1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Jan 2004)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/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 already
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or a rsync:// URL.
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or a rsync:// URL.
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMMAND option is also provided.
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
87 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88 and destination paths must be local.
92 See the file README for installation instructions.
94 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
100 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
106 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
109 manpagesection(USAGE)
111 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
114 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
116 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
118 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122 differences. See the tech report for details.
124 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
126 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
130 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131 size of data portions of the transfer.
133 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
135 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
144 quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
145 quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
147 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149 an improved copy command.
151 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
153 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
157 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
159 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
160 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
161 running on TCP port 873.
163 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
164 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
165 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must allow
166 proxying to port 873.
168 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
172 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
173 separate the hostname from the path or a rsync:// URL.
175 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
178 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
179 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
181 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
182 specified files on the remote server is provided.
185 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
186 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
187 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
188 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
189 may be useful when scripting rsync.
191 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
192 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
194 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
196 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
197 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
198 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
199 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
200 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
201 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
204 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
205 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
206 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
207 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
210 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
211 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
213 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
215 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
216 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
218 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
220 An rsync server is configured using a config file. Please see the
221 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
222 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
223 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
224 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
227 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
229 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
230 server configuration file.
232 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
233 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
234 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
235 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
237 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
238 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
240 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
242 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
244 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
245 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
247 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
249 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
252 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
256 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
259 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
263 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
264 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
265 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
267 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
270 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
272 this is launched from cron every few hours.
274 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
276 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
277 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
280 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
281 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
282 -c, --checksum always checksum
283 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
284 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
285 -R, --relative use relative path names
286 --no-relative turn off --relative
287 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
288 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
289 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
290 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
291 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
292 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
293 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of symlinks
294 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
295 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
296 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
297 -p, --perms preserve permissions
298 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
299 -g, --group preserve group
300 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
301 -t, --times preserve times
302 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
303 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
304 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
305 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
306 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
307 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
308 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
309 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
310 --existing only update files that already exist
311 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
312 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
313 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
314 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
315 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
316 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
317 --partial keep partially transferred files
318 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
319 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
320 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
321 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
322 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
323 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
324 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
325 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
326 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
327 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
328 -z, --compress compress file data
329 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
330 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
331 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
332 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
333 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
334 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
335 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
336 --version print version number
337 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
338 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
339 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
340 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
341 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
342 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
343 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
344 --stats give some file transfer stats
345 --progress show progress during transfer
346 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
347 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
348 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
349 --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
350 --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
351 -h, --help show this help screen
358 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
359 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
360 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
361 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
365 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
368 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
370 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
371 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
372 single -v will give you information about what files are being
373 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
374 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
375 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
376 you are debugging rsync.
378 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
379 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
380 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
383 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
384 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
385 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
387 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
388 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
389 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
390 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
391 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
394 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
395 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
396 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
397 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
398 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
399 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
401 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
402 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
403 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
404 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
405 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
407 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
408 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
411 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
412 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
415 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
416 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
419 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
420 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
421 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
422 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
423 example, if you used the command
425 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
427 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
428 machine. If instead you used
430 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
432 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
433 machine -- the full path name is preserved.
435 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
436 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
439 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
440 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
441 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
442 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
443 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
444 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
445 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
446 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
447 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
448 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
450 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
451 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
452 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
453 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
455 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
456 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
457 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
458 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
459 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
460 will keep their original filenames).
462 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
463 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
464 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
466 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
467 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
470 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
471 symlink on the destination.
473 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
474 they point to is copied, rather than the symlink.
476 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
477 symbolic links that point outside the source tree. Absolute symlinks
478 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
479 source path itself when --relative is used.
481 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
482 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
483 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
484 give unexpected results.
486 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
487 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
488 option hard links are treated like regular files.
490 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
491 are in the list of files being sent.
493 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
495 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
496 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
497 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
498 target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
499 "disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both
500 the source and target are on the local machine.
502 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
505 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
506 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
508 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
509 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
510 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
511 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
513 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
514 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
515 only the super-user can set file ownership. Note that if the remote system
516 is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because the
517 remote system cannot get access to the usernames from /etc/passwd.
519 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
520 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
521 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
522 receiver is a member of will be preserved (by group name, not group id
525 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
526 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
527 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
529 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
530 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
531 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
532 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
533 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
534 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
537 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
538 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
540 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
541 up less space on the destination.
543 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
544 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
545 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
547 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
548 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
549 contents of only one filesystem.
551 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
552 only update files that already exist on the destination.
554 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
555 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
558 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
559 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
560 to prevent disasters.
562 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
563 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
564 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
566 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
568 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
569 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
570 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
572 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
573 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
574 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
575 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
576 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
578 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
579 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
580 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
583 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
584 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
585 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
586 then use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
588 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
589 even when there are IO errors.
591 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
592 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
593 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
594 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
596 dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
597 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
599 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
600 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
601 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
602 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
604 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
605 remote shell em(COMMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
606 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
607 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
608 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
609 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
611 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
612 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
614 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
616 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
617 options in their .ssh/config file.)
619 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
620 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
622 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
624 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
625 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
626 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
629 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
630 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
631 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
632 a file should be ignored.
634 The exclude list is initialized to:
636 quote(RCS/ SCCS/ CVS/ .svn/ CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
637 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
638 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
640 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
641 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
643 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
644 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. See
645 the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
647 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
648 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
649 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
651 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
652 to build up the list of files to exclude.
654 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for information on the syntax of
657 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
658 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
659 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
660 ';' or '#' are ignored.
661 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
663 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
664 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
665 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
667 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for information on the syntax of
670 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
672 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
674 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
675 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
676 for stdin). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
677 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
678 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
679 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
680 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
681 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
682 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
685 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
686 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
687 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
690 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
692 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
693 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
694 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
695 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
696 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
697 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
698 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
700 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
701 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
702 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
703 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
704 transfer". For example:
706 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
708 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
709 was located on the remote "src" host.
711 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
712 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
713 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
715 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
716 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
717 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
718 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
720 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
721 the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
722 files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
723 destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
724 destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
725 flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
726 example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
727 although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
728 This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
729 transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
730 have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
731 to the destination directory.
733 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
734 also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
735 unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
737 Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
738 to the destination directory.
740 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
741 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
742 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
743 same method that gzip uses.
745 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
746 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
747 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
748 information sent for matching data blocks.
750 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
751 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
754 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
755 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
756 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
757 option is not specified.
759 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group
760 name does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id
761 from the source system is used instead.
763 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
764 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
765 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
767 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
768 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
769 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
771 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
772 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
773 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
774 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
775 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
778 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
779 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
780 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
781 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
782 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
783 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
784 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
787 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
788 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
789 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
790 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
791 in conjunction with the --config option.
793 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
794 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
795 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
796 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
797 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
799 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
800 rather than the default port 873.
802 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching
803 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
804 rsync defaults to using
805 blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking IO. (Note that
806 ssh prefers non-blocking IO.)
808 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
811 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
812 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
813 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
816 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
817 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
818 algorithm is for your data.
820 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
821 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
822 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
823 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
824 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
826 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
827 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
829 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
831 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
832 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
833 option to make it easier.
835 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
836 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
837 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
838 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
839 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
842 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
843 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
844 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
845 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
846 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
847 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
848 of zero specifies no limit.
850 dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be
851 transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with
852 PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
854 dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch,
855 using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH
856 MODE" section for details.
860 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
862 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
863 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
865 rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
866 the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
867 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
868 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
869 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
870 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
871 filename is not skipped.
873 The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns
874 are relative to the destination directory, or "top
875 directory", so patterns should not include the path elements
876 of the source or destination directories. The only way in
877 which a pattern will match the absolute path of a file or
878 directory is if the source path is the root directory.
880 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
881 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
882 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
884 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
885 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
886 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
888 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
892 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
893 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
895 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
896 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the top of the
898 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
899 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
900 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
901 end of the file name.
902 The leading / does not make the pattern an absolute pathname.
904 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
905 directory, not a file, link or device.
907 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
908 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
909 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
911 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
912 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
914 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
915 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
916 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
917 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
918 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
919 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
921 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
922 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
923 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
925 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
926 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
927 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
929 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
930 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
933 The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
934 you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
937 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
938 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
939 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
940 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
941 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
944 Here are some exclude/include examples:
947 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
948 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the top directory
949 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
950 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
951 levels below a directory called foo in the top directory
952 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
953 or more levels below a directory called foo in the top directory
954 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
955 directories and C source files
956 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
957 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
958 it would be excluded by the "*")
961 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
963 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
964 of rsync. The interface or behaviour may change before it stabilizes.
966 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
967 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
968 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
969 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
970 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
971 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
972 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
973 client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against
974 other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The
975 filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by
976 the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is
977 then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch
978 option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree.
979 Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the
980 batch update fileset.
982 The fileset consists of 4 files:
985 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments
986 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata
987 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums
988 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change
991 The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
992 destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
993 using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
994 destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
995 path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the
996 original destination tree path.
998 Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the
999 file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when
1000 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1001 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at
1002 once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1007 $ rsync --write-batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1008 $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
1009 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
1011 $ ssh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
1014 In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
1015 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
1016 pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
1017 Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
1018 /adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to
1023 The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update
1024 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1025 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1026 is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
1027 destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1028 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1031 The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
1032 one used on the original destination.
1034 The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
1035 error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
1036 size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.
1038 The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1041 See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1044 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1046 Three basic behaviours are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1047 link in the source directory.
1049 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1050 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1052 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1053 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1056 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1057 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1059 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1060 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1061 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1062 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1063 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1064 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1065 unsafe links to be ommitted altogether.
1067 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1068 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1069 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1071 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1073 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1074 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1075 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1077 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1078 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1079 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1080 remote shell like this:
1083 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1086 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1087 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1088 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1089 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1090 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1091 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1092 for non-interactive logins.
1094 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1095 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1096 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1098 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1102 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1103 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1104 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1105 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1106 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1107 them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and
1109 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1110 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket IO
1111 dit(bf(11)) Error in file IO
1112 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1113 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1114 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1115 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1116 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1117 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1118 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1119 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1120 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1123 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1127 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1128 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1131 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1132 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1133 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1135 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1136 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1137 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1139 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1140 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
1141 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1142 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1144 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1145 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
1147 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1148 default .cvsignore file.
1154 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1160 manpagediagnostics()
1164 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1166 When transferring to FAT filesystmes rsync may resync
1168 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1170 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
1173 see also the comments on the --delete option
1175 Please report bugs! See the website at
1176 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1178 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1180 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1181 COPYING for details.
1183 A WEB site is available at
1184 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1185 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1188 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1189 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1191 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1193 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1194 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1196 manpagesection(THANKS)
1198 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1199 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1200 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1202 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer.
1207 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org> and Paul
1210 rsync is now maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>.
1212 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1213 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
1215 If you suspect you have found a security vulnerability in rsync,
1216 please send it directly to Martin Pool and Andrew Tridgell. For other
1217 enquiries, please use the mailing list.