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