1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(6 Nov 2006)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
24 Rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
25 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
26 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
29 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
30 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
31 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
32 report that accompanies this package.
34 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
35 that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified time (by
36 default). Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by
37 options) are made on the destination file directly when the quick check
38 indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
40 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
43 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
44 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
45 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
46 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
47 it() does not require super-user privileges
48 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
49 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
53 manpagesection(GENERAL)
55 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
56 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
58 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
59 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
60 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
61 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
62 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
63 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
64 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
65 "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
66 an exception to this latter rule).
68 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
69 destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
71 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
72 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
76 See the file README for installation instructions.
78 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
79 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
80 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
81 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
82 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
84 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
85 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
87 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
92 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
93 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
95 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
97 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
99 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
100 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
101 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
102 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
103 differences. See the tech report for details.
105 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
107 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
108 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
109 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
110 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
111 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
112 size of data portions of the transfer.
114 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
116 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
117 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
118 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
119 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
120 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
121 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
122 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
126 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
127 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
130 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
131 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
132 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
135 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
136 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
139 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
140 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
141 an improved copy command.
143 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
144 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
146 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
148 See the following section for more details.
150 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
152 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
153 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
155 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
157 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
158 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
159 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
160 to be a part of the filenames.
162 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
164 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
165 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
166 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
167 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
168 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
169 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
170 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
173 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
174 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
177 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
178 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
180 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
182 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
183 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
184 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
185 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
186 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
188 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
192 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
193 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
194 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
195 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
197 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
198 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
199 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
200 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
201 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
204 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
206 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
208 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
209 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
210 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
211 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
212 may be useful when scripting rsync.
214 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
215 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
217 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
218 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
219 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
220 proxy connections to port 873.
222 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
223 setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you
224 wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
225 contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
226 command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For
229 verb( export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
230 rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
231 rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/ )
233 The command specifed above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost,
234 which forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost
237 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
239 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
240 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
241 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
242 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
243 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
244 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
245 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
246 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
247 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
248 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
249 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
250 connections from "localhost".)
252 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
253 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
254 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
255 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
256 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
257 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
259 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
261 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
262 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
263 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
264 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
265 this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
267 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
269 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
270 used to log-in to the "module".
272 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
274 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
275 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
276 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
277 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
278 socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
279 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
280 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
282 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
283 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
285 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
287 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
289 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
290 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
292 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
294 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
297 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
301 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
303 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
306 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
307 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
308 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
310 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
313 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
315 This is launched from cron every few hours.
317 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
319 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
320 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
321 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
322 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
323 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
324 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
325 -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
326 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
327 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
328 -R, --relative use relative path names
329 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
330 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
331 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
332 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
333 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
334 --inplace update destination files in-place
335 --append append data onto shorter files
336 --append-verify --append w/old data in file cheksum
337 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
338 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
339 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
340 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
341 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
342 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
343 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
344 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
345 -p, --perms preserve permissions
346 -E, --executability preserve executability
347 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
348 -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
349 -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
350 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
351 -g, --group preserve group
352 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
353 --specials preserve special files
354 -D same as --devices --specials
355 -t, --times preserve modification times
356 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
357 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
358 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
359 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
360 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
361 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
362 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
363 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
364 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
365 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
366 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
367 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
368 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
369 --del an alias for --delete-during
370 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
371 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
372 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
373 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
374 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
375 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
376 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
377 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
378 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
379 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
380 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
381 --partial keep partially transferred files
382 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
383 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
384 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
385 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
386 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
387 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
388 --size-only skip files that match in size
389 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
390 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
391 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
392 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
393 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
394 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
395 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
396 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
397 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
398 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
399 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
400 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
401 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
402 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
403 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
404 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
405 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
406 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
407 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
408 -s, --protect-args no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
409 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
410 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
411 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
412 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
413 --stats give some file-transfer stats
414 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
415 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
416 --progress show progress during transfer
417 -P same as --partial --progress
418 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
419 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
420 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
421 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
422 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
423 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
424 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
425 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
426 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
427 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
428 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
429 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filesnames
430 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
431 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
432 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
433 --version print version number
434 (-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
436 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
438 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
439 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
440 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
441 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
442 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
443 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
444 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
445 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
446 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
447 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
448 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
449 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
450 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
454 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
455 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
456 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
457 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
461 dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
462 available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
463 versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
464 option without any other args.
466 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
468 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
469 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
470 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
471 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
472 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
473 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
474 you are debugging rsync.
476 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
477 a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
478 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
479 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
480 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
481 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
482 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
483 any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
485 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
486 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
487 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
490 dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
491 by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
492 message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
493 that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
494 a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
495 request the list of modules from the daemon.
497 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
498 already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
499 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
502 dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
503 finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
504 transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
505 time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
506 when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
507 not preserve timestamps exactly.
509 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
510 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
511 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
512 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
513 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
514 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
515 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
517 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
518 been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
519 uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
520 of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
521 changes this to compare a 128-bit MD4 checksum for each file that has a
522 matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
523 a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
524 this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
525 so this can slow things down significantly.
527 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
528 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
529 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
530 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
531 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
533 Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
534 correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
535 checksum that is generated when as the file is transferred, but that
536 automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
537 option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
539 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
540 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
541 everything (with -H being a notable omission).
542 The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
543 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
545 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
546 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
549 dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
550 the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
551 only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
552 bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
553 (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
554 specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
555 (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
557 For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
558 bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
559 could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
561 The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
562 bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
563 Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
564 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
565 changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
568 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
569 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
571 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
572 incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
573 transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
574 completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
575 does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
576 both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
578 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
579 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
580 bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), and bf(--delay-updates).
581 Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
582 bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
583 (use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
584 explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
585 than using bf(--delete-after).
587 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the bf(--no-inc-recursive)
588 option or its shorter bf(--no-i-r) alias.
590 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
591 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
592 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
593 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
594 example, if you used this command:
596 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
598 ... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
599 machine. If instead you used
601 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
603 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
604 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
605 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
608 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
609 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
610 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected
611 behaviors when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had
612 a symlink in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink,
613 include both the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real
614 path. If you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may
615 need to use the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option.
617 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
618 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
619 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
620 the source path, like this:
622 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
624 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
625 dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
626 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
627 source path. For example, when pushing files:
629 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
631 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
632 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
633 If you're pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only
634 for a non-daemon transfer):
637 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
638 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
641 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
642 bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
643 directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
644 means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
645 left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
646 created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
647 elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
650 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
651 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
652 are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
653 "bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
654 delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
655 the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
656 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
657 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
658 preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
659 affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
661 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
662 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
663 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
665 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
666 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
667 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
668 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
670 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
671 bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
672 also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
673 filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
674 (e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
675 deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
676 need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
677 in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
678 your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
679 rule would never be reached).
681 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
682 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
683 side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
684 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
685 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
686 will keep their original filenames).
688 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
689 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
690 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
692 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
693 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
694 file. (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to the
695 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
697 Note that this does not affect the copying of symlinks or other special
698 files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and receiver
699 is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what
700 date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory
701 where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
704 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
705 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
706 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
707 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
708 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
709 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
710 basis file for the transfer.
712 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
713 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
716 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
717 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
718 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
721 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
722 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
723 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
724 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
727 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
728 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
729 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
730 side. Any files that are the same size or shorter on the receiving size
731 are skipped. Files that do not yet exist on the receiving side are also
732 sent, since they are considered to have 0 length. Implies bf(--inplace),
733 but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
736 dit(bf(--append-verify)) This works just like the bf(--append) option, but
737 the existing data on the receiving side is included in the full-file
738 checksum verification step, which will cause a file to be resent if the
739 final verification step fails (rsync uses a normal, non-appending
740 bf(--inplace) transfer for the resend).
742 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the bf(--append) option worked like
743 bf(--append-verify), so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
744 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
745 will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
747 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
748 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
749 unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
750 (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
751 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
752 output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
753 bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
755 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
756 symlink on the destination.
758 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
759 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
760 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
761 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
762 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
763 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
764 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
765 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
767 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
768 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
769 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
770 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
771 additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
773 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
774 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
775 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
776 give unexpected results.
778 dit(bf(-k, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
779 a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
780 useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
781 they would be using bf(--copy-links).
783 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
784 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
785 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
786 bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
788 See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
791 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
792 a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
793 matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
794 receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
796 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
797 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
798 bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
799 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
800 bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
803 See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
805 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
806 the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
807 side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
808 as though they were separate files.
810 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
811 are in the list of files being sent.
813 If incremental recursion is active (see bf(--recursive)), rsync may transfer
814 a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for the file
815 exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
816 the transfer, just its efficiency. One way to avoid this is to disable
817 incremental recursion using the bf(--no-inc-recursive) option.
819 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
820 destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
821 also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
822 be the source permissions.)
824 When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
827 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
828 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
829 the execute permission for the file.
830 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
831 file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
832 permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
833 specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
834 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
835 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
838 Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
839 rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
840 such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
842 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
843 permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
844 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
845 bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
846 all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
847 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
848 putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
849 and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
851 quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
853 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
855 quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
857 (Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
858 the "--no-*" options.)
860 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
861 directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
862 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
863 newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
864 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
865 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
866 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
867 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
870 dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
871 executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
872 not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
873 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
874 executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
875 modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
878 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
880 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
881 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
884 If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
886 dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
887 ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs.
888 The option also implies bf(--perms).
890 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for this
891 option to work properly. See the bf(--fake-super) option for a way to backup
892 and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
894 dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
895 extended attributes to be the same as the local ones.
897 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done by a
898 super-user copies all namespaces except system.*. A normal user only copies
899 the user.* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user namespaces as
900 a normal user, see the bf(--fake-super) option.
902 dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
903 comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
904 transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
905 that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
906 can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
908 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
909 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
910 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
911 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
913 quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
915 It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
916 additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
918 See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
919 permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
921 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
922 destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
923 receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
924 and bf(--fake-super) options).
925 Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to
926 the invoking user on the receiving side.
928 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
929 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
930 bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
932 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
933 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
934 program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
935 specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
936 is a member of will be preserved.
937 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
938 user on the receiving side.
940 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
941 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
942 (see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
944 dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
945 block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
946 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
947 super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
949 dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
950 such as named sockets and fifos.
952 dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
954 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
955 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
956 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
957 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
958 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
959 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
960 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
962 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
963 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
964 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
965 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
967 dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
968 activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
969 activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
970 all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
971 option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
972 for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
973 also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
974 being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
975 super-user can use bf(--no-super).
977 dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
978 super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via
979 special extended attributes that are attached to each file (as needed). This
980 includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
981 device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
982 any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
983 the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
984 access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file, the
985 files we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating user).
986 This option also handles ACLs (if bf(--acls) was specified) and non-user
987 extended attributes (if bf(--xattrs) was specified).
989 This is a good way to backup data withou using a super-user, and to store
990 ACLs from incompatible systems.
992 The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
993 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync
996 quote(tt( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/))
998 Since there is only one "side" in a local copy, this option affects both
999 the sending and recieving of files. You'll need to specify a copy using
1000 "localhost" if you need to avoid this, possibly using the "lsh" shell
1001 script (from the support directory) as a substitute for an actual remote
1002 shell (see bf(--rsh)).
1004 This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
1006 See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1008 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
1009 up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
1010 not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
1012 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
1013 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
1014 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
1016 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
1017 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
1019 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the delta transfer algorithm
1020 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
1021 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
1022 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
1023 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
1024 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
1026 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
1027 filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
1028 to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
1029 through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
1030 the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
1031 in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
1034 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1035 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1036 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1037 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1039 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
1040 bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1041 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1044 dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
1045 creating files (including directories) that do not exist
1046 yet on the destination. If this option is
1047 combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
1048 (which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1050 dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
1051 already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
1052 directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
1054 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
1055 option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1056 a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1057 used properly), using bf(--ignore existing) will ensure that the
1058 already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1059 permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option
1060 is only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1062 dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
1063 side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
1064 and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
1066 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
1067 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
1068 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
1069 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
1070 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
1071 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
1072 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
1073 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
1074 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1075 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1077 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
1078 was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
1079 (bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
1081 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
1082 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
1083 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
1085 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
1086 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
1087 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
1088 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
1089 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
1091 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1092 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
1093 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
1094 bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
1095 the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1096 bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
1098 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1099 side be done before the transfer starts.
1100 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1102 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
1103 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
1104 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
1105 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
1106 specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
1107 algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
1108 memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1110 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
1111 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
1112 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
1113 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
1114 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1116 dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1117 side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
1118 completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1119 temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1120 is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1121 the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1122 using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1125 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1126 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1127 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1128 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
1129 current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1130 recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1131 transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1132 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1134 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1135 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
1136 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
1137 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1138 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1139 bf(--delete-excluded).
1140 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1142 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
1143 even when there are I/O errors.
1145 dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1146 when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1147 deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1149 Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1150 using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1151 bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
1153 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
1154 files or directories. If that limit is exceeded, a warning is output
1155 and rsync exits with an error code of 25 (new for 3.0.0).
1157 Also new for version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to be warned
1158 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1159 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1160 version the client is, you can use the less obvious bf(--max-delete=-1) as
1161 a backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1162 older versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1164 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1165 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
1166 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
1167 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1169 The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1170 "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1171 gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1172 If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1173 "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
1174 Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1175 be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
1177 Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
1180 dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1181 file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1182 transferring small, junk files.
1183 See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
1185 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1186 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1187 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
1189 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
1190 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
1191 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1192 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
1194 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
1195 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
1196 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1197 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
1198 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1199 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1201 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1202 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1203 or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1204 and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1205 argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1206 inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1207 double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1208 shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1211 tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1212 tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1215 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1216 options in their .ssh/config file.)
1218 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1219 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1221 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1223 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1224 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1225 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1226 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1227 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1228 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1231 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1232 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1234 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
1236 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1237 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1238 systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
1239 a file should be ignored.
1241 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1242 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1244 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1245 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
1246 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .bzr/)))
1248 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1249 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1250 are delimited by whitespace).
1252 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1253 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1254 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1255 See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
1257 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1258 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1259 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1260 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1261 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1262 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1263 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1264 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1265 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1266 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1269 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1270 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1271 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1273 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1274 to build up the list of files to exclude.
1276 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1278 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1279 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1281 quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1283 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1284 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1285 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1288 quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1290 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1292 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1295 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1296 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1297 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1299 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1301 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1302 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1303 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1304 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1306 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1307 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1308 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1310 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1312 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1313 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1314 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1315 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1317 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1318 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1319 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1320 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1323 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1324 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1325 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1326 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1327 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1328 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1329 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1330 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1331 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1332 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1333 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1334 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1337 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1338 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1339 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1342 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1344 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1345 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1346 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1347 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1348 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1349 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1350 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1351 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1353 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1354 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1355 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1357 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1358 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1359 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1360 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1361 transfer". For example:
1363 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1365 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1366 was located on the remote "src" host.
1368 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1369 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1370 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1371 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1372 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1373 file are split on whitespace).
1375 If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
1376 bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
1377 filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
1378 receiving host's charset.
1380 dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and some options to
1381 the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
1382 means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
1383 characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
1384 expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
1386 If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args will also be translated
1387 from the local to the remote character set. The translation happens before
1388 wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
1390 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1391 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1392 on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1393 file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1395 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1396 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1397 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1398 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1399 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1400 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1401 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1402 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1403 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1404 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1405 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1406 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1407 new version on the disk at the same time.
1409 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1410 space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1411 which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1412 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1413 have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1414 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1415 about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1416 path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1417 single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1418 partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1419 rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1420 an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1422 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1423 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1424 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1425 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1426 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1428 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1429 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1430 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1432 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1433 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1434 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1435 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1436 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1437 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1438 have changed from an earlier backup.
1440 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1441 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1443 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1444 and the attributes updated.
1445 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1446 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1448 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1449 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1451 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1452 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1453 directory using a local copy.
1454 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1455 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1456 been successfully transferred.
1458 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1459 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1460 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1461 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1463 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1464 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1466 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1467 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1468 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1469 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1472 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1474 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1475 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1477 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1478 and the attributes updated.
1479 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1480 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1482 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1483 rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
1484 dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
1485 change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
1488 Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1489 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1490 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1493 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1494 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1496 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1497 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1498 specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1499 the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1501 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1502 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1503 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1505 Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1506 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1507 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1508 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1510 See the bf(--skip-compress) option for the default list of file suffixes
1511 that will not be compressed.
1513 dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1514 (see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1515 the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1517 dit(bf(--skip-compress=LIST)) Override the list of file suffixes that will
1518 not be compressed. The bf(LIST) should be one or more file suffixes
1519 (without the dot) separated by slashes (/).
1521 You may specify an empty string to indicate that no file should be skipped.
1523 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
1524 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
1525 "[:alpha:]", are supported).
1527 The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
1529 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
1530 matches 2 suffixes):
1532 verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
1534 The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (several
1535 of these are newly added for 3.0.0):
1537 verb( gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg)
1539 This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
1540 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
1541 its list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
1544 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1545 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1548 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1549 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1550 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1551 option is not specified.
1553 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1554 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1555 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1556 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1557 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1558 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1560 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1561 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1562 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1564 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1565 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1566 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1567 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1569 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1570 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1571 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1572 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1573 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1575 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1576 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1577 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1578 slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
1579 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1580 special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1581 connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1582 bf(--daemon) mode section.
1584 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1585 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1586 rsync defaults to using
1587 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1588 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1590 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1591 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1592 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
1593 If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1594 if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1595 with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1598 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
1599 format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1600 type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1601 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1604 The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1607 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1609 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1611 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1612 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1613 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
1615 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1616 have attributes that are being modified).
1619 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1620 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1621 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1623 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1624 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1625 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1626 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1627 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1628 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1630 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1633 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1634 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1635 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1636 by the file transfer.
1637 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1638 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1639 means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1640 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a regular file or device is
1641 transferred without bf(--times).
1642 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1643 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1644 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1645 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1646 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1647 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1648 it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for reporting update (access) time changes
1649 (a feature that is not yet released).
1650 it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
1651 it() The bf(x) slot is reserved for reporting extended attribute changes
1652 (a feature that is not yet released).
1655 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1656 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1657 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1658 outputting them as a verbose message).
1660 dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1661 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
1662 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1663 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1664 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1666 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1667 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1668 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
1669 included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
1670 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1671 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1674 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1675 bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1676 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1678 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1679 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1680 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1681 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1682 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1683 (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1685 dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1686 to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1687 requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1688 transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1689 enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1690 option if you wish to override this.
1692 Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1695 verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1697 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1700 dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1701 per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1702 (which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1703 specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1704 For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1705 in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1707 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1708 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1709 algorithm is for your data.
1711 The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
1712 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1713 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1714 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1715 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1716 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1717 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1718 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1719 include the size of symlinks.
1720 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1721 for just the transferred files.
1722 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1723 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1724 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1725 recreating the updated files.
1726 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1727 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1728 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1730 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1731 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1732 sending side for this to be present.
1733 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1734 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1735 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1736 from the client side to the server side.
1737 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1738 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1739 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1740 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
1743 dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1744 unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1745 valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1746 characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1749 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1750 and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1751 would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1752 escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1754 dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1755 This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1756 this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1757 G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1760 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1761 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1762 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1763 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1764 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1766 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1767 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1768 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1769 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1770 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1771 after it has served its purpose.
1773 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1774 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1776 rsync is sending files without using the delta transfer algorithm).
1778 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1779 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1780 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1781 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1782 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1784 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1785 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1786 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1787 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1788 receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1789 the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
1792 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1793 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1794 rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1795 to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1796 rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1797 should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1798 bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1799 bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1800 left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1802 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1803 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1805 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1806 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1807 enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1808 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1809 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1810 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1811 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1812 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1813 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1814 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1816 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1817 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1818 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1819 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1820 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1822 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1823 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1824 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1825 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1826 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1827 each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1828 bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1829 comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1830 ".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1831 you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1832 Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1834 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1835 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1836 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1837 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1839 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1840 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1842 and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1843 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1845 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1846 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1847 parallel hierarchy of files).
1849 dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1850 rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1851 that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1852 creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1853 recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1856 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1857 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1858 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1859 being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1862 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1863 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1864 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1866 quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1868 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1869 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1870 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1871 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1873 quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
1875 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1876 time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
1877 in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1879 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1880 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1882 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1884 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
1887 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1889 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
1890 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
1891 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
1892 is maintained until the end.
1894 These statistics can be misleading if the delta transfer algorithm is
1895 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
1896 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
1897 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
1898 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
1899 was finishing the matched part of the file.
1901 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
1902 summary line that looks like this:
1904 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
1906 In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
1907 of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
1908 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
1909 during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
1910 receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
1911 the 396 total files in the file-list.
1913 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1914 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1915 transfer that may be interrupted.
1917 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
1918 file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
1919 It should contain just the password as a single line.
1921 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
1922 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
1923 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
1926 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1927 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
1928 arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
1929 command that includes a
1930 destination arg into a file-listing command, (2) to be able to specify more
1931 than one local source arg (note: be sure to include the destination), or
1932 (3) to avoid the automatically added "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')" options that
1933 rsync usually uses as a compatibility kluge when generating a non-recursive
1934 listing. Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded
1935 by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
1936 without using this option. For example:
1938 verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
1940 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1941 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1942 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1943 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1944 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1945 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1946 of zero specifies no limit.
1948 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1949 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1950 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1952 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1953 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1954 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1955 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1957 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1958 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1959 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1960 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1961 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1964 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1965 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1966 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1967 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1969 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1970 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1971 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1972 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1974 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1975 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1976 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1977 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1978 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1979 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1980 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1982 dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
1983 sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
1984 the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
1985 fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
1986 separated by a comma (local first), e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591).
1987 Finally, you can specify a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion.
1988 The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
1989 affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
1991 If you specify the bf(--protect-args) option (bf(-s)), rsync will translate
1992 the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the
1993 remote host. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
1995 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
1996 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
1997 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
1998 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
1999 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
2001 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2002 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
2003 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
2004 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
2006 If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2007 will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2010 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
2011 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
2012 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
2013 by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
2014 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
2015 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
2016 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
2017 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
2021 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
2023 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
2026 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
2027 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
2028 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
2030 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
2031 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
2032 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
2033 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
2034 requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
2037 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2038 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
2039 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
2040 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
2041 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2043 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
2044 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
2045 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
2046 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
2047 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
2049 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
2050 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
2051 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
2052 a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
2053 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
2055 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
2056 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
2057 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
2058 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
2059 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
2060 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
2061 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
2064 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
2065 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
2066 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2068 dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2069 given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
2072 dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2073 given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
2074 file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
2075 case transfer logging is turned off.
2077 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
2078 rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
2080 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
2081 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
2082 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
2083 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
2085 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2086 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
2087 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
2088 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
2089 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
2090 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
2092 If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2093 will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2096 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
2097 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
2100 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
2102 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
2103 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
2104 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
2105 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
2107 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
2108 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
2109 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
2110 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
2111 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
2112 filename is not skipped.
2114 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
2115 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
2118 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2119 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2122 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
2123 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
2124 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
2125 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
2126 Here are the available rule prefixes:
2129 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
2130 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
2131 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
2132 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
2133 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
2134 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
2135 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
2136 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
2137 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
2140 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
2141 comment lines that start with a "#".
2143 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
2144 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
2145 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
2146 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
2148 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
2149 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
2150 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
2151 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
2154 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
2155 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
2156 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
2157 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
2159 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
2161 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
2162 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
2163 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
2164 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
2165 can take several forms:
2168 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
2169 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
2170 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
2171 regular expressions.
2172 Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the
2173 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
2174 per-directory rule).
2175 An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the
2176 tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the
2177 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
2178 end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
2179 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
2180 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
2181 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
2183 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
2184 directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.
2185 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
2186 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
2187 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
2188 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
2189 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
2190 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
2191 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
2192 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2193 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2194 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
2195 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2196 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2197 matched only against the final component of the filename.
2198 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
2199 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
2201 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
2202 "dir_name/" had been specified) and everything in the directory
2203 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2207 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2208 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
2209 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2210 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2211 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2212 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2213 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2214 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2215 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2216 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2217 For instance, this won't work:
2220 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2221 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2225 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2226 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2227 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
2228 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
2229 "- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2230 solution is to add specific include rules for all
2231 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2236 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2237 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2238 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2242 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2245 it() "- *.o" would exclude all names matching *.o
2246 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2247 transfer-root directory
2248 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2249 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2250 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2251 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2252 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2253 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
2254 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2255 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
2256 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2257 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2258 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2261 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2263 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
2264 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2267 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2268 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2269 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2270 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2271 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2272 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2273 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2274 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2275 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2276 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2282 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2283 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2284 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2285 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2286 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2289 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
2292 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
2293 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2294 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
2295 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2296 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2297 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2298 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2299 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2300 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
2301 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
2302 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2303 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
2304 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2305 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
2306 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2308 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
2309 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
2310 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
2311 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2312 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
2313 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
2316 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
2319 it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
2320 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
2321 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
2322 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2323 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2324 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
2325 it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
2326 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2328 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2329 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2331 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2332 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2333 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2334 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2335 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
2336 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
2337 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2338 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2339 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2340 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2341 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
2342 it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2343 ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2344 option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2345 marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2346 on the source from being deleted on the destination.
2349 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2350 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2351 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2352 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
2353 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
2354 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
2355 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
2356 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2357 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2359 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2360 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2361 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2362 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2365 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2368 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2370 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2375 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2376 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2377 filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2378 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2381 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2382 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2383 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2384 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2386 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2388 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2389 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2390 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2391 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2392 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2394 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2397 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2398 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2399 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2402 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2403 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2404 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2405 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2406 a part of the transfer.
2408 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2409 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2410 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2411 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2412 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2413 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2414 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2415 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2419 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2424 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2427 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2428 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2429 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2430 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2431 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2432 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2433 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2434 your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
2436 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2438 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2439 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2440 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2441 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2442 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2443 out the parent's rules).
2445 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2447 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2448 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2449 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2450 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2451 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2452 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2454 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2455 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2456 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2457 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2458 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2460 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2461 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2462 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2465 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2466 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2467 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2468 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2469 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2473 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2474 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2475 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2476 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2477 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2481 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2482 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2483 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2484 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2485 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2489 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2490 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2491 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2492 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2493 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2496 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2497 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2498 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2500 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2502 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2503 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2504 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2505 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2508 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2509 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2512 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2513 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2514 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2515 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2516 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2517 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2519 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2521 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2522 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2523 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2524 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2525 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2527 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2528 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2530 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2531 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2532 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2533 per-directory merge rule.
2535 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2536 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2537 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2538 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2539 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2540 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2542 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2544 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2546 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2548 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2549 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2550 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2551 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2552 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2553 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2554 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2555 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2556 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2558 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2559 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2560 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2561 using the information stored in the batch file.
2563 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2564 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2565 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2566 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2567 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
2569 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2570 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2571 path differs from the original destination tree path.
2573 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2574 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2575 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2576 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2577 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2582 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2583 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2584 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2588 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2589 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2592 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2593 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2594 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2595 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2596 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2599 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2600 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2601 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2602 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2603 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2604 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2605 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2606 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2607 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2608 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2609 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2614 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2615 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2616 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2617 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2618 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2619 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2620 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2621 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2622 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2623 option (when reading the batch).
2624 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2625 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2626 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2629 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2630 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2631 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2632 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2633 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2634 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2635 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2637 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2638 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2639 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2640 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2641 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2642 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2643 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2645 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2646 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2647 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2648 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2649 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2650 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2652 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2653 version uses a new implementation.
2655 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2657 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2658 link in the source directory.
2660 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2661 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2663 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2664 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2667 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2668 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2670 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2671 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2672 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2673 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2674 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2675 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2676 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2677 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2679 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2680 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
2681 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2683 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2684 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2685 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2687 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2688 symlinks for any other options to affect).
2690 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2691 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2693 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2694 skip all safe symlinks.
2696 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2699 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2701 manpagediagnostics()
2703 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2704 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2705 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2707 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2708 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2709 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2710 remote shell like this:
2712 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2714 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2715 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2716 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2717 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2718 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2719 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2720 for non-interactive logins.
2722 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2723 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2724 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2726 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2730 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2731 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2732 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2733 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2734 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2735 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2737 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2738 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2739 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2740 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2741 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2742 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2743 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2744 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2745 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
2746 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2747 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2748 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2749 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2750 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2753 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2756 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2757 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2759 dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
2760 environment variable.
2761 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2762 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2763 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2764 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2765 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2766 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2767 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2768 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2769 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2770 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2771 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2772 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2773 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2774 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2775 default .cvsignore file.
2780 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2788 times are transferred as *nix time_t values
2790 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2792 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2794 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2797 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2799 Please report bugs! See the web site at
2800 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2802 manpagesection(VERSION)
2804 This man page is current for version 2.6.9 of rsync.
2806 manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
2808 The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
2809 and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
2810 awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
2811 when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
2812 the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
2813 named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
2816 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2818 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2819 COPYING for details.
2821 A WEB site is available at
2822 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2823 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2826 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2827 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2829 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2831 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2832 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2834 manpagesection(THANKS)
2836 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2837 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2838 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2840 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2841 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2845 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2846 Many people have later contributed to it.
2848 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2849 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)