1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(28 Jul 2005)()()
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
14 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
16 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
48 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
50 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
51 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
52 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
53 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
54 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
55 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
56 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
57 "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
58 an exception to this latter rule).
60 As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
61 the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
63 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
64 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
68 See the file README for installation instructions.
70 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
71 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
72 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
73 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
74 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
76 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
77 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
79 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
84 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
85 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
87 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
89 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
91 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
92 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
93 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
94 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
95 differences. See the tech report for details.
97 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
99 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
100 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
101 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
102 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
103 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
104 size of data portions of the transfer.
106 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
108 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
109 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
110 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
111 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
112 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
113 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
114 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
118 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
119 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
122 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
123 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
124 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
127 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
128 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
131 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
132 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
133 an improved copy command.
135 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
136 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
138 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
140 See the following section for more details.
142 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
144 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
145 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
147 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
149 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
150 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
151 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
152 to be a part of the filenames.
154 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
156 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
157 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
158 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
159 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
160 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
161 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
162 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
165 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
166 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
169 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
170 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
172 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
174 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
175 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
176 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
177 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
178 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
180 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
184 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
185 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
186 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
187 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
189 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
190 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
191 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
192 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
193 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
196 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
198 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
200 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
201 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
202 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
203 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
204 may be useful when scripting rsync.
206 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
207 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
209 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
210 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
211 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
212 proxy connections to port 873.
214 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
216 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
217 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
218 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
219 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
220 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
221 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
222 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
223 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
224 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
225 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
226 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
227 connections from "localhost".)
229 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
230 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
231 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
232 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
233 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
234 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
236 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
238 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
239 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
240 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
241 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
243 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
245 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
246 used to log-in to the "module".
248 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
250 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
251 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
252 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
253 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
254 socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
255 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
256 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
258 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
259 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
261 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
266 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
273 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
277 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
282 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
283 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
284 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
289 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291 This is launched from cron every few hours.
293 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
296 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
297 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
298 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
299 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
300 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
301 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
302 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
303 -R, --relative use relative path names
304 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
305 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
306 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
307 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
308 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
309 --inplace update destination files in-place
310 --append append data onto shorter files
311 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
312 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
313 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
314 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
315 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
316 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
317 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
318 -p, --perms preserve permissions
319 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
320 -g, --group preserve group
321 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
322 -t, --times preserve times
323 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
324 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
325 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
326 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
327 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
328 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
329 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
330 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
331 --existing only update files that already exist
332 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
333 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
334 --del an alias for --delete-during
335 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
336 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
337 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
338 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
339 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
340 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
341 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
342 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
343 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
344 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
345 --partial keep partially transferred files
346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
353 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
354 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
355 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
356 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
357 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
358 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
359 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
360 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
361 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
362 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
363 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
364 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
365 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
366 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
367 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
368 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
369 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
370 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
371 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
373 --progress show progress during transfer
374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
376 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
377 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
378 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
379 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
380 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
381 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
382 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
383 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
384 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
385 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
386 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
387 --version print version number
388 -h, --help show this help screen)
390 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
392 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
393 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
394 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
395 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
396 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
397 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
398 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
399 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
400 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
401 -h, --help show this help screen)
405 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
406 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
407 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
408 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
412 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
415 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
417 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
418 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
419 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
420 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
421 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
422 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
423 you are debugging rsync.
425 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
426 a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
427 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
428 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
429 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
430 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
431 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
432 any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
434 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
435 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
436 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
439 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
440 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
441 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
443 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
444 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
445 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
446 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
447 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
450 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
451 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
452 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
453 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
454 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
455 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
456 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
458 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
459 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
460 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
461 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
462 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
464 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
465 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
466 everything (with -H being a notable omission).
467 The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
468 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
470 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
471 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
474 dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
475 the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
476 only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
477 bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
478 (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
479 specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
480 (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
482 For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
483 bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
484 could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
486 The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
487 bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
488 Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
489 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and sligntly
490 changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
493 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
494 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
496 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
497 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
498 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
499 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
500 example, if you used this command:
502 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
504 ... this would create a file called baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
505 machine. If instead you used
507 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
509 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
510 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
511 path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
512 a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
513 insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
515 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
517 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
518 dot dir must followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
519 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
520 source path. For example, when pushing files:
522 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
524 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
525 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
526 If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
530 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
531 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
534 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
535 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
536 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
537 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
538 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
539 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
540 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
541 the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
542 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
543 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
545 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
546 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
547 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
548 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
549 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), the bf(--omit-dir-times)
550 option will be enabled.
552 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
553 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
554 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
555 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
556 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
557 will keep their original filenames).
559 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
560 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
561 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
563 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
564 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
565 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
566 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
568 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
569 between the sender and receiver is always
570 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
571 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
572 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
573 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
574 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
576 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
577 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
578 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
579 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
580 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
581 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
582 basis file for the transfer.
584 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
585 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
588 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
589 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
590 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
593 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
594 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
595 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
596 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
599 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
600 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
601 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
602 side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
603 resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
604 Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
605 file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
606 Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
607 bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
610 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
611 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
612 unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
613 name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
614 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
615 output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
616 bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), the latter takes precedence.
618 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
619 symlink on the destination.
621 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
622 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
623 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
624 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
625 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
626 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
627 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
628 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
630 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
631 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
632 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
633 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
635 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
636 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
637 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
638 give unexpected results.
640 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
641 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
642 option hard links are treated like regular files.
644 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
645 are in the list of files being sent.
647 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
649 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
650 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
653 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
654 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
655 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
656 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
657 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
658 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
660 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
661 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
663 Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
664 their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
665 based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
667 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
669 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
670 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
671 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
672 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
673 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
675 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
676 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
677 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
678 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
679 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
680 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
682 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
683 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
684 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
686 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
687 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
688 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
689 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
690 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
691 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
692 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
694 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
695 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
696 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
697 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
699 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
700 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
702 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
703 up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
704 not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
706 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
707 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
708 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
710 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
711 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
712 contents of only one filesystem.
714 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
715 only update files that already exist on the destination.
717 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
718 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
721 dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
722 side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
723 updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
724 nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
726 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
727 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
728 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
729 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
730 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
731 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
732 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
733 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
734 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
735 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
737 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
738 was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
739 is specified, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
741 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
742 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
743 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
745 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
746 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
747 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
748 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
749 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
751 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
752 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
753 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
754 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
755 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
757 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
758 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
759 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
760 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
762 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
763 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
764 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
765 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
768 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
769 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
770 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
771 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
772 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
774 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
775 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
776 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
777 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
779 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
781 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
782 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
783 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
784 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
785 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
786 bf(--delete-excluded).
787 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
789 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
790 even when there are I/O errors.
792 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
793 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
794 is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
795 Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
797 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
798 files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
799 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
801 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
802 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
803 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
804 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
806 The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "k") is a kilobyte (1024),
807 "M" (or "m") is a megabyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "g") is a
808 gigabyte (1024*1024*1024).
809 If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, suffix the K, G, or
810 M with a "T" (or "t") to indicate that a power of 10 is desired.
811 Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
812 be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
813 Examples: --max-size=1.5mt-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
816 dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
817 file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
818 transferring small, junk files.
819 See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
821 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
822 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
823 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
825 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
826 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
827 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
828 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
830 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
831 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
832 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
833 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
834 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
835 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
837 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
838 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
840 quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
842 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
843 options in their .ssh/config file.)
845 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
846 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
848 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
850 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
851 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
852 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
853 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
854 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
855 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
858 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
859 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
861 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
863 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
864 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
865 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
866 a file should be ignored.
868 The exclude list is initialized to:
870 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
871 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
872 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
874 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
875 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
876 are delimited by whitespace).
878 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
879 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
880 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
881 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
883 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
884 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
885 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
886 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
887 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
888 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
889 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
890 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
891 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
892 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
895 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
896 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
897 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
899 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
900 to build up the list of files to exclude.
902 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
904 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
905 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
907 quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
909 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
910 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
911 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
914 quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
916 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
918 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
921 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
922 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
923 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
925 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
927 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
928 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
929 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
930 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
932 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
933 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
934 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
936 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
938 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
939 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
940 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
941 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
943 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
944 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
945 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
946 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
949 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
950 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
951 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
952 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
953 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
954 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
955 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
956 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
957 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
958 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
959 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
960 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
963 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
964 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
965 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
968 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
970 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
971 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
972 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
973 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
974 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
975 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
976 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
977 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
979 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
980 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
981 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
983 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
984 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
985 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
986 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
987 transfer". For example:
989 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
991 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
992 was located on the remote "src" host.
994 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
995 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
996 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
997 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
998 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
999 file are split on whitespace).
1001 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1002 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
1003 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
1004 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
1006 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1007 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1008 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1009 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1010 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1012 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1013 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1014 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1016 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1017 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1018 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1019 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1020 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1021 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1022 have changed from an earlier backup.
1024 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1025 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1027 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1028 and the attributes updated.
1029 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1030 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1032 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1033 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1035 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1036 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1037 directory using a local copy.
1038 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1039 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1040 been successfully transferred.
1042 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1043 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1044 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1045 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1047 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1048 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1050 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1051 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1052 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1053 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1056 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1058 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1059 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1061 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1062 and the attributes updated.
1063 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1064 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1066 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1067 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1069 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1070 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
1071 (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
1072 when sending to an old rsync.
1074 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1075 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1076 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1078 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
1079 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1080 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1081 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1083 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1084 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1087 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1088 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1089 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1090 option is not specified.
1092 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1093 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1094 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1095 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1096 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1097 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1099 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1100 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1101 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1103 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1104 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1105 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1106 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1108 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1109 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1110 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1111 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1112 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1114 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1115 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1116 rsync defaults to using
1117 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1118 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1120 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1121 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1122 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
1124 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1125 format is like the string bf(UXcstpoga)), where bf(U) is replaced by the
1126 kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1127 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1130 The update types that replace the bf(U) are as follows:
1133 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1135 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1137 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1138 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1139 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
1141 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1142 have attributes that are being modified).
1145 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1146 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, and a bf(D) for a device.
1148 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1149 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1150 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1151 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1152 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1153 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1155 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1158 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1159 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1160 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1161 by the file transfer.
1162 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1163 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1164 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1165 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1166 without bf(--times).
1167 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1168 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1169 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1170 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and root privileges).
1171 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1172 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1173 it() The bf(a) is reserved for a future enhanced version that supports
1174 extended file attributes, such as ACLs.
1177 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1178 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1179 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1180 outputting them as a verbose message).
1182 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1183 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1184 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1185 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1186 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1187 option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1189 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1190 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1191 touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
1192 the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
1193 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1194 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1197 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1198 bf(--log-format) without bv(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1199 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1201 Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1202 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1203 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1204 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1205 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1206 (followed, of course, by the log-format output).
1208 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1209 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1210 algorithm is for your data.
1212 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1213 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1214 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1215 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1216 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1218 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1219 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1220 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1221 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1222 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
1223 after it has served its purpose.
1224 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1225 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1227 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1229 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1230 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1231 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1232 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1233 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1235 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
1236 bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1237 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1238 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1239 the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1240 rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1241 supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1242 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1243 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1244 a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
1247 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1248 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1250 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1251 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1252 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1253 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1254 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1255 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1256 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1257 option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1258 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1259 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1261 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1262 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1263 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1264 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1265 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1267 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1268 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1269 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1270 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1271 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1272 each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
1273 the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
1274 on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
1275 purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting.)
1276 Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1278 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1279 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1280 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1281 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1283 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1284 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1286 and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1287 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1289 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1290 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1291 parallel hierarchy of files).
1293 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1294 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1296 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1298 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1300 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1302 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1303 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1304 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1305 remaining in this transfer.
1307 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1309 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1311 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1312 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1313 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1314 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1315 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1317 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1318 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1319 transfer that may be interrupted.
1321 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1322 in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1323 is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1324 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1325 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1328 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1329 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1330 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1331 come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1332 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1333 non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1334 copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1335 must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
1337 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1338 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1339 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1340 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1341 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1342 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1343 of zero specifies no limit.
1345 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1346 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1347 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1349 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1350 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1351 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1352 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1354 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1355 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1356 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1357 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1358 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1361 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1362 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1363 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1364 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1366 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1367 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1368 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1369 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1371 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1372 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1373 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1374 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1375 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1376 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1377 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1379 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1380 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1381 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1382 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1384 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1385 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1386 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1387 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1388 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1389 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1390 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1391 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1395 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1397 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1400 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1401 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1402 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1404 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1405 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1406 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1407 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1408 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1411 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1412 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1413 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1414 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1415 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1417 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1418 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1419 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1420 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1421 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1423 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1424 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1425 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1426 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1427 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1429 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1430 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1431 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1432 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1433 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1434 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1435 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1438 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1439 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1440 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1442 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1443 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1444 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1445 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1447 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1448 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1449 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1450 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1451 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1452 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1454 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1455 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1458 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1460 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1461 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1462 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1463 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1465 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1466 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1467 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1468 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1469 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1470 filename is not skipped.
1472 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1473 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1476 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1477 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1480 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1481 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1482 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1483 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1484 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1487 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1488 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1489 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1490 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1491 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1492 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1493 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1494 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1495 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1498 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1499 comment lines that start with a "#".
1501 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1502 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1503 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1504 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1506 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1507 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1508 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1509 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1512 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1513 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1514 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1515 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1517 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1519 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1520 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1521 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1522 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1523 can take several forms:
1526 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1527 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1528 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1529 regular expressions.
1530 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1531 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1532 per-directory rule).
1533 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1534 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1536 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1537 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1538 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1539 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1540 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1542 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1543 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1544 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1545 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1546 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1547 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1548 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1549 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1550 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1551 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1552 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1553 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1554 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1558 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1559 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1560 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1561 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1562 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1563 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1564 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1565 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1566 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1567 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1568 For instance, this won't work:
1571 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1572 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1576 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1577 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1578 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1579 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1580 "- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1581 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1586 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1587 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1588 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1592 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1595 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1596 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1597 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1598 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1599 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1600 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1601 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1602 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1603 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1604 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1605 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1606 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1609 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1611 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1612 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1615 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1616 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1617 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1618 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1619 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1620 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1621 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1622 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1623 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1624 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1630 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1631 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1632 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1633 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1634 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1637 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1640 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1641 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1642 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1643 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1644 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1645 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1646 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1647 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1648 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1649 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1650 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1651 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1652 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1653 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1654 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1656 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1657 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1658 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1659 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1660 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1661 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
1664 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1667 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
1668 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
1669 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1670 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
1671 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
1672 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
1673 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1674 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1676 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1677 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1679 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1680 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1681 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1682 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1683 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1684 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
1685 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1686 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1687 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1688 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1689 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1692 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1693 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1694 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1695 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1696 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1697 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1698 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1699 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1700 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1702 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1703 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1704 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1705 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1708 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1711 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1713 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1718 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1719 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1720 filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1721 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1724 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1725 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1726 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1727 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1729 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1731 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1732 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1733 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1734 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1735 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1737 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1740 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1741 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1742 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1745 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1746 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1747 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1748 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1749 a part of the transfer.
1751 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1752 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1753 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1754 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1755 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1756 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1757 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1758 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1762 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1767 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1770 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1771 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1772 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1773 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1774 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1775 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1776 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1777 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1779 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1781 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1782 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1783 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1784 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1785 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1786 out the parent's rules).
1788 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1790 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1791 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1792 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1793 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1794 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1795 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1797 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1798 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1799 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1800 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1801 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1803 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1804 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1805 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1808 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1809 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1810 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1811 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1812 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1816 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1817 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1818 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1819 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1820 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1824 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1825 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1826 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1827 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1828 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1832 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1833 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1834 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1835 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1836 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1839 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1840 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1841 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1843 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1845 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1846 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1847 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1848 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1851 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1852 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1855 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1856 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1857 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1858 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1859 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1860 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1862 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1864 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1865 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1866 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1867 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1868 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1870 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1871 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1873 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1874 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1875 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1876 per-directory merge rule.
1878 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1879 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1880 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1881 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1882 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1883 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1885 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1887 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1889 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1891 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1892 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1893 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1894 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1895 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1896 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1897 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1898 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1899 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1901 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1902 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1903 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1904 using the information stored in the batch file.
1906 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1907 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1908 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1909 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1910 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1911 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1912 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1913 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1915 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1916 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1917 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1918 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1919 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1924 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1925 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1926 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1930 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1931 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1934 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1935 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1936 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1937 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1938 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1941 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1942 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1943 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1944 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1945 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1946 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1947 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1948 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1949 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1950 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1951 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1956 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1957 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1958 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1959 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
1960 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1961 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1962 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1963 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1964 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1965 option (when reading the batch).
1966 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1967 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1968 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1971 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1972 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1973 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1974 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
1975 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
1976 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
1977 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
1979 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1980 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1981 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1982 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1983 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1984 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1985 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1987 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1988 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1989 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1990 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1991 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1992 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1994 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1995 version uses a new implementation.
1997 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1999 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2000 link in the source directory.
2002 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2003 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2005 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2006 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2009 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2010 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2012 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2013 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2014 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2015 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2016 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2017 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2018 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2019 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2021 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2022 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
2023 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2025 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2026 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2027 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2029 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2030 symlinks for any other options to affect).
2032 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2033 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2035 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2036 skip all safe symlinks.
2038 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2041 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2043 manpagediagnostics()
2045 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2046 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2047 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2049 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2050 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2051 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2052 remote shell like this:
2054 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2056 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2057 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2058 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2059 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2060 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2061 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2062 for non-interactive logins.
2064 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2065 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2066 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2068 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2072 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2073 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2074 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2075 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2076 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2077 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2079 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2080 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2081 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2082 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2083 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2084 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2085 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2086 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2087 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2088 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2089 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2090 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2091 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2092 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2095 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2098 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2099 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2101 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2102 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2103 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2104 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2105 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2106 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2107 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2108 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2109 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2110 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2111 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2112 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2113 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2114 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2115 default .cvsignore file.
2120 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2128 times are transferred as unix time_t values
2130 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2132 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2134 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2137 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2139 Please report bugs! See the website at
2140 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2142 manpagesection(VERSION)
2144 This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
2146 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2148 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2149 COPYING for details.
2151 A WEB site is available at
2152 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2153 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2156 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2157 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2159 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2161 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2162 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2164 manpagesection(THANKS)
2166 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2167 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2168 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2170 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2171 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2175 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2176 Many people have later contributed to it.
2178 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2179 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)