1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(25 Jan 2002)()()
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 speed up 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, either by 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 connection 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's configuration must allow
145 proxying to port 873.
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 copy symlinks as symlinks
230 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of symlinks
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 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
243 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
244 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
245 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
246 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
247 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
248 --existing only update files that already exist
249 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on the receiving side
250 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
251 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
252 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
253 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
254 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
255 --partial keep partially transferred files
256 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
257 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
258 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
259 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
260 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
261 --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0)
262 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
263 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
264 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
265 -z, --compress compress file data
266 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
267 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
268 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
269 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
270 --version print version number
271 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
272 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
273 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
274 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
275 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
276 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
277 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
278 --stats give some file transfer stats
279 --progress show progress during transfer
280 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
281 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
282 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
283 --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
284 --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
285 -h, --help show this help screen
292 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
293 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
294 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
295 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
299 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
302 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
304 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
305 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
306 single -v will give you information about what files are being
307 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
308 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
309 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
310 you are debugging rsync.
312 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
313 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
314 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
317 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
318 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
321 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
322 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
323 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
324 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
325 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
328 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
329 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
330 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
331 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
332 transferring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with
333 a 1 second resolution this option is useful.
335 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
336 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
337 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
338 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
339 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
341 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
342 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
345 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
346 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
349 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
350 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
353 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
354 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
355 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
356 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
357 example, if you used the command
359 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
361 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
362 machine. If instead you used
364 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
366 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
367 machine. The full path name is preserved.
369 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
370 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
371 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
373 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
374 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
375 very useful for incremental backups.
377 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
378 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
380 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
381 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
384 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
385 symlink on the destination.
387 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
388 they point to is copied, rather than the symlink.
390 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
391 symbolic links that point outside the source tree. Absolute symlinks
392 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
393 source path itself when --relative is used.
395 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
396 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
397 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
398 give unexpected results.
400 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
401 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
402 option hard links are treated like regular files.
404 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
405 are in the list of files being sent.
407 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
409 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
410 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
411 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
412 target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
413 "disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both
414 the source and target are on the local machine.
416 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
419 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
420 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
422 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
423 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
424 only the super-user can set file ownership.
426 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
427 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
428 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
429 receiver is a member of will be preserved (by group name, not group id
432 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
433 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
434 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
436 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
437 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
438 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
439 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
440 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
441 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
444 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
445 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
447 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
448 up less space on the destination.
450 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
451 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
452 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
454 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
455 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
456 contents of only one filesystem.
458 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
459 only update files that already exist on the destination.
461 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
462 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
465 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
466 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
467 to prevent disasters.
469 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
470 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
471 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
473 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
475 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
476 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
477 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
479 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
480 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
481 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
482 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
483 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
485 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
486 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
487 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
489 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
490 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
491 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
492 then use the --delete-after switch.
494 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
495 even when there are IO errors.
497 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
498 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
499 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
500 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
502 dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
503 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
505 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
506 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
507 remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
508 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
510 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
511 environment variable.
513 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
515 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
516 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
517 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
520 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
521 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
522 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
524 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
525 to build up the list of files to exclude.
527 See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
530 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
531 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
532 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
533 ';' or '#' are ignored.
535 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
536 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
537 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
539 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
542 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
545 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
546 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
547 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
548 a file should be ignored.
550 The exclude list is initialized to:
552 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
553 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
554 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
556 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
557 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
559 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
560 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. See
561 the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
563 dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
564 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
565 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
566 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
567 making things faster.
569 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
570 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
572 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
573 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
574 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
575 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
577 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
578 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
579 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
580 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
582 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
583 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
584 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
585 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
587 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
588 the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
589 files against when doing transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to
590 a new destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
591 flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
592 example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
593 although this requires also doing the transfer with -I to avoid skipping
594 files that haven't changed). This option increases the usefulness of
595 --partial because partially transferred files will remain in the new
596 temporary destination until they have a chance to be completed. If DIR is
597 a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
599 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
600 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
601 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
602 same method that gzip uses.
604 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
605 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
606 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
607 information sent for matching data blocks.
609 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
610 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
613 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
614 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
615 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
616 option is not specified.
618 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group
619 name does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id
620 from the source system is used instead.
622 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
623 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
624 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
626 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
627 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
628 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
630 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
631 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
632 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
633 (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
634 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
637 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
638 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
639 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
640 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
641 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
642 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
643 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
646 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
647 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
648 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
649 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
650 in conjunction with the --config option.
652 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
653 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
656 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
657 rather than the default port 873.
659 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching
660 a remote shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to
661 the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to
662 non-blocking IO. You may find the --blocking-io option is needed for some
663 remote shells that can't handle non-blocking IO. Ssh prefers blocking IO.
665 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
668 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
669 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
670 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
673 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
674 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
675 algorithm is for your data.
677 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
678 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
679 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
680 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
681 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
683 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
684 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
687 This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
688 the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
690 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
691 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
692 option to make it easier.
694 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
695 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
696 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
697 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
698 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
701 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
702 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
703 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
704 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
705 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
706 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
707 of zero specifies no limit.
709 dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be
710 transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with
711 PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
713 dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch,
714 using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH
715 MODE" section for details.
719 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
721 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
722 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
724 rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
725 the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
726 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
727 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
728 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
729 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
730 filename is not skipped.
732 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
733 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
734 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
736 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
737 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
738 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
740 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
743 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
744 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
745 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
746 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
747 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
748 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
749 end of the file name.
751 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
752 directory, not a file, link or device.
754 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
755 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
756 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
758 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
759 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
761 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
762 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
763 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
764 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
765 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
766 actually be any portion of a path.
768 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
769 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
770 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
772 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
773 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
774 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
776 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
777 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
780 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
781 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
783 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
784 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
785 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
786 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
787 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
790 Here are some exclude/include examples:
793 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
794 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
795 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
796 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
797 levels below a base directory called foo
798 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
799 or more levels below a base directory called foo
800 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
801 directories and C source files
802 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
803 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
804 it would be excluded by the "*")
807 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
809 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
810 of rsync. The interface or behaviour may change before it stabilizes.
812 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
813 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
814 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
815 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
816 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
817 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
818 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
819 client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against
820 other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The
821 filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by
822 the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is
823 then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch
824 option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree.
825 Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the
826 batch update fileset.
828 The fileset consists of 4 files:
831 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments
832 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata
833 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums
834 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change
837 The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
838 destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
839 using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
840 destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
841 path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the
842 original destination tree path.
844 Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the
845 file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when
846 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
847 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at
848 once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
853 $ rsync --write_batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
854 $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
855 $ rsh remote rsync --read_batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
857 $ rsh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
860 In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
861 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
862 pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
863 Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
864 /adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to
869 The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update
870 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
871 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
872 is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
873 destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
874 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
877 The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
878 one used on the original destination.
880 The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
881 error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
882 size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.
884 The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
887 See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
890 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
892 Three basic behaviours are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
893 link in the source directory.
895 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
896 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
898 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
899 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
902 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
903 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
905 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
906 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
907 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
908 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
909 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
910 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
911 unsafe links to be ommitted altogether.
913 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
915 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
916 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
917 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
919 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
920 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
921 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
922 remote shell like this:
925 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
928 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
929 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
930 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
931 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
932 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
933 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
934 for non-interactive logins.
936 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
937 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
938 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
940 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
943 dit(bf(RERR_SYNTAX 1)) Syntax or usage error
944 dit(bf(RERR_PROTOCOL 2)) Protocol incompatibility
945 dit(bf(RERR_FILESELECT 3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
947 dit(bf(RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
948 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
949 them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and
952 dit(bf(RERR_SOCKETIO 10)) Error in socket IO
953 dit(bf(RERR_FILEIO 11)) Error in file IO
954 dit(bf(RERR_STREAMIO 12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
955 dit(bf(RERR_MESSAGEIO 13)) Errors with program diagnostics
956 dit(bf(RERR_IPC 14)) Error in IPC code
957 dit(bf(RERR_SIGNAL 20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
958 dit(bf(RERR_WAITCHILD 21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
959 dit(bf(RERR_MALLOC 22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
960 dit(bf(RERR_TIMEOUT 30)) Timeout in data send/receive
963 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
967 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
968 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
971 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
972 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
973 be used instead of the -e option.
975 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
976 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
977 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
979 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
980 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
981 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
982 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
984 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
985 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
987 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
988 default .cvsignore file.
1000 manpagediagnostics()
1004 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1006 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
1009 see also the comments on the --delete option
1011 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
1012 url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
1014 manpagesection(VERSION)
1015 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
1017 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1019 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1020 COPYING for details.
1022 A WEB site is available at
1023 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1024 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1027 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1028 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1030 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1032 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1033 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1035 manpagesection(THANKS)
1037 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1038 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1039 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1041 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer.
1046 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org> and Paul
1049 rsync is now maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>.
1051 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1052 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
1054 If you suspect you have found a security vulnerability in rsync,
1055 please send it directly to Martin Pool and Andrew Tridgell. For other
1056 enquiries, please use the mailing list.