1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(22 Apr 2006)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
24 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
25 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
26 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
29 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
30 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
31 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
32 report that accompanies this package.
34 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
37 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
38 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
39 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
40 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
41 it() does not require super-user privileges
42 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
43 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
47 manpagesection(GENERAL)
49 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
50 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
52 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
53 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
54 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
55 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
56 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
57 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
58 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
59 "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
60 an exception to this latter rule).
62 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
63 destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
65 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
66 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
70 See the file README for installation instructions.
72 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
73 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
74 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
75 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
76 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
78 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
79 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
81 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
86 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
87 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
89 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
91 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
93 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
94 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
95 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
96 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
97 differences. See the tech report for details.
99 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
101 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
102 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
103 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
104 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
105 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
106 size of data portions of the transfer.
108 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
110 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
111 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
112 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
113 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
114 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
115 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
116 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
120 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
121 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
124 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
125 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
126 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
129 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
130 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
133 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
134 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
135 an improved copy command.
137 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
138 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
140 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
142 See the following section for more details.
144 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
146 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
147 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
149 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
151 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
152 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
153 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
154 to be a part of the filenames.
156 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
158 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
159 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
160 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
161 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
162 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
163 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
164 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
167 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
168 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
171 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
172 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
174 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
176 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
177 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
178 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
179 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
180 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
182 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
186 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
187 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
188 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
189 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
191 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
192 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
193 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
194 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
195 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
198 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
200 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
202 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
203 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
204 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
205 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
206 may be useful when scripting rsync.
208 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
209 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
211 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
212 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
213 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
214 proxy connections to port 873.
216 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
218 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
219 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
220 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
221 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
222 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
223 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
224 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
225 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
226 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
227 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
228 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
229 connections from "localhost".)
231 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
232 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
233 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
234 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
235 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
236 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
238 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
240 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
241 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
242 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
243 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
244 this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
246 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
248 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
249 used to log-in to the "module".
251 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
253 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
254 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
255 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
256 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
257 socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
258 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
259 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
261 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
262 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
264 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
266 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
268 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
269 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
271 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
273 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
276 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
280 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
282 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
285 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
286 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
287 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
289 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
292 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
294 This is launched from cron every few hours.
296 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
298 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
299 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
300 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
301 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
302 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
303 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
304 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
305 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
306 -R, --relative use relative path names
307 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
308 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
309 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
310 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
311 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
312 --inplace update destination files in-place
313 --append append data onto shorter files
314 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
315 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
316 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
317 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
318 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
319 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
320 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
321 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
322 -p, --perms preserve permissions
323 -E, --executability preserve executability
324 --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
325 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
326 -g, --group preserve group
327 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
328 --specials preserve special files
329 -D same as --devices --specials
330 -t, --times preserve times
331 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
332 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
333 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
334 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
335 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
336 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
337 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
338 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
339 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
340 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
341 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
342 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
343 --del an alias for --delete-during
344 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
345 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
346 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
347 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
348 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
349 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
350 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
351 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
352 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
353 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
354 --partial keep partially transferred files
355 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
356 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
357 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
358 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
359 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
360 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
361 --size-only skip files that match in size
362 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
363 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
364 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
365 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
366 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
367 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
368 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
369 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
370 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
371 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
372 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
373 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
374 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
375 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
376 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
377 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
378 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
379 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
380 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
381 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
382 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
383 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
384 --stats give some file-transfer stats
385 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
386 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
387 --progress show progress during transfer
388 -P same as --partial --progress
389 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
390 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
391 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
392 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
393 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
394 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
395 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
396 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
397 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
398 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
399 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
400 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
401 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
402 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
403 --version print version number
404 (-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment)
407 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
409 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
410 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
411 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
412 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
413 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
414 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
415 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
416 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
417 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
418 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
419 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
420 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
421 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon)
426 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
427 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
428 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
429 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
433 dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
434 available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
435 versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
436 option without any other args.
438 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
440 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
441 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
442 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
443 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
444 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
445 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
446 you are debugging rsync.
448 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
449 a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
450 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
451 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
452 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
453 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
454 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
455 any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
457 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
458 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
459 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
462 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
463 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
464 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
466 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
467 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
468 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
469 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
470 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
473 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
474 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
475 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
476 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
477 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
478 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
479 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
481 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum em(every)
482 regular file using a 128-bit MD4 checksum. It does this during the initial
483 file-system scan as it builds the list of all available files. The receiver
484 then checksums its version of each file (if it exists and it has the same
485 size as its sender-side counterpart) in order to decide which files need to
486 be updated: files with either a changed size or a changed checksum are
487 selected for transfer. Since this whole-file checksumming of all files on
488 both sides of the connection occurs in addition to the automatic checksum
489 verifications that occur during a file's transfer, this option can be quite
492 Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was correctly
493 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking its whole-file checksum, but
494 that automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
495 option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
497 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
498 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
499 everything (with -H being a notable omission).
500 The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
501 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
503 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
504 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
507 dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
508 the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
509 only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
510 bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
511 (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
512 specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
513 (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
515 For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
516 bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
517 could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
519 The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
520 bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
521 Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
522 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
523 changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
526 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
527 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
529 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
530 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
531 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
532 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
533 example, if you used this command:
535 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
537 ... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
538 machine. If instead you used
540 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
542 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
543 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
544 path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
545 a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
546 insert a dot and a slash into the source path, like this:
548 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
550 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
551 dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
552 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
553 source path. For example, when pushing files:
555 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
557 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
558 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
559 If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
563 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
564 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
567 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
568 bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
569 directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
570 means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
571 left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
572 created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
573 elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
574 one side of the transfer, and a real directory on the other side.
576 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
577 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
578 are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
579 "bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
580 delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
581 the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
582 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
583 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
584 preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
585 affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
587 In a similar but opposite scenario, if the transfer of "path/foo/file" is
588 requested and "path/foo" is a symlink on the sending side, running without
589 bf(--no-implied-dirs) would cause rsync to transform "path/foo" on the
590 receiving side into an identical symlink, and then attempt to transfer
591 "path/foo/file", which might fail if the duplicated symlink did not point
592 to a directory on the receiving side. Another way to avoid this sending of
593 a symlink as an implied directory is to use bf(--copy-unsafe-links), or
594 bf(--copy-dirlinks) (both of which also affect symlinks in the rest of the
595 transfer -- see their descriptions for full details).
597 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
598 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
599 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
600 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
602 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
603 bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
604 also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
605 filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
606 (e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
607 deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
608 need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
609 in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
610 your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
611 rule would never be reached).
613 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
614 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
615 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
616 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
617 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
618 will keep their original filenames).
620 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
621 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
622 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
624 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
625 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
626 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
627 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
629 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
630 between the sender and receiver is always
631 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
632 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
633 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
634 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
635 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
637 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
638 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
639 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
640 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
641 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
642 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
643 basis file for the transfer.
645 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
646 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
649 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
650 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
651 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
654 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
655 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
656 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
657 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
660 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
661 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
662 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
663 side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
664 resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
665 Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
666 file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
667 Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
668 bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
671 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
672 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
673 unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
674 (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
675 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
676 output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
677 bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
679 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
680 symlink on the destination.
682 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
683 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
684 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
685 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
686 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
687 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
688 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
689 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
691 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
692 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
693 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
694 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
695 additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
697 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
698 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
699 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
700 give unexpected results.
702 dit(bf(-K, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
703 a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
704 useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
705 they would be using bf(--copy-links).
707 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
708 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
709 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
710 bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
712 See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
715 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
716 a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
717 matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
718 receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
720 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
721 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
722 bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
723 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
724 bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
727 See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
729 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
730 the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
731 side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
732 as though they were separate files.
734 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
735 are in the list of files being sent.
737 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
738 destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
739 also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
740 be the source permissions.)
742 When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
745 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
746 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
747 the execute permission for the file.
748 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
749 file's permissions masked with the receiving end's umask setting, and
750 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
751 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
754 Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
755 rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
756 such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
758 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
759 permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
760 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
761 bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
762 all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
763 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
764 putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
765 and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
767 quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
769 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
771 quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
773 (Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
774 the "--no-*" options.)
776 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
777 directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
778 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
779 newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
780 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. (Keep in
781 mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects this
784 dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
785 executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
786 not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
787 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
788 executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
789 modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
792 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
794 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
795 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
798 If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
800 dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
801 comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
802 transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
803 that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
804 can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
806 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
807 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
808 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
809 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
811 quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
813 It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
814 additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
816 See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
817 permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
819 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
820 destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
821 receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
822 option to force rsync to attempt super-user activities).
823 Without this option, the owner is set to the invoking user on the
826 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
827 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
828 bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
830 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
831 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
832 program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
833 specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
834 is a member of will be preserved.
835 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
836 user on the receiving side.
838 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
839 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
840 (see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
842 dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
843 block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
844 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
845 super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
847 dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
848 such as named sockets and fifos.
850 dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
852 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
853 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
854 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
855 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
856 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
857 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
858 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
860 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
861 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
862 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
863 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
865 dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
866 activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
867 activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
868 all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
869 option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
870 for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
871 also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
872 being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
873 super-user can use bf(--no-super).
875 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
876 up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
877 not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
879 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
880 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
881 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
883 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
884 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
886 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
887 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
888 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
889 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
890 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
891 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
893 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
894 filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
895 to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
896 through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
897 the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
898 in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
901 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
902 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
903 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
904 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
906 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
907 bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
908 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
911 dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
912 creating files (including directories) that do not exist
913 yet on the destination. If this option is
914 combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
915 (which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete extraneous files).
917 dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
918 already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
919 directores, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
921 dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
922 side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
923 and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
925 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
926 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
927 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
928 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
929 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
930 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
931 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
932 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
933 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
934 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
936 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
937 was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
938 (bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
940 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
941 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
942 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
944 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
945 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
946 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
947 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
948 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
950 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
951 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
952 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
953 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
954 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
956 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
957 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
958 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
959 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
961 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
962 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
963 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
964 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
967 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
968 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
969 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
970 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
971 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
973 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
974 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
975 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
976 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
978 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
980 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
981 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
982 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
983 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
984 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
985 bf(--delete-excluded).
986 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
988 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
989 even when there are I/O errors.
991 dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
992 when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
993 deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
995 Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
996 using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
997 bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
999 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
1000 files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
1001 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
1003 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1004 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
1005 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
1006 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1008 The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1009 "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1010 gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1011 If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1012 "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
1013 Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1014 be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
1016 Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
1019 dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1020 file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1021 transferring small, junk files.
1022 See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
1024 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1025 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1026 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
1028 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
1029 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
1030 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1031 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
1033 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
1034 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
1035 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1036 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
1037 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1038 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1040 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1041 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1042 or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1043 and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1044 argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1045 inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1046 double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1047 shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1050 tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1051 tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1054 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1055 options in their .ssh/config file.)
1057 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1058 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1060 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1062 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1063 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1064 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1065 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1066 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1067 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1070 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1071 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1073 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
1075 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1076 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1077 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
1078 a file should be ignored.
1080 The exclude list is initialized to:
1082 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1083 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
1084 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
1086 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1087 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1088 are delimited by whitespace).
1090 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1091 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1092 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1093 See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
1095 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1096 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1097 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1098 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1099 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1100 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1101 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1102 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1103 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1104 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1107 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1108 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1109 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1111 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1112 to build up the list of files to exclude.
1114 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1116 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1117 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1119 quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1121 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1122 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1123 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1126 quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1128 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1130 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1133 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1134 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1135 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1137 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1139 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1140 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1141 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1142 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1144 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1145 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1146 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1148 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1150 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1151 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1152 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1153 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1155 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1156 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1157 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1158 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1161 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1162 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1163 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1164 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1165 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1166 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1167 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1168 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1169 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1170 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1171 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1172 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1175 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1176 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1177 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1180 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1182 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1183 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1184 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1185 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1186 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1187 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1188 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1189 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1191 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1192 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1193 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1195 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1196 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1197 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1198 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1199 transfer". For example:
1201 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1203 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1204 was located on the remote "src" host.
1206 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1207 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1208 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1209 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1210 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1211 file are split on whitespace).
1213 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1214 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1215 on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1216 file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1218 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1219 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1220 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1221 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1222 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1223 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1224 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1225 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1226 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1227 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1228 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1229 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1230 new version on the disk at the same time.
1232 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1233 space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1234 which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1235 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1236 have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1237 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1238 about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1239 path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1240 single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1241 partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1242 rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1243 an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1245 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1246 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1247 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1248 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1249 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1251 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1252 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1253 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1255 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1256 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1257 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1258 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1259 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1260 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1261 have changed from an earlier backup.
1263 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1264 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1266 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1267 and the attributes updated.
1268 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1269 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1271 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1272 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1274 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1275 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1276 directory using a local copy.
1277 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1278 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1279 been successfully transferred.
1281 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1282 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1283 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1284 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1286 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1287 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1289 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1290 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1291 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1292 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1295 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1297 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1298 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1300 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1301 and the attributes updated.
1302 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1303 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1305 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1306 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1308 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1309 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1310 specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1311 the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1313 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1314 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1315 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1317 Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1318 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1319 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1320 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1322 dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1323 (see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1324 the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1326 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1327 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1330 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1331 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1332 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1333 option is not specified.
1335 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1336 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1337 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1338 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1339 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1340 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1342 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1343 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1344 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1346 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1347 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1348 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1349 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1351 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1352 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1353 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1354 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1355 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1357 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1358 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1359 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1360 slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
1361 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1362 special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1363 connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1364 bf(--daemon) mode section.
1366 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1367 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1368 rsync defaults to using
1369 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1370 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1372 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1373 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1374 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
1375 If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1376 if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1377 with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1380 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1381 format is like the string bf(YXcstpogz), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1382 type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1383 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1386 The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1389 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1391 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1393 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1394 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1395 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
1397 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1398 have attributes that are being modified).
1401 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1402 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1403 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1405 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1406 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1407 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1408 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1409 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1410 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1412 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1415 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1416 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1417 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1418 by the file transfer.
1419 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1420 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1421 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1422 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1423 without bf(--times).
1424 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1425 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1426 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1427 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1428 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1429 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1430 it() The bf(z) slot is reserved for future use.
1433 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1434 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1435 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1436 outputting them as a verbose message).
1438 dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1439 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
1440 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1441 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1442 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1444 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1445 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1446 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
1447 included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
1448 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1449 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1452 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1453 bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1454 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1456 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1457 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1458 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1459 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1460 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1461 (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1463 dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1464 to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1465 requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1466 transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1467 enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1468 option if you wish to override this.
1470 Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1473 verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1475 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1478 dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1479 per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1480 (which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1481 specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1482 For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1483 in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1485 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1486 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1487 algorithm is for your data.
1489 The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemize(
1490 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1491 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1492 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1493 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1494 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1495 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1496 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1497 include the size of symlinks.
1498 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1499 for just the transferred files.
1500 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1501 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1502 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1503 recreating the updated files.
1504 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1505 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1506 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1508 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1509 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1510 sending side for this to be present.
1511 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1512 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1513 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1514 from the client side to the server side.
1515 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1516 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1517 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1518 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
1521 dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1522 unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1523 valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1524 characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1527 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1528 and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1529 would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1530 escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1532 dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1533 This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1534 this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1535 G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1538 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1539 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1540 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1541 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1542 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1544 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1545 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1546 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1547 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1548 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1549 after it has served its purpose.
1551 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1552 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1554 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1556 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1557 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1558 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1559 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1560 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1562 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1563 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1564 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1565 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1566 receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1567 the equivalent of "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)" at the end of any other
1570 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1571 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1572 rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1573 to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1574 rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1575 should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1576 bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1577 bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1578 left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1580 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1581 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1583 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1584 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1585 enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1586 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1587 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1588 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1589 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1590 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1591 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1592 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1594 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1595 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1596 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1597 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1598 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1600 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1601 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1602 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1603 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1604 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1605 each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1606 bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1607 comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1608 ".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1609 you wnat rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1610 Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1612 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1613 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1614 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1615 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1617 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1618 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1620 and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1621 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1623 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1624 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1625 parallel hierarchy of files).
1627 dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1628 rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1629 that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1630 creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1631 recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1634 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1635 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1636 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1637 being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1640 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1641 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1642 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1644 quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1646 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1647 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1648 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1649 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1651 quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
1653 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1654 time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
1655 in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1657 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1658 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1660 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1662 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1664 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1666 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1667 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1668 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1669 remaining in this transfer.
1671 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1673 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1675 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1676 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1677 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1678 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1679 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1681 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1682 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1683 transfer that may be interrupted.
1685 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1686 in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1687 is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1688 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1689 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1692 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1693 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
1694 arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
1695 command that includes a
1696 destination arg into a file-listing command, (2) to be able to specify more
1697 than one local source arg (note: be sure to include the destination), or
1698 (3) to avoid the automatically added "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')" options that
1699 rsync usually uses as a compatibility kluge when generating a non-recursive
1700 listing. Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded
1701 by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
1702 without using this option. For example:
1704 verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
1706 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1707 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1708 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1709 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1710 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1711 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1712 of zero specifies no limit.
1714 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1715 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1716 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1718 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1719 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1720 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1721 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1723 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1724 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1725 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1726 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1727 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1730 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1731 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1732 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1733 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1735 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1736 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1737 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1738 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1740 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1741 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1742 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1743 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1744 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1745 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1746 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1748 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1749 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1750 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1751 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1753 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1754 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1755 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1756 by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
1757 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1758 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1759 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1760 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
1764 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1766 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1769 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1770 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1771 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1773 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1774 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1775 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1776 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1777 requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
1780 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1781 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1782 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1783 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1784 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1786 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1787 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1788 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1789 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1790 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1792 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1793 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1794 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1795 a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
1796 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1798 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1799 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1800 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1801 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1802 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1803 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1804 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1807 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1808 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1809 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1811 dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
1812 given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
1815 dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
1816 given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
1817 file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
1818 case transfer logging is turned off.
1820 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
1821 rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
1823 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1824 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1825 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1826 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1828 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1829 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1830 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1831 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1832 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1833 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1835 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1836 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1839 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1841 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1842 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1843 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1844 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1846 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1847 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1848 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1849 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1850 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1851 filename is not skipped.
1853 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1854 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1857 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1858 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1861 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1862 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1863 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1864 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1865 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1868 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1869 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1870 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1871 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1872 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1873 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1874 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1875 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1876 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1879 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1880 comment lines that start with a "#".
1882 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1883 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1884 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1885 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1887 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1888 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1889 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1890 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1893 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1894 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1895 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1896 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1898 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1900 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1901 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1902 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1903 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1904 can take several forms:
1907 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1908 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1909 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1910 regular expressions.
1911 Thus "/foo" would match a file named "foo" at either the "root of the
1912 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1913 per-directory rule).
1914 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1915 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1917 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1918 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1919 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1920 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1921 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1923 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1924 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1925 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
1926 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
1927 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
1928 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
1929 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
1930 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
1931 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
1932 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
1933 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
1934 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
1935 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1936 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1937 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1938 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1939 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1941 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
1942 "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
1943 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
1947 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1948 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1949 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1950 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1951 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1952 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1953 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1954 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1955 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1956 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1957 For instance, this won't work:
1960 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1961 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1965 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1966 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1967 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1968 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1969 "- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
1970 solution is to add specific include rules for all
1971 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1976 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1977 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1978 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1982 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1985 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1986 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
1987 transfer-root directory
1988 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
1989 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
1990 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
1991 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
1992 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
1993 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1994 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
1995 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
1996 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1997 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1998 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2001 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2003 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
2004 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2007 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2008 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2009 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2010 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2011 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2012 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2013 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2014 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2015 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2016 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2022 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2023 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2024 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2025 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2026 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2029 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
2032 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
2033 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2034 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
2035 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2036 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2037 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2038 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2039 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2040 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
2041 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
2042 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2043 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
2044 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2045 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
2046 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2048 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
2049 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
2050 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
2051 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2052 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
2053 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
2056 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
2059 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
2060 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
2061 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
2062 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2063 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2064 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
2065 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
2066 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2068 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2069 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2071 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2072 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2073 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2074 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2075 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
2076 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
2077 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2078 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2079 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2080 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2081 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
2084 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2085 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2086 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2087 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
2088 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
2089 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
2090 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
2091 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2092 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2094 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2095 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2096 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2097 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2100 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2103 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2105 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2110 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2111 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2112 filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2113 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2116 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2117 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2118 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2119 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2121 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2123 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2124 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2125 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2126 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2127 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2129 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2132 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2133 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2134 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2137 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2138 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2139 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2140 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2141 a part of the transfer.
2143 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2144 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2145 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2146 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2147 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2148 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2149 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2150 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2154 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2159 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2162 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2163 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2164 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2165 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2166 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2167 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2168 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2169 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
2171 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2173 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2174 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2175 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2176 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2177 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2178 out the parent's rules).
2180 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2182 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2183 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2184 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2185 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2186 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2187 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2189 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2190 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2191 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2192 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2193 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2195 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2196 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2197 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2200 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2201 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2202 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2203 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2204 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2208 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2209 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2210 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2211 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2212 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2216 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2217 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2218 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2219 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2220 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2224 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2225 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2226 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2227 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2228 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2231 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2232 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2233 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2235 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2237 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2238 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2239 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2240 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2243 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2244 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2247 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2248 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2249 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2250 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2251 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2252 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2254 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2256 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2257 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2258 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2259 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2260 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2262 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2263 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2265 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2266 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2267 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2268 per-directory merge rule.
2270 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2271 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2272 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2273 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2274 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2275 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2277 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2279 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2281 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2283 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2284 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2285 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2286 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2287 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2288 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2289 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2290 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2291 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2293 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2294 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2295 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2296 using the information stored in the batch file.
2298 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2299 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2300 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2301 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2302 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
2304 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2305 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2306 path differs from the original destination tree path.
2308 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2309 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2310 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2311 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2312 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2317 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2318 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2319 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2323 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2324 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2327 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2328 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2329 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2330 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2331 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2334 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2335 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2336 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2337 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2338 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2339 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2340 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2341 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2342 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2343 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2344 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2349 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2350 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2351 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2352 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2353 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2354 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2355 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2356 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2357 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2358 option (when reading the batch).
2359 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2360 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2361 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2364 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2365 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2366 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2367 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2368 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2369 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2370 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2372 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2373 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2374 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2375 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2376 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2377 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2378 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2380 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2381 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2382 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2383 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2384 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2385 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2387 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2388 version uses a new implementation.
2390 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2392 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2393 link in the source directory.
2395 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2396 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2398 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2399 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2402 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2403 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2405 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2406 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2407 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2408 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2409 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2410 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2411 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2412 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2414 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2415 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
2416 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2418 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2419 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2420 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2422 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2423 symlinks for any other options to affect).
2425 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2426 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2428 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2429 skip all safe symlinks.
2431 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2434 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2436 manpagediagnostics()
2438 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2439 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2440 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2442 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2443 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2444 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2445 remote shell like this:
2447 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2449 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2450 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2451 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2452 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2453 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2454 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2455 for non-interactive logins.
2457 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2458 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2459 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2461 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2465 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2466 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2467 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2468 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2469 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2470 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2472 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2473 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2474 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2475 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2476 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2477 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2478 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2479 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2480 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
2481 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2482 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2483 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2484 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2485 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2488 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2491 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2492 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2494 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2495 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2496 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2497 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2498 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2499 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2500 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2501 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2502 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2503 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2504 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2505 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2506 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2507 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2508 default .cvsignore file.
2513 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2521 times are transferred as *nix time_t values
2523 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2525 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2527 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2530 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2532 Please report bugs! See the website at
2533 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2535 manpagesection(VERSION)
2537 This man page is current for version 2.6.8 of rsync.
2539 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2541 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2542 COPYING for details.
2544 A WEB site is available at
2545 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2546 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2549 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2550 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2552 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2554 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2555 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2557 manpagesection(THANKS)
2559 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2560 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2561 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2563 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2564 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2568 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2569 Many people have later contributed to it.
2571 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2572 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)