1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(25 Jan 2002)()()
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]
20 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
21 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
22 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
25 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
26 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
27 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
28 report that accompanies this package.
30 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
33 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
34 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
35 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
36 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
37 it() does not require root privileges
38 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
39 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
43 manpagesection(GENERAL)
45 There are six different ways of using rsync. They are:
48 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
49 source nor destination path contains a : separator
51 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
52 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
53 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
60 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
61 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 separator or a rsync:// URL.
64 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
65 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
69 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
73 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
74 and destination paths must be local.
78 See the file README for installation instructions.
80 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
81 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
82 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, rsync typically uses rsh
83 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
84 different remote shell by default, such as ssh.
86 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
87 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
89 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
92 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
97 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
98 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
100 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
102 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
104 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
105 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
106 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
107 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
108 differences. See the tech report for details.
110 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
112 this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
113 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
114 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
115 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
116 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
117 size of data portions of the transfer.
119 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
121 a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
122 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
123 /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
124 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
125 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
126 using the --delete option.
128 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
129 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
130 an improved copy command.
132 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
134 this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
135 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
138 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
140 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
141 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
142 running on TCP port 873.
144 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
145 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
146 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must allow
147 proxying to port 873.
149 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
153 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
154 separate the hostname from the path.
156 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
159 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
160 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
162 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
163 specified files on the remote server is provided.
166 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
167 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
168 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
169 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
170 may be useful when scripting rsync.
172 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
173 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
175 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
177 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
178 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
181 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
183 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
185 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
186 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
188 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
190 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
193 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
197 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
200 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
204 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
205 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
206 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
208 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
211 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
213 this is launched from cron every few hours.
215 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
217 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
218 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
221 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
222 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
223 -c, --checksum always checksum
224 -a, --archive archive mode
225 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
226 -R, --relative use relative path names
227 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
228 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
229 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
230 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
231 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
232 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of symlinks
233 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
234 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
235 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
236 -p, --perms preserve permissions
237 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
238 -g, --group preserve group
239 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
240 -t, --times preserve times
241 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
242 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
243 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
244 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
245 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
246 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
247 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
248 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
249 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
250 --existing only update files that already exist
251 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on the receiving side
252 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
253 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
254 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
255 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
256 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
257 --partial keep partially transferred files
258 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
259 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
260 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
261 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
262 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
263 --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0)
264 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
265 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
266 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
267 -z, --compress compress file data
268 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
269 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
270 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
271 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
272 --version print version number
273 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
274 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
275 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
276 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
277 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
278 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
279 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
280 --stats give some file transfer stats
281 --progress show progress during transfer
282 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
283 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
284 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
285 --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
286 --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
287 -h, --help show this help screen
294 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
295 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
296 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
297 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
301 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
304 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
306 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
307 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
308 single -v will give you information about what files are being
309 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
310 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
311 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
312 you are debugging rsync.
314 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
315 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
316 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
319 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
320 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
323 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
324 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
325 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
326 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
327 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
330 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
331 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
332 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
333 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
334 transferring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with
335 a 1 second resolution this option is useful.
337 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
338 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
339 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
340 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
341 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
343 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
344 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
347 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
348 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
351 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
352 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
355 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
356 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
357 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
358 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
359 example, if you used the command
361 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
363 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
364 machine. If instead you used
366 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
368 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
369 machine. The full path name is preserved.
371 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
372 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
373 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
375 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
376 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
377 very useful for incremental backups.
379 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
380 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
382 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
383 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
386 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
387 symlink on the destination.
389 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
390 they point to is copied, rather than the symlink.
392 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
393 symbolic links that point outside the source tree. Absolute symlinks
394 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
395 source path itself when --relative is used.
397 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
398 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
399 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
400 give unexpected results.
402 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
403 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
404 option hard links are treated like regular files.
406 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
407 are in the list of files being sent.
409 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
411 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
412 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
413 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
414 target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
415 "disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both
416 the source and target are on the local machine.
418 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
421 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
422 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
424 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
425 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
426 only the super-user can set file ownership.
428 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
429 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
430 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
431 receiver is a member of will be preserved (by group name, not group id
434 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
435 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
436 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
438 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
439 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
440 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
441 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
442 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
443 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
446 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
447 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
449 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
450 up less space on the destination.
452 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
453 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
454 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
456 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
457 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
458 contents of only one filesystem.
460 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
461 only update files that already exist on the destination.
463 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
464 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
467 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
468 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
469 to prevent disasters.
471 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
472 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
473 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
475 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
477 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
478 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
479 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
481 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
482 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
483 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
484 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
485 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
487 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
488 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
489 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
492 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
493 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
494 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
495 then use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
497 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
498 even when there are IO errors.
500 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
501 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
502 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
503 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
505 dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
506 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
508 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
509 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
510 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use rsh by
511 default, but you may prefer to use ssh because of its high security.
513 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
514 environment variable.
516 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
518 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
519 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
520 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
523 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
524 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
525 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
527 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
528 to build up the list of files to exclude.
530 See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
533 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
534 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
535 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
536 ';' or '#' are ignored.
538 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
539 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
540 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
542 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
545 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
548 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
549 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
550 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
551 a file should be ignored.
553 The exclude list is initialized to:
555 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
556 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
557 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
559 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
560 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
562 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
563 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. See
564 the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
566 dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
567 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
568 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
569 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
570 making things faster.
572 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
573 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
575 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
576 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
577 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
578 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
580 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
581 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
582 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
583 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
585 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
586 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
587 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
588 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
590 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
591 the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
592 files against when doing transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to
593 a new destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
594 flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
595 example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
596 although this requires also doing the transfer with -I to avoid skipping
597 files that haven't changed). This option increases the usefulness of
598 --partial because partially transferred files will remain in the new
599 temporary destination until they have a chance to be completed. If DIR is
600 a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
602 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
603 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
604 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
605 same method that gzip uses.
607 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
608 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
609 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
610 information sent for matching data blocks.
612 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
613 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
616 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
617 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
618 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
619 option is not specified.
621 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group
622 name does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id
623 from the source system is used instead.
625 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
626 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
627 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
629 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
630 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
631 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
633 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
634 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
635 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
636 (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
637 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
640 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
641 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
642 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
643 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
644 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
645 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
646 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
649 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
650 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
651 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
652 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
653 in conjunction with the --config option.
655 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
656 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
659 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
660 rather than the default port 873.
662 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching
663 a remote shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to
664 the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to
665 non-blocking IO. You may find the --blocking-io option is needed for some
666 remote shells that can't handle non-blocking IO. (Note that ssh prefers
669 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
672 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
673 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
674 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
677 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
678 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
679 algorithm is for your data.
681 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
682 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
683 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
684 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
685 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
687 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
688 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
691 This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
692 the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
694 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
695 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
696 option to make it easier.
698 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
699 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
700 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
701 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
702 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
705 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
706 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
707 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
708 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
709 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
710 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
711 of zero specifies no limit.
713 dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be
714 transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with
715 PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
717 dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch,
718 using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH
719 MODE" section for details.
723 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
725 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
726 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
728 rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
729 the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
730 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
731 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
732 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
733 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
734 filename is not skipped.
736 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
737 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
738 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
740 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
741 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
742 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
744 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
747 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
748 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
749 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
750 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
751 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
752 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
753 end of the file name.
755 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
756 directory, not a file, link or device.
758 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
759 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
760 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
762 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
763 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
765 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
766 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
767 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
768 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
769 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
770 actually be any portion of a path.
772 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
773 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
774 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
776 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
777 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
778 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
780 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
781 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
784 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
785 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
787 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
788 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
789 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
790 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
791 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
794 Here are some exclude/include examples:
797 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
798 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
799 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
800 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
801 levels below a base directory called foo
802 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
803 or more levels below a base directory called foo
804 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
805 directories and C source files
806 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
807 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
808 it would be excluded by the "*")
811 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
813 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
814 of rsync. The interface or behaviour may change before it stabilizes.
816 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
817 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
818 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
819 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
820 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
821 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
822 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
823 client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against
824 other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The
825 filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by
826 the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is
827 then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch
828 option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree.
829 Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the
830 batch update fileset.
832 The fileset consists of 4 files:
835 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments
836 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata
837 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums
838 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change
841 The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
842 destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
843 using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
844 destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
845 path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the
846 original destination tree path.
848 Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the
849 file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when
850 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
851 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at
852 once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
857 $ rsync --write_batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
858 $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
859 $ rsh remote rsync --read_batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
861 $ rsh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
864 In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
865 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
866 pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
867 Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
868 /adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to
873 The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update
874 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
875 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
876 is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
877 destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
878 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
881 The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
882 one used on the original destination.
884 The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
885 error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
886 size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.
888 The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
891 See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
894 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
896 Three basic behaviours are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
897 link in the source directory.
899 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
900 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
902 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
903 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
906 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
907 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
909 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
910 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
911 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
912 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
913 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
914 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
915 unsafe links to be ommitted altogether.
917 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
918 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
919 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
921 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
923 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
924 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
925 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
927 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
928 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
929 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
930 remote shell like this:
933 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
936 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
937 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
938 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
939 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
940 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
941 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
942 for non-interactive logins.
944 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
945 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
946 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
948 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
951 dit(bf(RERR_SYNTAX 1)) Syntax or usage error
952 dit(bf(RERR_PROTOCOL 2)) Protocol incompatibility
953 dit(bf(RERR_FILESELECT 3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
955 dit(bf(RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
956 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
957 them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and
960 dit(bf(RERR_SOCKETIO 10)) Error in socket IO
961 dit(bf(RERR_FILEIO 11)) Error in file IO
962 dit(bf(RERR_STREAMIO 12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
963 dit(bf(RERR_MESSAGEIO 13)) Errors with program diagnostics
964 dit(bf(RERR_IPC 14)) Error in IPC code
965 dit(bf(RERR_SIGNAL 20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
966 dit(bf(RERR_WAITCHILD 21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
967 dit(bf(RERR_MALLOC 22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
968 dit(bf(RERR_TIMEOUT 30)) Timeout in data send/receive
971 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
975 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
976 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
979 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
980 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
981 be used instead of the -e option.
983 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
984 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
985 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
987 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
988 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
989 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
990 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
992 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
993 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
995 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
996 default .cvsignore file.
1008 manpagediagnostics()
1012 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1014 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
1017 see also the comments on the --delete option
1019 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
1020 url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
1022 manpagesection(VERSION)
1023 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
1025 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1027 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1028 COPYING for details.
1030 A WEB site is available at
1031 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1032 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1035 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1036 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1038 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1040 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1041 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1043 manpagesection(THANKS)
1045 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1046 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1047 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1049 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer.
1054 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org> and Paul
1057 rsync is now maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>.
1059 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1060 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
1062 If you suspect you have found a security vulnerability in rsync,
1063 please send it directly to Martin Pool and Andrew Tridgell. For other
1064 enquiries, please use the mailing list.