of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1254 feel free to try this out.
1256 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1257 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1258 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1259 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1260 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1261 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1262 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1263 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1264 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1266 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1267 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1268 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1269 using the information stored in the batch file.
1271 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1272 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1273 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1274 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1275 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1276 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1277 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1278 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1280 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1281 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1282 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1283 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1284 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1289 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1291 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1295 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1296 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1299 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1300 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1301 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1302 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1303 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1307 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1308 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1309 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1311 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1312 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1314 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1315 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1316 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1317 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1318 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1319 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1325 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1326 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1327 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1328 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1329 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1330 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1331 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1332 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1333 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1334 option (when reading the batch).
1335 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1336 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1337 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1340 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1341 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1342 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1345 The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1348 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1349 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1350 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1352 --write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1353 --include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1354 without --delete-excluded.
1356 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1357 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1358 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1359 list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1360 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1361 to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1363 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1364 version uses a new implementation.
1366 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1368 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1369 link in the source directory.
1371 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1372 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1374 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1375 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1378 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1379 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1381 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1382 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1383 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1384 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1385 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1386 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1387 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1389 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1390 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1391 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1393 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1395 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1396 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1397 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1399 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1400 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1401 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1402 remote shell like this:
1405 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1408 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1409 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1410 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1411 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1412 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1413 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1414 for non-interactive logins.
1416 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1417 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1418 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1420 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1424 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1425 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1426 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1427 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1428 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1429 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1431 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1432 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1433 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1434 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1435 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1436 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1437 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1438 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1439 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1440 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1441 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1442 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1445 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1449 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1450 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1453 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1454 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1455 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1457 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1458 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1459 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1461 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1462 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1463 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1464 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1466 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1467 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1468 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1470 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1471 default .cvsignore file.
1477 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1483 manpagediagnostics()
1487 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1489 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1491 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1493 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1496 see also the comments on the --delete option
1498 Please report bugs! See the website at
1499 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1501 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1503 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1504 COPYING for details.
1506 A WEB site is available at
1507 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1508 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1511 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1512 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1514 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1516 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1517 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1519 manpagesection(THANKS)
1521 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1522 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1523 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1525 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1526 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1530 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1531 Many people have later contributed to it.
1533 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1534 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)