1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(8 Feb 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
14 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
16 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require super-user privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
48 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
50 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
51 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
52 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
53 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
54 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
55 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
56 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
57 "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
58 an exception to this latter rule).
60 As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
61 the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
63 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
64 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
68 See the file README for installation instructions.
70 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
71 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
72 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
73 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
74 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
76 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
77 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
79 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
84 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
85 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
87 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
89 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
91 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
92 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
93 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
94 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
95 differences. See the tech report for details.
97 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
99 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
100 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
101 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
102 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
103 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
104 size of data portions of the transfer.
106 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
108 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
109 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
110 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
111 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
112 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
113 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
114 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
118 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
119 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
122 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
123 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
124 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
127 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
128 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
131 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
132 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
133 an improved copy command.
135 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
136 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
138 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
140 See the following section for more details.
142 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
144 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
145 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
147 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
149 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
150 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
151 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
152 to be a part of the filenames.
154 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
156 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
157 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
158 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
159 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
160 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
161 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
162 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
165 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
166 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
169 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
170 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
172 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
174 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
175 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
176 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
177 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
178 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
180 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
184 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
185 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
186 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
187 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
189 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
190 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
191 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
192 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
193 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
196 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
198 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
200 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
201 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
202 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
203 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
204 may be useful when scripting rsync.
206 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
207 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
209 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
210 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
211 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
212 proxy connections to port 873.
214 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
216 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
217 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
218 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
219 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
220 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
221 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
222 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
223 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
224 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
225 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
226 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
227 connections from "localhost".)
229 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
230 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
231 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
232 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
233 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
234 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
236 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
238 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
239 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
240 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
241 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
243 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
245 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
246 used to log-in to the "module".
248 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
250 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
251 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
252 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
253 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
254 socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
255 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
256 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
258 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
259 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
261 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
266 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
273 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
277 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
282 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
283 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
284 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
289 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291 This is launched from cron every few hours.
293 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
296 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
297 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
298 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
299 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
300 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
301 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
302 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
303 -R, --relative use relative path names
304 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
305 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
306 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
307 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
308 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
309 --inplace update destination files in-place
310 --append append data onto shorter files
311 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
312 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
313 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
314 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
315 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
316 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
317 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
318 -p, --perms preserve permissions
319 -E, --executability preserve executability
320 --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
321 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
322 -g, --group preserve group
323 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
324 --specials preserve special files
325 -D same as --devices --specials
326 -t, --times preserve times
327 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
328 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
329 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
330 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
331 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
332 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
333 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
334 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
335 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
336 --existing ignore non-existing files on receiving side
337 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
338 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
339 --del an alias for --delete-during
340 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
341 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
342 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
343 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
344 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
345 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
346 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
347 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
348 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
349 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
350 --partial keep partially transferred files
351 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
352 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
353 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
354 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
355 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
356 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
357 --size-only skip files that match in size
358 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
359 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
360 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
361 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
362 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
363 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
364 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
365 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
366 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
367 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
368 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
369 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
370 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
371 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
372 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
373 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
374 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
375 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
376 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
377 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
378 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
379 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
380 --stats give some file-transfer stats
381 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
382 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
383 --progress show progress during transfer
384 -P same as --partial --progress
385 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
386 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
387 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
388 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
389 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
390 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
391 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
392 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
393 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
394 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
395 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 --version print version number
398 (-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment)
401 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
403 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
404 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
405 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
406 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
407 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
408 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
409 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
410 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
411 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
412 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
413 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon)
418 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
419 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
420 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
421 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
425 dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
426 available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
427 versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
428 option without any other args.
430 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
432 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
433 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
434 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
435 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
436 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
437 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
438 you are debugging rsync.
440 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
441 a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
442 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
443 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
444 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
445 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
446 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
447 any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
449 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
450 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
451 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
454 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
455 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
456 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
458 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
459 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
460 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
461 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
462 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
465 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
466 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
467 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
468 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
469 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
470 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
471 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
473 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum every file using
474 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before the transfer (during the initial file-system
475 scan). The receiver then checksums every existing file that has the same
476 size as its sender-side counterpart in order to decide which files need to
477 be transferred: files with either a changed size or changed checksum are
478 selected for transfer. Since this whole-file checksumming of all files on
479 both sides of the connection occurs in addition to the automatic checksum
480 verifications that occur during and after a file's transfer, this option
483 Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
484 correctly reconstructed on the receiving side using a whole-file checksum,
485 but that after-transfer check has nothing to do with this option's
486 before-transfer "Does the file need to be updated?" check.
488 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
489 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
490 everything (with -H being a notable omission).
491 The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
492 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
494 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
495 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
498 dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
499 the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
500 only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
501 bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
502 (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
503 specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
504 (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
506 For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
507 bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
508 could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
510 The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
511 bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
512 Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
513 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
514 changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
517 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
518 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
520 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
521 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
522 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
523 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
524 example, if you used this command:
526 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
528 ... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
529 machine. If instead you used
531 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
533 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
534 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
535 path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
536 a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
537 insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
539 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
541 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
542 dot dir must followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
543 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
544 source path. For example, when pushing files:
546 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
548 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
549 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
550 If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
554 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
555 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
558 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
559 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
560 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
561 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
562 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
563 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
564 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
565 the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
566 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
567 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
569 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
570 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
571 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
572 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
574 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
575 bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
576 also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
577 filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
578 (e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
579 deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
580 need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
581 in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
582 your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
583 rule would never be reached).
585 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
586 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
587 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
588 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
589 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
590 will keep their original filenames).
592 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
593 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
594 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
596 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
597 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
598 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
599 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
601 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
602 between the sender and receiver is always
603 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
604 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
605 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
606 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
607 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
609 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
610 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
611 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
612 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
613 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
614 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
615 basis file for the transfer.
617 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
618 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
621 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
622 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
623 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
626 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
627 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
628 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
629 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
632 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
633 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
634 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
635 side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
636 resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
637 Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
638 file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
639 Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
640 bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
643 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
644 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
645 unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
646 (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
647 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
648 output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
649 bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
651 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
652 symlink on the destination.
654 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
655 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
656 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
657 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
658 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
659 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
660 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
661 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
663 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
664 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
665 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
666 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
668 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
669 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
670 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
671 give unexpected results.
673 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
674 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
675 option hard links are treated like regular files.
677 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
678 are in the list of files being sent.
680 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
682 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
683 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
686 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
687 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
688 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
689 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
690 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
691 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
693 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
694 destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
695 also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
696 be the source permissions.)
698 When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
701 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
702 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
703 the execute permission for the file.
704 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
705 file's permissions masked with the receiving end's umask setting, and
706 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
707 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
710 Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
711 rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
712 such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
714 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
715 permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
716 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
717 bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
718 all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
719 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
720 putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
721 and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
723 quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
725 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
727 quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
729 (Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
730 the "--no-*" options.)
732 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
733 directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
734 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
735 newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
736 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. (Keep in
737 mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects this
740 dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
741 executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
742 not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
743 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
744 executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
745 modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
748 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
750 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
751 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
754 If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
756 dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
757 comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
758 transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
759 that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
760 can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
762 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
763 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
764 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
765 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
767 quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
769 It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
770 additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
772 See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
773 permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
775 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
776 destination file to be the same as the source file. By default, the
777 preservation is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number
778 in some circumstances (see the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full
780 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
781 super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
783 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
784 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
785 program is not running as the super-user (or with the bf(--no-super)
786 option), only groups that the
787 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
788 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
789 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
791 dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
792 block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
793 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
794 super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
796 dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
797 such as named sockets and fifos.
799 dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
801 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
802 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
803 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
804 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
805 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
806 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
807 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
809 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
810 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
811 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
812 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
814 dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
815 activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
816 activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
817 all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
818 option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
819 for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
820 also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
821 being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
822 super-user can use bf(--no-super).
824 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
825 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
827 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
828 up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
829 not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
831 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
832 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
833 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
835 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
836 filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
837 to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
838 through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
839 the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
840 in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
843 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
844 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
845 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
846 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
848 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
849 bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
850 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
853 dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
854 updating files that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is
855 combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
856 (which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete missing files).
858 dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
859 already exist on the destination. See also bf(--ignore-non-existing).
861 dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
862 side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
863 updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
864 nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
866 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
867 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
868 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
869 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
870 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
871 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
872 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
873 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
874 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
875 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
877 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
878 was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
879 (bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
881 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
882 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
883 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
885 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
886 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
887 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
888 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
889 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
891 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
892 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
893 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
894 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
895 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
897 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
898 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
899 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
900 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
902 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
903 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
904 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
905 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
908 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
909 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
910 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
911 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
912 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
914 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
915 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
916 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
917 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
919 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
921 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
922 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
923 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
924 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
925 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
926 bf(--delete-excluded).
927 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
929 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
930 even when there are I/O errors.
932 dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
933 when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
934 deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
936 Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
937 using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
938 bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
940 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
941 files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
942 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
944 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
945 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
946 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
947 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
949 The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
950 "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
951 gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
952 If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
953 "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
954 Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
955 be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
957 Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
960 dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
961 file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
962 transferring small, junk files.
963 See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
965 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
966 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
967 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
969 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
970 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
971 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
972 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
974 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
975 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
976 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
977 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
978 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
979 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
981 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
982 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
983 or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
984 and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
985 argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
986 inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
987 double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
988 shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
991 tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
992 tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
995 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
996 options in their .ssh/config file.)
998 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
999 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1001 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1003 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1004 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1005 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1006 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1007 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1008 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1011 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1012 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1014 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
1016 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1017 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1018 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
1019 a file should be ignored.
1021 The exclude list is initialized to:
1023 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1024 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
1025 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
1027 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1028 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1029 are delimited by whitespace).
1031 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1032 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1033 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1034 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
1036 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1037 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1038 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1039 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1040 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1041 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1042 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1043 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1044 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1045 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1048 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1049 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1050 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1052 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1053 to build up the list of files to exclude.
1055 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1057 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1058 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1060 quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1062 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1063 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1064 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1067 quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1069 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1071 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1074 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1075 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1076 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1078 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1080 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1081 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1082 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1083 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1085 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1086 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1087 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1089 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1091 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1092 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1093 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1094 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1096 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1097 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1098 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1099 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1102 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1103 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1104 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1105 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1106 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1107 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1108 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1109 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1110 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1111 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1112 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1113 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1116 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1117 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1118 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1121 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1123 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1124 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1125 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1126 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1127 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1128 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1129 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1130 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1132 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1133 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1134 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1136 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1137 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1138 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1139 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1140 transfer". For example:
1142 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1144 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1145 was located on the remote "src" host.
1147 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1148 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1149 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1150 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1151 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1152 file are split on whitespace).
1154 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1155 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1156 on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1157 file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1159 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1160 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1161 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1162 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1163 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1164 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1165 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1166 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1167 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1168 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1169 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1170 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1171 new version on the disk at the same time.
1173 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1174 space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1175 which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1176 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1177 have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1178 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1179 about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1180 path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1181 single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1182 partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1183 rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1184 an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1186 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1187 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1188 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1189 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1190 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1192 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1193 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1194 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1196 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1197 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1198 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1199 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1200 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1201 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1202 have changed from an earlier backup.
1204 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1205 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1207 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1208 and the attributes updated.
1209 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1210 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1212 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1213 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1215 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1216 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1217 directory using a local copy.
1218 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1219 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1220 been successfully transferred.
1222 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1223 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1224 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1225 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1227 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1228 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1230 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1231 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1232 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1233 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1236 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1238 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1239 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1241 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1242 and the attributes updated.
1243 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1244 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1246 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1247 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1249 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1250 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1251 specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1252 the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1254 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1255 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1256 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1258 Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1259 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1260 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1261 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1263 dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1264 (see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1265 the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1267 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1268 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1271 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1272 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1273 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1274 option is not specified.
1276 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1277 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1278 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1279 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1280 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1281 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1283 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1284 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1285 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1287 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1288 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1289 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1290 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1292 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1293 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1294 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1295 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1296 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1298 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1299 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1300 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1301 slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
1302 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1303 special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1304 connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1305 bf(--daemon) mode section.
1307 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1308 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1309 rsync defaults to using
1310 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1311 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1313 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1314 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1315 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
1316 If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1317 if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1318 with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1321 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1322 format is like the string bf(YXcstpogz), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1323 type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1324 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1327 The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1330 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1332 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1334 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1335 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1336 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
1338 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1339 have attributes that are being modified).
1342 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1343 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1344 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1346 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1347 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1348 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1349 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1350 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1351 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1353 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1356 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1357 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1358 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1359 by the file transfer.
1360 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1361 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1362 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1363 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1364 without bf(--times).
1365 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1366 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1367 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1368 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1369 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1370 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1371 it() The bf(z) slot is reserved for future use.
1374 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1375 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1376 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1377 outputting them as a verbose message).
1379 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1380 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1381 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1382 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1383 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1384 option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1386 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1387 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1388 touched directory) unless the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
1389 the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
1390 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1391 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1394 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1395 bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1396 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1398 Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1399 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1400 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1401 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1402 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1403 (followed, of course, by the log-format output).
1405 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1406 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1407 algorithm is for your data.
1409 The current statistics are as follows: itemize(
1410 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1411 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1412 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1413 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1414 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1415 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1416 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1417 include the size of symlinks.
1418 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1419 for just the transferred files.
1420 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1421 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1422 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1423 recreating the updated files.
1424 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1425 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1426 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1428 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1429 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1430 sending side for this to be present.
1431 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1432 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1433 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1434 from the client side to the server side.
1435 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1436 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1437 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1438 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
1441 dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1442 unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1443 valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1444 characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1447 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1448 and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1449 would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1450 escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1452 dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1453 This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1454 this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1455 G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1458 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1459 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1460 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1461 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1462 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1464 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1465 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1466 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1467 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1468 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1469 after it has served its purpose.
1471 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1472 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1474 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1476 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1477 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1478 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1479 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1480 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1482 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1483 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1484 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1485 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1486 receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1487 the equivalent of "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)" at the end of any other
1490 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1491 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1492 rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1493 to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1494 rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1495 should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1496 bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1497 bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1498 left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1500 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1501 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1503 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1504 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1505 enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1506 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1507 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1508 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1509 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1510 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1511 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1512 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1514 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1515 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1516 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1517 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1518 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1520 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1521 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1522 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1523 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1524 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1525 each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1526 bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1527 comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1528 ".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1529 you wnat rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1530 Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1532 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1533 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1534 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1535 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1537 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1538 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1540 and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1541 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1543 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1544 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1545 parallel hierarchy of files).
1547 dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1548 rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1549 that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1550 creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1551 recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1554 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1555 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1556 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1557 being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1560 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1561 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1562 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1564 quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1566 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1567 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1568 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1569 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1571 quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
1573 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1574 time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
1575 in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1577 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1578 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1580 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1582 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1584 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1586 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1587 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1588 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1589 remaining in this transfer.
1591 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1593 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1595 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1596 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1597 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1598 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1599 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1601 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1602 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1603 transfer that may be interrupted.
1605 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1606 in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1607 is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1608 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1609 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1612 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1613 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1614 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1615 come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1616 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1617 non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1618 copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1619 must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
1621 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1622 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1623 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1624 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1625 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1626 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1627 of zero specifies no limit.
1629 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1630 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1631 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1633 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1634 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1635 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1636 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1638 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1639 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1640 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1641 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1642 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1645 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1646 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1647 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1648 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1650 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1651 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1652 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1653 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1655 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1656 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1657 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1658 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1659 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1660 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1661 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1663 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1664 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1665 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1666 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1668 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1669 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1670 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1671 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1672 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1673 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1674 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1675 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1679 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1681 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1684 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1685 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1686 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1688 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1689 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1690 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1691 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1692 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1695 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1696 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1697 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1698 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1699 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1701 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1702 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1703 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1704 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1705 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1707 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1708 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1709 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1710 a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
1711 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1713 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1714 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1715 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1716 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1717 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1718 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1719 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1722 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1723 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1724 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1726 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
1727 rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
1729 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1730 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1731 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1732 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1734 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1735 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1736 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1737 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1738 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1739 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1741 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1742 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1745 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1747 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1748 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1749 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1750 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1752 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1753 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1754 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1755 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1756 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1757 filename is not skipped.
1759 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1760 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1763 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1764 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1767 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1768 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1769 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1770 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1771 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1774 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1775 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1776 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1777 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1778 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1779 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1780 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1781 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1782 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1785 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1786 comment lines that start with a "#".
1788 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1789 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1790 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1791 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1793 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1794 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1795 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1796 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1799 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1800 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1801 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1802 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1804 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1806 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1807 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1808 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1809 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1810 can take several forms:
1813 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1814 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1815 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1816 regular expressions.
1817 Thus "/foo" would match a file named "foo" at either the "root of the
1818 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1819 per-directory rule).
1820 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1821 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1823 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1824 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1825 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1826 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1827 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1829 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1830 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1832 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
1833 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
1834 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
1835 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
1836 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
1837 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
1838 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
1839 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
1840 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
1841 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
1842 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1843 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1844 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1845 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1846 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1848 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
1849 "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
1850 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
1854 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1855 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1856 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1857 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1858 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1859 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1860 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1861 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1862 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1863 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1864 For instance, this won't work:
1867 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1868 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1872 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1873 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1874 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1875 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1876 "- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
1877 solution is to add specific include rules for all
1878 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1883 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1884 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1885 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1889 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1892 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1893 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
1894 transfer-root directory
1895 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
1896 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
1897 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
1898 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
1899 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
1900 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1901 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
1902 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
1903 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1904 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1905 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1908 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1910 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1911 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1914 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1915 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1916 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1917 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1918 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1919 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1920 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1921 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1922 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1923 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1929 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1930 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1931 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1932 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1933 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1936 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1939 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1940 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1941 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1942 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1943 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1944 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1945 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1946 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1947 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1948 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1949 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1950 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1951 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1952 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1953 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1955 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1956 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
1957 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1958 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1959 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1960 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
1963 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1966 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
1967 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
1968 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1969 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
1970 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
1971 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
1972 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1973 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1975 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1976 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1978 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1979 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1980 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1981 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1982 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1983 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
1984 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1985 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1986 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1987 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1988 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1991 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1992 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1993 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1994 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1995 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1996 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1997 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1998 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1999 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2001 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2002 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2003 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2004 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2007 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2010 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2012 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2017 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2018 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2019 filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2020 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2023 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2024 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2025 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2026 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2028 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2030 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2031 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2032 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2033 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2034 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2036 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2039 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2040 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2041 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2044 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2045 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2046 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2047 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2048 a part of the transfer.
2050 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2051 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2052 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2053 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2054 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2055 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2056 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2057 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2061 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2066 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2069 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2070 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2071 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2072 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2073 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2074 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2075 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2076 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
2078 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2080 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2081 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2082 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2083 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2084 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2085 out the parent's rules).
2087 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2089 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2090 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2091 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2092 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2093 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2094 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2096 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2097 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2098 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2099 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2100 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2102 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2103 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2104 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2107 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2108 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2109 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2110 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2111 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2115 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2116 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2117 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2118 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2119 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2123 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2124 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2125 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2126 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2127 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2131 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2132 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2133 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2134 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2135 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2138 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2139 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2140 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2142 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2144 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2145 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2146 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2147 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2150 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2151 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2154 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2155 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2156 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2157 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2158 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2159 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2161 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2163 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2164 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2165 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2166 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2167 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2169 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2170 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2172 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2173 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2174 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2175 per-directory merge rule.
2177 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2178 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2179 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2180 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2181 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2182 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2184 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2186 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2188 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2190 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2191 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2192 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2193 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2194 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2195 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2196 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2197 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2198 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2200 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2201 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2202 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2203 using the information stored in the batch file.
2205 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2206 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2207 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2208 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2209 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
2210 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2211 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2212 path differs from the original destination tree path.
2214 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2215 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2216 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2217 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2218 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2223 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2224 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2225 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2229 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2230 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2233 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2234 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2235 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2236 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2237 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2240 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2241 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2242 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2243 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2244 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2245 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2246 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2247 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2248 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2249 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2250 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2255 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2256 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2257 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2258 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2259 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2260 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2261 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2262 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2263 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2264 option (when reading the batch).
2265 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2266 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2267 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2270 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2271 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2272 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2273 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2274 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2275 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2276 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2278 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2279 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2280 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2281 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2282 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2283 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2284 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2286 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2287 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2288 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2289 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2290 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2291 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2293 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2294 version uses a new implementation.
2296 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2298 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2299 link in the source directory.
2301 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2302 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2304 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2305 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2308 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2309 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2311 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2312 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2313 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2314 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2315 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2316 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2317 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2318 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2320 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2321 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
2322 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2324 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2325 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2326 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2328 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2329 symlinks for any other options to affect).
2331 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2332 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2334 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2335 skip all safe symlinks.
2337 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2340 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2342 manpagediagnostics()
2344 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2345 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2346 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2348 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2349 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2350 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2351 remote shell like this:
2353 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2355 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2356 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2357 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2358 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2359 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2360 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2361 for non-interactive logins.
2363 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2364 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2365 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2367 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2371 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2372 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2373 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2374 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2375 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2376 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2378 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2379 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2380 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2381 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2382 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2383 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2384 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2385 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2386 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2387 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2388 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2389 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2390 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2391 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2394 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2397 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2398 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2400 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2401 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2402 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2403 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2404 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2405 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2406 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2407 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2408 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2409 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2410 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2411 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2412 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2413 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2414 default .cvsignore file.
2419 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2427 times are transferred as *nix time_t values
2429 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2431 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2433 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2436 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2438 Please report bugs! See the website at
2439 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2441 manpagesection(VERSION)
2443 This man page is current for version 2.6.7pre1 of rsync.
2445 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2447 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2448 COPYING for details.
2450 A WEB site is available at
2451 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2452 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2455 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2456 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2458 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2460 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2461 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2463 manpagesection(THANKS)
2465 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2466 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2467 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2469 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2470 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2474 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2475 Many people have later contributed to it.
2477 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2478 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)