1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(21 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 inplace
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-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
345 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
346 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
347 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
348 --partial keep partially transferred files
349 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
350 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
351 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
352 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
353 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
354 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
355 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
356 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
357 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
358 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
359 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
360 -z, --compress compress file data
361 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
363 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
367 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
368 --version print version number
369 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
370 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
371 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
372 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
373 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
374 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
375 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
376 --stats give some file transfer stats
377 --progress show progress during transfer
378 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
379 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
380 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
381 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
382 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
383 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
384 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
385 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
386 -h, --help show this help screen
393 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
394 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
395 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
396 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
400 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
403 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
405 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
406 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
407 single -v will give you information about what files are being
408 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
409 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
410 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
411 you are debugging rsync.
413 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
414 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
415 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
418 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
419 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
420 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
422 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
423 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
424 --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
425 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
426 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
429 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
430 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
431 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
432 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
433 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
434 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
436 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
437 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
438 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
439 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
440 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
442 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
443 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
446 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
447 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
450 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
451 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
454 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
455 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
456 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
457 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
458 example, if you used the command
460 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
462 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
463 machine. If instead you used
465 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
467 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
468 machine -- the full path name is preserved.
470 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
471 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
474 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
475 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
476 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
477 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
478 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
479 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
480 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
481 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
482 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
483 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
485 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
486 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
487 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
488 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
490 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
491 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
492 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
493 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
494 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
495 will keep their original filenames).
496 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
497 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
499 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
500 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
501 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
503 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
504 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
507 In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
508 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
509 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
510 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
511 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
512 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
514 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
515 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
518 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
519 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
520 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
521 network reduction it might otherwise (since it does not yet try to sort
522 data matches -- a future version may improve this).
524 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
525 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
528 The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
529 the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir, --compare-dest, and
530 --link-dest (a future rsync version will hopefully update the protocol to
531 remove these restrictions).
533 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
534 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
535 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
536 rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
539 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
540 symlink on the destination.
542 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
543 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
544 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
545 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
546 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
547 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
548 an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
549 will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
551 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
552 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
553 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
554 source path itself when --relative is used.
556 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
557 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
558 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
559 give unexpected results.
561 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
562 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
563 option hard links are treated like regular files.
565 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
566 are in the list of files being sent.
568 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
570 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
571 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
572 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
573 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
574 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
575 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
577 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
580 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
581 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
583 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
584 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
585 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
586 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
588 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
589 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
590 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
591 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
592 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
594 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
595 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
596 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
597 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
598 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
599 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
601 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
602 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
603 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
605 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
606 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
607 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
608 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
609 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
610 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
611 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
613 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
614 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
616 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
617 up less space on the destination.
619 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
620 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
621 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
623 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
624 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
625 contents of only one filesystem.
627 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
628 only update files that already exist on the destination.
630 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
631 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
634 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
635 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
636 to prevent disasters.
638 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
639 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
640 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
642 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
644 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
645 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
646 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
648 If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
649 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
650 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
651 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
652 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
654 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
655 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
656 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
659 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
660 receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
661 sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
662 after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
664 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
665 even when there are I/O errors.
667 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
668 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
669 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
670 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
672 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
673 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
674 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
676 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
677 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
678 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
679 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
681 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
682 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
683 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
684 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
685 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
686 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
688 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
689 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
691 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
693 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
694 options in their .ssh/config file.)
696 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
697 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
699 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
701 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
702 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
703 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
706 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
707 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
708 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
709 a file should be ignored.
711 The exclude list is initialized to:
713 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
714 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
715 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
717 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
718 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
719 are delimited by whitespace).
721 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
722 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
723 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
725 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
726 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
727 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
729 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
730 to build up the list of files to exclude.
732 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
734 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
735 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
736 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
737 ';' or '#' are ignored.
738 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
740 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
741 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
742 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
744 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
746 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
748 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
750 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
751 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
752 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
753 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
754 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
755 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
756 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
757 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
758 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
761 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
762 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
763 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
766 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
768 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
769 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
770 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
771 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
772 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
773 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
774 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
776 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
777 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
778 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
779 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
780 transfer". For example:
782 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
784 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
785 was located on the remote "src" host.
787 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
788 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
789 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
790 It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
791 file are split on whitespace).
793 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
794 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
795 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
796 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
798 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
799 the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
800 files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
801 destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
802 destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
803 flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
804 example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
805 although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
806 This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
807 transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
808 have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
809 to the destination directory.
811 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
812 also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
813 unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
818 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
821 Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the
822 destination directory.
823 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
824 --link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
825 (or implied by -a). If the receiving rsync is not new enough, you can work
826 around this bug by avoiding the -o option.
828 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
829 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
830 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
831 same method that gzip uses.
833 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
834 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
835 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
836 information sent for matching data blocks.
838 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
839 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
842 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
843 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
844 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
845 option is not specified.
847 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
848 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
849 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
850 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
851 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
852 users and groups and what you can do about it.
854 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
855 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
856 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
858 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
859 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
860 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
862 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
863 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
864 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
865 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
866 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
869 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
870 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
871 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
872 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
873 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
874 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
875 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
878 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
879 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
880 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
881 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
882 in conjunction with the --config option.
884 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
885 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
886 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
887 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
888 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
890 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
891 rather than the default port 873.
893 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
894 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
895 rsync defaults to using
896 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
897 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
899 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
902 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
903 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
904 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
907 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
908 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
909 algorithm is for your data.
911 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
912 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
913 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
914 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
915 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
917 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
918 put a partially transferred file into DIR instead of writing out the
919 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
920 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
921 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
922 its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
923 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
924 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
926 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
927 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
928 "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
929 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the DIR
930 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
931 DIR was specified as a relative path).
933 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
934 --exclude of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
935 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
936 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
937 the above --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
938 rule at the end of any other include/exclude rules. Note that if you are
939 supplying your own include/exclude rules, you may need to manually insert a
940 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
941 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
942 a trailing --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
944 IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users or it
945 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
947 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
948 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force --partial to be
949 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial (or
950 -P) is used. For instance, instead of specifying --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
951 along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
952 environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
953 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time the --partial option
954 does not look for this environment value is when --inplace was also
955 specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir).
957 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
958 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
960 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
962 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
965 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
968 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
969 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
970 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
971 remaining in this transfer.
973 After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
976 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
979 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
980 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
981 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
982 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
983 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
985 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
986 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
987 transfer that may be interrupted.
989 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
990 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
991 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
992 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
993 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
996 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
997 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
998 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
999 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1000 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1001 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1002 of zero specifies no limit.
1004 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1005 another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
1006 section for details.
1008 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1009 file previously generated by --write-batch.
1010 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1011 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1013 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1014 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1015 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1016 rsync daemon, or the incoming sockets that an rsync daemon uses to
1017 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1018 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1019 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1020 try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
1022 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1023 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1024 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1025 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1026 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1027 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1028 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1029 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1034 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1036 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
1037 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
1039 Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
1040 the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
1041 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
1042 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
1043 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
1044 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
1045 filename is not skipped.
1047 The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
1048 to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
1049 subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
1050 is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
1051 This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
1053 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1054 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
1055 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1056 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1057 system). The following examples demonstrate this.
1059 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1060 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1061 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1064 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1065 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1066 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1067 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1068 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1070 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1071 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1072 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1073 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1074 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1076 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1077 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1078 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1079 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1080 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1082 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1083 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1084 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1085 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1086 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1089 The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1090 look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1091 (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1093 Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1094 every subcomponent of
1095 every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1096 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
1097 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1098 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1099 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1100 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1103 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1104 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1105 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1107 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1111 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1112 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1114 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1115 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1116 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1117 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1118 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1119 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1120 end of the file name.
1122 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1123 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1125 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1126 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1127 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1129 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1130 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1132 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1133 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1134 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1135 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1136 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1137 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1139 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1140 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1141 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1143 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1144 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1145 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1147 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1148 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1151 The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1152 you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1153 options in the proper order.
1155 Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1156 directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1157 the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1158 important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1161 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1166 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1167 so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1168 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1169 to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1170 before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1171 include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1172 instance, this set of rules works fine:
1177 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1178 + /file-also-included
1182 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1185 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1186 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1187 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1188 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1189 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1190 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1191 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1192 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1193 directories and C source files
1194 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1195 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1196 it would be excluded by the "*")
1199 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1201 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1202 of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1203 feel free to try this out.
1205 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1206 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1207 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1208 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1209 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1210 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1211 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1212 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1213 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1215 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1216 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1217 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1218 using the information stored in the batch file.
1220 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1221 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1222 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1223 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1224 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1225 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1226 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1227 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1229 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1230 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1231 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1232 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1233 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1238 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1240 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1244 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1245 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1248 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1249 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1250 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1251 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1252 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1256 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1257 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1258 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1260 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1261 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1263 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1264 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1265 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1266 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1267 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1268 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1274 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1275 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1276 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1277 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1278 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1279 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1280 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1281 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1282 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1283 option (when reading the batch).
1284 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1285 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1286 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1289 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1290 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1291 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1294 The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1297 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1298 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1299 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1301 --write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1302 --include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1303 without --delete-excluded.
1305 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1306 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1307 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1308 list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1309 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1310 to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1312 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1313 version uses a new implementation.
1315 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1317 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1318 link in the source directory.
1320 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1321 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1323 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1324 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1327 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1328 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1330 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1331 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1332 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1333 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1334 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1335 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1336 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1338 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1339 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1340 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1342 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1344 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1345 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1346 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1348 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1349 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1350 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1351 remote shell like this:
1354 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1357 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1358 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1359 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1360 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1361 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1362 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1363 for non-interactive logins.
1365 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1366 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1367 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1369 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1373 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1374 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1375 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1376 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1377 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1378 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1380 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1381 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1382 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1383 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1384 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1385 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1386 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1387 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1388 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1389 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1390 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1391 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1394 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1398 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1399 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1402 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1403 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1404 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1406 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1407 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1408 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1410 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1411 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1412 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1413 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1415 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1416 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1417 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1419 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1420 default .cvsignore file.
1426 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1432 manpagediagnostics()
1436 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1438 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1440 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1442 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1445 see also the comments on the --delete option
1447 Please report bugs! See the website at
1448 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1450 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1452 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1453 COPYING for details.
1455 A WEB site is available at
1456 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1457 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1460 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1461 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1463 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1465 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1466 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1468 manpagesection(THANKS)
1470 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1471 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1472 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1474 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1475 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1479 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1480 Many people have later contributed to it.
1482 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1483 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)