1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Mar 1999)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
20 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22 greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
25 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28 report that accompanies this package.
30 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
43 manpagesection(GENERAL)
45 There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
73 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74 and destination paths must be local.
78 See the file README for installation instructions.
80 Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
81 to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
82 destination are local.
84 You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
85 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
87 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
90 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
95 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
98 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
100 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
102 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106 differences. See the tech report for details.
108 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
110 this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
111 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
112 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
113 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
114 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
115 size of data portions of the transfer.
117 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
119 a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
120 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
121 /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
122 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
123 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
124 using the --delete option.
126 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
127 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
128 an improved copy command.
130 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
132 this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
133 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
136 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
138 It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
139 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
140 running on TCP port 873.
142 You may establish the connetcion via a web proxy by setting the
143 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
144 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy must allow proxying to port
145 873, this must be configured in your proxy servers ruleset.
147 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
151 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
152 separate the hostname from the path.
154 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
157 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
158 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
160 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
161 specified files on the remote server is provided.
164 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
165 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
166 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
167 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
168 may be useful when scripting rsync.
170 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
171 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
173 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
175 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
176 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
179 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
181 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
183 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
184 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
186 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
188 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
191 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
195 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
198 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
202 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
203 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
204 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
206 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
209 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
211 this is launched from cron every few hours.
213 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
215 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
216 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
219 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
220 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
221 -c, --checksum always checksum
222 -a, --archive archive mode
223 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
224 -R, --relative use relative path names
225 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
226 --backup-dir=DIR put backups in the specified directory
227 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
228 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
229 -l, --links preserve soft links
230 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
231 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
232 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
233 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
234 -p, --perms preserve permissions
235 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
236 -g, --group preserve group
237 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
238 -t, --times preserve times
239 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
240 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
241 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
242 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
243 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
244 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
245 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
246 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
247 --existing only update files that already exist
248 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
249 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
250 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
251 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
252 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
253 --partial keep partially transferred files
254 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
255 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
256 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
257 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
258 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
259 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
260 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
261 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
262 -z, --compress compress file data
263 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
264 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
265 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
266 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
267 --version print version number
268 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
269 --address bind to the specified address
270 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
271 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
272 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
273 --stats give some file transfer stats
274 --progress show progress during transfer
275 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
276 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
277 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
278 -h, --help show this help screen
283 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
284 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
285 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
286 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
290 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
293 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
295 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
296 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
297 single -v will give you information about what files are being
298 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
299 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
300 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
301 you are debugging rsync.
303 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
304 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
305 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
308 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
309 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
312 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
313 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
314 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
315 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
316 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
319 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
320 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
321 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
322 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
323 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
325 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way
326 of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
328 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
329 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
332 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
333 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
334 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
335 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
336 example, if you used the command
338 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
340 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
341 machine. If instead you used
343 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
345 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
346 machine. The full path name is preserved.
348 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
349 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
350 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
352 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
353 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
354 very useful for incremental backups.
356 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
357 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
359 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
360 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
363 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
364 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
365 option, all symbolic links are skipped.
367 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
370 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that
371 point outside the source tree like ordinary files. Absolute symlinks are
372 also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the source
373 path itself when --relative is used.
375 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
376 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
377 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
378 give unexpected results.
380 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
381 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
382 option hard links are treated like regular files.
384 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
385 are in the list of files being sent.
387 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
389 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
390 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
391 useful when using rsync with a local machine.
393 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
394 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
396 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
397 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
398 to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
399 the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
400 access to the usernames.
402 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
403 of the file to be the same as the local group. If the receving system is
404 not running as the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a member of
405 will be preserved (by group name, not group id number).
407 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
408 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
409 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
411 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
412 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
413 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
414 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
415 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
416 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
419 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
420 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
422 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
423 up less space on the destination.
425 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
426 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
427 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
429 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
430 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
431 contents of only one filesystem.
433 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
434 only update files that already exist on the destination.
436 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
437 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
438 to prevent disasters.
440 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
441 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
442 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
444 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
446 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
447 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
448 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
450 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
451 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
452 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
453 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
456 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
457 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
458 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
460 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
461 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
462 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
463 then use the --delete-after switch.
465 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
466 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
467 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
468 contains a directory of the same name.
470 Since this option was added, deletions were reordered to be done depth-first
471 so it is hardly ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
473 dit(bf(-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
474 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
476 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
477 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
478 remote copies of rsync. By default, rsync will use rsh, but you may
479 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
481 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
482 environment variable.
484 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
485 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
486 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
489 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
490 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
491 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
493 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
494 to build up the list of files to exclude.
496 See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
499 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
500 option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
501 the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with ';' or '#'
504 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
505 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
506 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
508 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
511 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
514 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
515 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
516 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
517 a file should be ignored.
519 The exclude list is initialized to:
521 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
522 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
523 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
525 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
526 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
528 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
529 that directory are added to the list.
531 dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
532 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
533 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
534 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
535 making things faster.
537 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
538 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
540 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
541 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
542 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
543 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
545 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
546 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
547 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
548 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
550 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
551 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
552 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
553 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
555 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
556 additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
557 transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
558 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
559 files have been successfully transferred (for example by moving directories
560 around and removing the old directory, although this requires also doing
561 the transfer with -I to avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
562 option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially transferred
563 files will remain in the new temporary destination until they have a chance
564 to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
565 destination directory.
567 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
568 the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
569 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
570 same method that gzip uses.
572 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
573 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
574 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
575 information sent for matching data blocks.
577 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
578 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
581 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
582 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
583 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
584 option is not specified.
586 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
587 does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
588 source system is used instead.
590 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
591 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
592 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
594 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
595 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
596 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
597 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
598 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
599 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
602 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
603 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
604 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
605 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
606 in conjunction with the --config option.
608 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
609 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
612 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
613 rather than the default port 873.
615 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This specifies whether rsync will use blocking
616 IO when launching a remote shell transport. You may find this is
617 needed for some remote shells that can't handle the default
620 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
621 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
622 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
625 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
626 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
627 algorithm is for your data.
629 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
630 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
631 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
632 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
633 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
635 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
636 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
639 This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
640 the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
642 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
643 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
644 option to make it easier.
646 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
647 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
648 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
649 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
650 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
653 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
654 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
655 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
656 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
657 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
658 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
659 of zero specifies no limit.
663 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
665 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
666 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
668 rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
669 the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
670 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
671 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
672 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
673 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
674 filename is not skipped.
676 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
677 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
678 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
680 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
681 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
682 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
684 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
687 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
688 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
689 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
690 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
691 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
692 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
693 end of the file name.
695 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
696 directory, not a file, link or device.
698 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
699 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
700 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
702 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
703 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
705 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
706 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
707 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
708 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
709 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
710 actually be any portion of a path.
712 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
713 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
714 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
716 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
717 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
718 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
720 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
721 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
724 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
725 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
727 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
728 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
729 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
730 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
731 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
734 Here are some exclude/include examples:
737 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
738 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
739 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
740 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
741 levels below a base directory called foo
742 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
743 or more levels below a base directory called foo
744 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
745 directories and C source files
746 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
747 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
748 it would be excluded by the "*")
751 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
753 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
754 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
755 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
757 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
758 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
759 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
760 remote shell like this:
763 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
766 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
767 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
768 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
769 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
770 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
771 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
772 for non-interactive logins.
774 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
778 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
779 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
782 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
783 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
784 be used instead of the -e option.
786 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
787 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
788 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
790 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
791 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
792 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
793 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
795 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
796 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
798 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
799 default .cvsignore file.
815 times are transferred as unix time_t values
817 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
820 see also the comments on the --delete option
822 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
823 url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
825 manpagesection(VERSION)
826 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
828 manpagesection(CREDITS)
830 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
833 A WEB site is available at
834 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
836 The primary ftp site for rsync is
837 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
839 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
841 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
842 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
844 manpagesection(THANKS)
846 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
847 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
848 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
853 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
854 contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
855 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au