1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 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 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 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 an 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 an 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=COMMAND 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 with some examples:
116 quote(rsync -t *.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 -av /src/foo /dest)
145 quote(rsync -av /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(ADVANCED USAGE)
159 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
160 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
162 quote(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest)
164 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
165 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
166 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
167 to be a part of the filenames.
169 quote(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)
171 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
172 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
173 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
174 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
175 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
176 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
177 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
179 quote(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)
180 quote(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)
182 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
183 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
186 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
188 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
189 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
190 running on TCP port 873.
192 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
193 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
194 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
195 proxy connections to port 873.
197 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
201 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
202 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
204 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
207 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
208 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
210 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
211 specified files on the remote server is provided.
214 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
215 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
216 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
217 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
218 may be useful when scripting rsync.
220 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
221 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
223 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
225 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
226 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
227 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
228 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
229 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
230 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
233 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
234 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
235 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
236 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
239 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
240 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
242 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
244 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
245 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
247 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
249 An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
250 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
251 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
252 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
253 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
256 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
258 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
259 server configuration file.
261 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
262 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
263 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
264 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
266 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
267 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
269 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
271 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
273 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
274 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
276 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
278 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
281 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
285 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
288 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
292 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
293 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
294 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
296 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
299 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
301 this is launched from cron every few hours.
303 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
305 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
306 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
309 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
310 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
311 -c, --checksum always checksum
312 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
313 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
314 -R, --relative use relative path names
315 --no-relative turn off --relative
316 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
317 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
318 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
319 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
320 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
321 --inplace update the destination files in-place
322 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
323 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
324 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
325 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
326 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
327 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
328 -p, --perms preserve permissions
329 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
330 -g, --group preserve group
331 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
332 -t, --times preserve times
333 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
334 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
335 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
336 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
337 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
338 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
339 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
340 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
341 --existing only update files that already exist
342 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
343 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
344 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
345 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
346 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
347 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
348 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
349 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
350 --partial keep partially transferred files
351 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
352 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
353 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
354 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
355 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
356 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
357 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
358 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
359 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
360 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
361 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
362 -z, --compress compress file data
363 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
364 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
366 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
367 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
368 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
369 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
370 --version print version number
371 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
372 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
373 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
374 --stats give some file transfer stats
375 --progress show progress during transfer
376 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
377 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
379 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
380 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
384 -h, --help show this help screen
387 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:
390 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
391 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
392 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
393 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
394 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
395 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
396 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
397 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
398 -h, --help show this help screen
403 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
404 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
405 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
406 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
410 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
413 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
415 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
416 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
417 single -v will give you information about what files are being
418 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
419 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
420 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
421 you are debugging rsync.
423 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
424 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
425 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
428 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
429 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
430 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
432 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
433 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
434 --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
435 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
436 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
439 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
440 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
441 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
442 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
443 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
444 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
446 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
447 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
448 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
449 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
450 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
452 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
453 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
456 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
457 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
460 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
461 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
464 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
465 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
466 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
467 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
468 example, if you used the command
470 verb(rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
472 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
473 machine. If instead you used
475 verb(rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
477 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
478 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
479 path information that is sent, do something like this:
482 rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
484 That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
486 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
487 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
490 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
491 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
492 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
493 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
494 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
495 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
496 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
497 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
498 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
499 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
501 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
502 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
503 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
504 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
506 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
507 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
508 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
509 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
510 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
511 will keep their original filenames).
512 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
513 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
515 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
516 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
517 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
519 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
520 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
521 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
522 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
524 In the current implementation of --update, a difference of file format
525 between the sender and receiver is always
526 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
527 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
528 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
529 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
530 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
532 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
533 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
536 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
537 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
538 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
539 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
540 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
541 with --backup, since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
542 basis file for the transfer.
544 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
545 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
548 The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
549 the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir. Prior to rsync 2.6.4
550 --inplace was also incompatible with --compare-dest, --copy-dest, and
553 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
554 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
555 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
556 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
559 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
560 symlink on the destination.
562 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
563 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
564 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
565 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
566 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
567 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
568 an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
569 will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
571 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
572 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
573 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
574 source path itself when --relative is used.
576 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
577 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
578 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
579 give unexpected results.
581 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
582 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
583 option hard links are treated like regular files.
585 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
586 are in the list of files being sent.
588 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
590 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
591 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
592 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
593 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
594 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
595 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
597 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
600 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
601 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
603 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
604 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
605 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
606 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
608 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
609 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
610 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
611 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
612 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
614 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
615 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
616 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
617 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
618 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
619 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
621 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
622 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
623 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
625 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
626 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
627 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
628 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
629 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
630 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
631 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
633 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
634 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
636 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
637 up less space on the destination.
639 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
640 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
641 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
643 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
644 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
645 contents of only one filesystem.
647 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
648 only update files that already exist on the destination.
650 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
651 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
654 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
655 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
656 to prevent disasters.
658 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
659 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
660 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
661 may be a fractional value (e.g. "--max-size=1.5m").
663 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
664 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
665 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
666 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
667 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
668 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer those files, not
669 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
670 excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
672 This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
674 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
675 to run first using the --dry-run option (-n) to see what files would be
676 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
678 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
679 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
680 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
681 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
682 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
684 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
685 receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
686 sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
687 after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
689 One reason to use --delete-after is to avoid a delay before the start of
690 the transfer (while the receiving side is scanned for deletions) as this
691 delay might cause the transfer to timeout.
693 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
694 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
695 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
698 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
699 even when there are I/O errors.
701 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
702 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
703 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
704 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
706 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
707 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
708 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
710 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
711 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
712 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
713 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
715 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
716 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
717 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
718 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
719 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
720 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
722 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
723 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
725 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
727 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
728 options in their .ssh/config file.)
730 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
731 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
733 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
735 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
736 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
737 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
740 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
741 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
742 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
743 a file should be ignored.
745 The exclude list is initialized to:
747 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
748 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
749 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
751 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
752 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
753 are delimited by whitespace).
755 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
756 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
757 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
759 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
760 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
761 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
763 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
764 to build up the list of files to exclude.
766 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
768 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
769 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
770 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
771 ';' or '#' are ignored.
772 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
774 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
775 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
776 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
778 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
780 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
782 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
784 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
785 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
786 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
787 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
788 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
789 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
790 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
791 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
792 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
795 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
796 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
797 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
800 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
802 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
803 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
804 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
805 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
806 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
807 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
808 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
810 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
811 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
812 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
813 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
814 transfer". For example:
816 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
818 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
819 was located on the remote "src" host.
821 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
822 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
823 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
824 It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
825 file are split on whitespace).
827 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
828 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
829 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
830 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
832 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
833 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
834 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
835 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
836 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
837 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
838 have changed from an earlier backup.
840 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --compare-dest directories may be
841 provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
842 finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
843 and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
845 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
846 See also --copy-dest and --link-dest.
848 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
849 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
850 directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
851 useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
852 files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
853 successfully transferred.
855 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
856 See also --compare-dest and --link-dest.
858 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
859 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
860 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
861 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
865 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
868 Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one --link-dest option is
869 specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
870 the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
871 of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
873 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
874 See also --compare-dest and --copy-dest.
876 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
877 --link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
878 (or implied by -a). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the -o option
879 when sending to an old rsync.
881 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
882 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
883 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
884 same method that gzip uses.
886 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
887 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
888 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
889 information sent for matching data blocks.
891 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
892 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
895 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
896 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
897 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
898 option is not specified.
900 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
901 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
902 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
903 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
904 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
905 users and groups and what you can do about it.
907 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
908 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
909 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
911 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
912 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
913 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
914 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
915 option in the --daemon mode section.
917 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
918 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
919 rsync defaults to using
920 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
921 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
923 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
926 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
927 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
928 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
931 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
932 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
933 algorithm is for your data.
935 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
936 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
937 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
938 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
939 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
941 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
942 put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
943 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
944 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
945 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
946 its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
947 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
948 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
950 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
951 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
952 "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
953 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
954 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
955 DIR was specified as a relative path).
957 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
958 --exclude of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
959 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
960 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
961 the above --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
962 rule at the end of any other include/exclude rules. Note that if you are
963 supplying your own include/exclude rules, you may need to manually insert a
964 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
965 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
966 a trailing --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
968 IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users or it
969 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
971 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
972 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force --partial to be
973 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial (or
974 -P) is used. For instance, instead of specifying --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
975 along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
976 environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
977 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time the --partial option
978 does not look for this environment value is when --inplace was also
979 specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir).
981 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
982 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
984 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
986 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
989 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
992 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
993 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
994 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
995 remaining in this transfer.
997 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1000 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
1003 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1004 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1005 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1006 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1007 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1009 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
1010 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1011 transfer that may be interrupted.
1013 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1014 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1015 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1016 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1017 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1020 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1021 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1022 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1023 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1024 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1025 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1026 of zero specifies no limit.
1028 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1029 another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
1030 section for details.
1032 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1033 file previously generated by --write-batch.
1034 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1035 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1037 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1038 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1039 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1040 rsync daemon. See also these options in the --daemon mode section.
1042 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1043 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1044 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1045 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1046 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1047 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1048 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1049 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1054 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1058 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1059 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1060 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1062 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1063 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1064 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1065 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1066 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1069 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1070 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
1071 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
1072 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1073 in conjunction with the --config option. See also the "address" global
1074 option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1076 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1077 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1078 The client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value, but their
1079 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1080 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1082 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1083 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
1084 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1085 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1086 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1088 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1089 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1090 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1091 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1092 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1093 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1094 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1097 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1098 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1099 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1101 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1102 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1103 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1104 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1105 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1106 try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
1108 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after --daemon, print a short help
1109 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1113 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1115 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
1116 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
1118 Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
1119 the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
1120 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
1121 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
1122 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
1123 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
1124 filename is not skipped.
1126 The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
1127 to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
1128 subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
1129 is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
1130 This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
1132 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1133 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
1134 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1135 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1136 system). The following examples demonstrate this.
1138 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1139 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1140 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1143 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1144 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1145 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1146 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1147 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1149 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1150 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1151 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1152 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1153 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1155 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1156 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1157 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1158 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1159 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1161 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1162 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1163 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1164 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1165 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1168 The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1169 look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1170 (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1172 Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1173 every subcomponent of
1174 every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1175 applied recursively to each subcomponent's full name (e.g. to include
1176 "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1177 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1178 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1179 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1180 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1183 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1184 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1185 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1187 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1191 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1192 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1194 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1195 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1196 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1197 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1198 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1199 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1200 end of the file name.
1202 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1203 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1205 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1206 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1207 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1209 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1210 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1212 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1213 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1214 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1215 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1216 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1217 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1219 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1220 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1221 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1223 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1224 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1225 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1227 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1228 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1231 The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1232 you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1233 options in the proper order.
1235 Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1236 directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1237 the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1238 important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1241 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1246 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1247 so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1248 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1249 to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1250 before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1251 include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1252 instance, this set of rules works fine:
1257 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1258 + /file-also-included
1262 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1265 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1266 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1267 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1268 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1269 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1270 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1271 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1272 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1273 directories and C source files
1274 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1275 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1276 it would be excluded by the "*")
1279 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1281 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1282 of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1283 feel free to try this out.
1285 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1286 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1287 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1288 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1289 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1290 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1291 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1292 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1293 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1295 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1296 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1297 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1298 using the information stored in the batch file.
1300 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1301 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1302 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1303 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1304 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1305 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1306 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1307 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1309 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1310 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1311 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1312 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1313 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1318 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1320 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1324 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1325 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1328 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1329 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1330 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1331 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1332 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1336 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1337 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1338 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1340 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1341 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1343 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1344 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1345 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1346 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1347 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1348 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1354 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1355 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1356 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1357 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1358 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1359 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1360 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1361 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1362 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1363 option (when reading the batch).
1364 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1365 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1366 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1369 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1370 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1371 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1374 The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1377 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1378 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1379 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1381 --write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1382 --include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1383 without --delete-excluded.
1385 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1386 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1387 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1388 list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1389 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1390 to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1392 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1393 version uses a new implementation.
1395 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1397 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1398 link in the source directory.
1400 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1401 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1403 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1404 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1407 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1408 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1410 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1411 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1412 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1413 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1414 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1415 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1416 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1418 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1419 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1420 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1422 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1424 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1425 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1426 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1428 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1429 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1430 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1431 remote shell like this:
1434 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1437 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1438 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1439 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1440 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1441 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1442 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1443 for non-interactive logins.
1445 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1446 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1447 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1449 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1453 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1454 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1455 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1456 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1457 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1458 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1460 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1461 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1462 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1463 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1464 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1465 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1466 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1467 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1468 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1469 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1470 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1471 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1474 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1478 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1479 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1482 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1483 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1484 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1486 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1487 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1488 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1490 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1491 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1492 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1493 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1495 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1496 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1497 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1499 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1500 default .cvsignore file.
1506 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1512 manpagediagnostics()
1516 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1518 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1520 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1522 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1525 see also the comments on the --delete option
1527 Please report bugs! See the website at
1528 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1530 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1532 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1533 COPYING for details.
1535 A WEB site is available at
1536 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1537 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1540 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1541 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1543 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1545 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1546 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1548 manpagesection(THANKS)
1550 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1551 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1552 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1554 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1555 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1559 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1560 Many people have later contributed to it.
1562 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1563 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)