1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3 manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync server)
10 The rsyncd.conf file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when
11 run as an rsync server.
13 The rsyncd.conf file controls authentication, access, logging and
16 manpagesection(FILE FORMAT)
18 The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
19 name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next
20 module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
22 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents
23 either a comment, a module name or a parameter.
25 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
26 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
27 whitespace in module and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
28 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
29 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
31 Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing
34 Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the
35 customary UNIX fashion.
37 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
38 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
39 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
42 manpagesection(LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON)
44 The rsync daemon is launched by specifying the --daemon option to
47 The daemon must run with root privileges if you wish to use chroot, to
48 bind to a port numbered under 1024 (as is the default 873), or to set
49 file ownership. Otherwise, it must just have permission to read and
50 write the appropriate data, log, and lock files.
52 You can launch it either via inetd, as a stand-alone daemon, or from
53 an rsync client via a remote shell. If run as a stand-alone daemon then
54 just run the command "rsync --daemon" from a suitable startup script.
55 If run from an rsync client via a remote shell (by specifying both the
56 "-e/--rsh" option and server mode with "::" or "rsync://"), the --daemon
57 option is automatically passed to the remote side.
59 When run via inetd you should add a line like this to /etc/services:
63 and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf:
65 quote(rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon)
67 Replace "/usr/bin/rsync" with the path to where you have rsync installed on
68 your system. You will then need to send inetd a HUP signal to tell it to
69 reread its config file.
71 Note that you should not send the rsync server a HUP signal to force
72 it to reread the tt(rsyncd.conf) file. The file is re-read on each client
75 manpagesection(GLOBAL OPTIONS)
77 The first parameters in the file (before a [module] header) are the
80 You may also include any module parameters in the global part of the
81 config file in which case the supplied value will override the
82 default for that parameter.
85 dit(bf(motd file)) The "motd file" option allows you to specify a
86 "message of the day" to display to clients on each connect. This
87 usually contains site information and any legal notices. The default
90 dit(bf(log file)) The "log file" option tells the rsync daemon to log
91 messages to that file rather than using syslog. This is particularly
92 useful on systems (such as AIX) where syslog() doesn't work for
95 dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write
96 its process ID to that file.
98 dit(bf(syslog facility)) The "syslog facility" option allows you to
99 specify the syslog facility name to use when logging messages from the
100 rsync server. You may use any standard syslog facility name which is
101 defined on your system. Common names are auth, authpriv, cron, daemon,
102 ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, security, syslog, user, uucp, local0,
103 local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 and local7. The default
106 dit(bf(socket options)) This option can provide endless fun for people
107 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
108 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
109 slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
110 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
111 special socket options are set.
116 manpagesection(MODULE OPTIONS)
118 After the global options you should define a number of modules, each
119 module exports a directory tree as a symbolic name. Modules are
120 exported by specifying a module name in square brackets [module]
121 followed by the options for that module.
125 dit(bf(comment)) The "comment" option specifies a description string
126 that is displayed next to the module name when clients obtain a list
127 of available modules. The default is no comment.
129 dit(bf(path)) The "path" option specifies the directory in the servers
130 filesystem to make available in this module. You must specify this option
131 for each module in tt(rsyncd.conf).
133 dit(bf(use chroot)) If "use chroot" is true, the rsync server will chroot
134 to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has
135 the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security
136 holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
137 of not being able to follow symbolic links that are either absolute or outside
138 of the new root path, and of complicating the preservation of usernames and groups
139 (see below). When "use chroot" is false, for security reasons,
140 symlinks may only be relative paths pointing to other files within the root
141 path, and leading slashes are removed from most absolute paths (options
142 such as --backup-dir, --compare-dest, etc. interpret an absolute path as
143 rooted in the module's "path" dir, just as if chroot was specified).
144 The default for "use chroot" is true.
146 In order to preserve usernames and groupnames, rsync needs to be able to
147 use the standard library functions for looking up names and IDs (i.e.
148 getpwuid(), getgrgid(), getpwname(), and getgrnam()). This means a
149 process in the chroot namespace will need to have access to the resources
150 used by these library functions (traditionally /etc/passwd and
151 /etc/group). If these resources are not available, rsync will only be
152 able to copy the IDs, just as if the --numeric-ids option had been
155 Note that you are free to setup user/group information in the chroot area
156 differently from your normal system. For example, you could abbreviate
157 the list of users and groups. Also, you can protect this information from
158 being downloaded/uploaded by adding an exclude rule to the rsync.conf file
159 (e.g. "exclude = /etc/"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
160 is a relatively new feature in rsync, so make sure your server is running
161 at least 2.6.3 to effect this.
163 dit(bf(port)) You can override the default port the daemon will listen on
164 by specifying this value (defaults to 873). This is ignored if the daemon
165 is being run by inetd, and is superseded by the --port command-line option.
167 dit(bf(address)) You can override the default IP address the daemon
168 will listen on by specifying this value. This is ignored if the daemon is
169 being run by inetd, and is superseded by the --address command-line option.
171 dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
172 specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
173 Any clients connecting when the maximum has been reached will receive a
174 message telling them to try later. The default is 0 which means no limit.
175 See also the "lock file" option.
177 dit(bf(max verbosity)) The "max verbosity" option allows you to control
178 the maximum amount of verbose information that you'll allow the daemon to
179 generate (since the information goes into the log file). The default is 1,
180 which allows the client to request one level of verbosity.
182 dit(bf(lock file)) The "lock file" option specifies the file to use to
183 support the "max connections" option. The rsync server uses record
184 locking on this file to ensure that the max connections limit is not
185 exceeded for the modules sharing the lock file.
186 The default is tt(/var/run/rsyncd.lock).
188 dit(bf(read only)) The "read only" option determines whether clients
189 will be able to upload files or not. If "read only" is true then any
190 attempted uploads will fail. If "read only" is false then uploads will
191 be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The default
192 is for all modules to be read only.
194 dit(bf(write only)) The "write only" option determines whether clients
195 will be able to download files or not. If "write only" is true then any
196 attempted downloads will fail. If "write only" is false then downloads
197 will be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The
198 default is for this option to be disabled.
200 dit(bf(list)) The "list" option determines if this module should be
201 listed when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By
202 setting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is
203 for modules to be listable.
205 dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user ID that
206 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
207 was run as root. In combination with the "gid" option this determines what
208 file permissions are available. The default is uid -2, which is normally
211 dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group ID that
212 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
213 was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
214 which is normally the group "nobody".
216 dit(bf(filter)) The "filter" option allows you to specify a space-separated
217 list of filter rules that the server will not allow to be read or written.
218 This is only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these
219 patterns with the --filter option. Only one "filter" option may be
220 specified, but it may contain as many rules as you like, including
221 merge-file rules. Note that per-directory merge-file rules do not provide
222 as much protection as global rules, but they can be used to make --delete
223 work better when a client downloads the server's files (if the per-dir
224 merge files are included in the transfer).
226 dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a
227 space-separated list of patterns that the server will not allow to be read
228 or written. This is only superficially equivalent to the client
229 specifying these patterns with the --exclude option. Only one "exclude"
230 option may be specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to
231 specify exclude/include.
233 Because this exclude list is not passed to the client it only applies on
234 the server: that is, it excludes files received by a client when receiving
235 from a server and files deleted on a server when sending to a server, but
236 it doesn't exclude files from being deleted on a client when receiving
239 dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename
240 on the server that contains exclude patterns, one per line.
241 This is only superficially equivalent
242 to the client specifying the --exclude-from option with an equivalent file.
243 See the "exclude" option above.
245 dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a
246 space-separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is
247 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with
248 the --include option because it applies only on the server. This is
249 useful as it allows you to build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
250 Only one "include" option may be specified, but you can use "+" and "-"
251 before patterns to switch include/exclude. See the "exclude" option
254 dit(bf(include from)) The "include from" option specifies a filename
255 on the server that contains include patterns, one per line. This is
256 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying the
257 --include-from option with a equivalent file.
258 See the "exclude" option above.
260 dit(bf(auth users)) The "auth users" option specifies a comma and
261 space-separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to
262 this module. The usernames do not need to exist on the local
263 system. The usernames may also contain shell wildcard characters. If
264 "auth users" is set then the client will be challenged to supply a
265 username and password to connect to the module. A challenge response
266 authentication protocol is used for this exchange. The plain text
267 usernames are passwords are stored in the file specified by the
268 "secrets file" option. The default is for all users to be able to
269 connect without a password (this is called "anonymous rsync").
271 See also the bf(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL
272 PROGRAM) section in rsync(1) for information on how handle an
273 rsyncd.conf-level username that differs from the remote-shell-level
274 username when using a remote shell to connect to an rsync server.
276 dit(bf(secrets file)) The "secrets file" option specifies the name of
277 a file that contains the username:password pairs used for
278 authenticating this module. This file is only consulted if the "auth
279 users" option is specified. The file is line based and contains
280 username:password pairs separated by a single colon. Any line starting
281 with a hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped. The passwords
282 can contain any characters but be warned that many operating systems
283 limit the length of passwords that can be typed at the client end, so
284 you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work.
286 There is no default for the "secrets file" option, you must choose a name
287 (such as tt(/etc/rsyncd.secrets)). The file must normally not be readable
288 by "other"; see "strict modes".
290 dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
291 the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is
292 true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user ID other
293 than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is
294 false, the check is not performed. The default is true. This option
295 was added to accommodate rsync running on the Windows operating system.
297 dit(bf(hosts allow)) The "hosts allow" option allows you to specify a
298 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
299 hostname and IP address. If none of the patterns match then the
300 connection is rejected.
302 Each pattern can be in one of five forms:
305 it() a dotted decimal IPv4 address of the form a.b.c.d, or an IPv6 address
306 of the form a:b:c::d:e:f. In this case the incoming machine's IP address
309 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/n where ipaddr is the IP address
310 and n is the number of one bits in the netmask. All IP addresses which
311 match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
313 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/maskaddr where ipaddr is the
314 IP address and maskaddr is the netmask in dotted decimal notation for IPv4,
315 or similar for IPv6, e.g. ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:: instead of /64. All IP
316 addresses which match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
318 it() a hostname. The hostname as determined by a reverse lookup will
319 be matched (case insensitive) against the pattern. Only an exact
322 it() a hostname pattern using wildcards. These are matched using the
323 same rules as normal unix filename matching. If the pattern matches
324 then the client is allowed in.
327 Note IPv6 link-local addresses can have a scope in the address specification:
330 quote(fe80::%link1/64)
331 quote(fe80::%link1/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::)
333 You can also combine "hosts allow" with a separate "hosts deny"
334 option. If both options are specified then the "hosts allow" option s
335 checked first and a match results in the client being able to
336 connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a match means
337 that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the
338 "hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then it is allowed to
341 The default is no "hosts allow" option, which means all hosts can connect.
343 dit(bf(hosts deny)) The "hosts deny" option allows you to specify a
344 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
345 hostname and IP address. If the pattern matches then the connection is
346 rejected. See the "hosts allow" option for more information.
348 The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can connect.
350 dit(bf(ignore errors)) The "ignore errors" option tells rsyncd to
351 ignore I/O errors on the server when deciding whether to run the delete
352 phase of the transfer. Normally rsync skips the --delete step if any
353 I/O errors have occurred in order to prevent disastrous deletion due
354 to a temporary resource shortage or other I/O error. In some cases this
355 test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this
358 dit(bf(ignore nonreadable)) This tells the rsync server to completely
359 ignore files that are not readable by the user. This is useful for
360 public archives that may have some non-readable files among the
361 directories, and the sysadmin doesn't want those files to be seen at all.
363 dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file
364 logging of downloads and uploads in a format somewhat similar to that
365 used by ftp daemons. If you want to customize the log formats look at
366 the log format option.
368 dit(bf(log format)) The "log format" option allows you to specify the
369 format used for logging file transfers when transfer logging is
370 enabled. The format is a text string containing embedded single
371 character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character.
373 The prefixes that are understood are:
376 it() %h for the remote host name
377 it() %a for the remote IP address
378 it() %l for the length of the file in bytes
379 it() %p for the process ID of this rsync session
380 it() %o for the operation, which is either "send" or "recv"
381 it() %f for the filename
382 it() %P for the module path
383 it() %m for the module name
384 it() %t for the current date time
385 it() %u for the authenticated username (or the null string)
386 it() %b for the number of bytes actually transferred
387 it() %c when sending files this gives the number of checksum bytes
388 received for this file
391 The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] "
392 is always added to the beginning when using the "log file" option.
394 A perl script called rsyncstats to summarize this format is included
395 in the rsync source code distribution.
397 dit(bf(timeout)) The "timeout" option allows you to override the
398 clients choice for I/O timeout for this module. Using this option you
399 can ensure that rsync won't wait on a dead client forever. The timeout
400 is specified in seconds. A value of zero means no timeout and is the
401 default. A good choice for anonymous rsync servers may be 600 (giving
402 a 10 minute timeout).
404 dit(bf(refuse options)) The "refuse options" option allows you to
405 specify a space-separated list of rsync command line options that will
406 be refused by your rsync server.
407 You may specify the full option name, its one-letter abbreviation, or a
408 wild-card string that matches multiple options.
409 For example, this would refuse --checksum (-c) and all the options that
412 quote(refuse options = c delete*)
414 When an option is refused, the server prints an error message and exits.
415 To prevent all compression, you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
416 instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a
417 client that requests compression.
419 Note that rsync's --del option is implemented as a popt alias, so there
420 is no need (an indeed, no way) to refuse "del" by name -- just matching
421 the --delete-during option (e.g. "delete*") will refuse --del as well.
423 dit(bf(dont compress)) The "dont compress" option allows you to select
424 filenames based on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed
425 during transfer. Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage so it
426 is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well,
427 such as already compressed files.
429 The "dont compress" option takes a space-separated list of
430 case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
431 of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
433 The default setting is verb(*.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz)
437 manpagesection(AUTHENTICATION STRENGTH)
439 The authentication protocol used in rsync is a 128 bit MD4 based
440 challenge response system. Although I believe that no one has ever
441 demonstrated a brute-force break of this sort of system you should
442 realize that this is not a "military strength" authentication system.
443 It should be good enough for most purposes but if you want really top
444 quality security then I recommend that you run rsync over ssh.
446 Also note that the rsync server protocol does not currently provide any
447 encryption of the data that is transferred over the connection. Only
448 authentication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want
451 Future versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and
452 encryption, but that is still being investigated.
454 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
456 If rsync is run with both the --daemon and --rsh (-e) options, it will
457 spawn an rsync daemon using a remote shell connection. Several
458 configuration options will not be available unless the remote user is
459 root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to configure
460 inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port if you run an
461 rsync server only via a remote shell program.
463 ADVANCED: To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, use the
464 "command=em(COMMAND)" syntax in the remote user's authorized_keys entry,
465 where command would be
467 quote(rsync --server --daemon .)
469 NOTE: rsync's argument parsing expects the trailing ".", so make sure
470 that it's there. If you want to use an rsyncd.conf(5)-style
471 configuration file other than the default, you can added a
472 --config option to the em(command):
474 quote(rsync --server --daemon --config=em(file) .)
476 Note that the "--server" here is the internal option that rsync uses to
477 run the remote version of rsync that it communicates with, and thus you
478 should not be using the --server option under normal circumstances.
480 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
482 A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp area at
483 tt(/home/ftp) would be:
488 comment = ftp export area
492 A more sophisticated example would be:
497 max connections = 4 nl()
498 syslog facility = local5 nl()
499 pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
503 comment = whole ftp area (approx 6.1 GB)
506 path = /var/ftp/pub/samba
507 comment = Samba ftp area (approx 300 MB)
510 path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync
511 comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB)
514 path = /public_html/samba
515 comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB)
519 comment = CVS repository (requires authentication)
520 auth users = tridge, susan
521 secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
524 The /etc/rsyncd.secrets file would look something like this:
531 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
541 The rsync server does not send all types of error messages to the
542 client. this means a client may be mystified as to why a transfer
543 failed. The error will have been logged by syslog on the server.
545 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
546 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
548 manpagesection(VERSION)
549 This man page is current for version 2.x of rsync.
551 manpagesection(CREDITS)
553 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
556 The primary ftp site for rsync is
557 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
559 A WEB site is available at
560 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
562 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
564 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
565 Gailly and Mark Adler.
567 manpagesection(THANKS)
569 Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the rsync
570 server. Thanks to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and
575 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
576 Many people have later contributed to it.
578 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
579 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)