1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(21 Sep 2004)()()
3 manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync server)
10 The rsyncd.conf file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when
11 run as an rsync server.
13 The rsyncd.conf file controls authentication, access, logging and
16 manpagesection(FILE FORMAT)
18 The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
19 name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next
20 module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
22 The file is line-based - that is, each newline-terminated line represents
23 either a comment, a module name or a parameter.
25 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
26 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
27 whitespace in module and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
28 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
29 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
31 Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing
34 Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the
35 customary UNIX fashion.
37 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
38 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
39 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
42 manpagesection(LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON)
44 The rsync daemon is launched by specifying the --daemon option to
47 The daemon must run with root privileges if you wish to use chroot, to
48 bind to a port numbered under 1024 (as is the default 873), or to set
49 file ownership. Otherwise, it must just have permission to read and
50 write the appropriate data, log, and lock files.
52 You can launch it either via inetd, as a stand-alone daemon, or from
53 an rsync client via a remote shell. If run as a stand-alone daemon then
54 just run the command "rsync --daemon" from a suitable startup script.
55 If run from an rsync client via a remote shell (by specifying both the
56 "-e/--rsh" option and server mode with "::" or "rsync://"), the --daemon
57 option is automatically passed to the remote side.
59 When run via inetd you should add a line like this to /etc/services:
63 and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf:
65 quote(rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon)
67 Replace "/usr/bin/rsync" with the path to where you have rsync installed on
68 your system. You will then need to send inetd a HUP signal to tell it to
69 reread its config file.
71 Note that you should not send the rsync server a HUP signal to force
72 it to reread the tt(rsyncd.conf) file. The file is re-read on each client
75 manpagesection(GLOBAL OPTIONS)
77 The first parameters in the file (before a [module] header) are the
80 You may also include any module parameters in the global part of the
81 config file in which case the supplied value will override the
82 default for that parameter.
85 dit(bf(motd file)) The "motd file" option allows you to specify a
86 "message of the day" to display to clients on each connect. This
87 usually contains site information and any legal notices. The default
90 dit(bf(log file)) The "log file" option tells the rsync daemon to log
91 messages to that file rather than using syslog. This is particularly
92 useful on systems (such as AIX) where syslog() doesn't work for
95 dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write
96 its process ID to that file.
98 dit(bf(syslog facility)) The "syslog facility" option allows you to
99 specify the syslog facility name to use when logging messages from the
100 rsync server. You may use any standard syslog facility name which is
101 defined on your system. Common names are auth, authpriv, cron, daemon,
102 ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, security, syslog, user, uucp, local0,
103 local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 and local7. The default
106 dit(bf(socket options)) This option can provide endless fun for people
107 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
108 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
109 slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
110 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
111 special socket options are set.
116 manpagesection(MODULE OPTIONS)
118 After the global options you should define a number of modules, each
119 module exports a directory tree as a symbolic name. Modules are
120 exported by specifying a module name in square brackets [module]
121 followed by the options for that module.
125 dit(bf(comment)) The "comment" option specifies a description string
126 that is displayed next to the module name when clients obtain a list
127 of available modules. The default is no comment.
129 dit(bf(path)) The "path" option specifies the directory in the servers
130 filesystem to make available in this module. You must specify this option
131 for each module in tt(rsyncd.conf).
133 dit(bf(use chroot)) If "use chroot" is true, the rsync server will chroot
134 to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has
135 the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security
136 holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
137 of not being able to follow symbolic links that are either absolute or outside
138 of the new root path, and of complicating the preservation of usernames and groups
139 (see below). When "use chroot" is false, for security reasons,
140 symlinks may only be relative paths pointing to other files within the root
141 path, and leading slashes are removed from most absolute paths (options
142 such as --backup-dir, --compare-dest, etc. interpret an absolute path as
143 rooted in the module's "path" dir, just as if chroot was specified).
144 The default for "use chroot" is true.
146 In order to preserve usernames and groupnames, rsync needs to be able to
147 use the standard library functions for looking up names and IDs (i.e.
148 getpwuid(), getgrgid(), getpwname(), and getgrnam()). This means a
149 process in the chroot namespace will need to have access to the resources
150 used by these library functions (traditionally /etc/passwd and
151 /etc/group). If these resources are not available, rsync will only be
152 able to copy the IDs, just as if the --numeric-ids option had been
155 Note that you are free to setup user/group information in the chroot area
156 differently from your normal system. For example, you could abbreviate
157 the list of users and groups. Also, you can protect this information from
158 being downloaded/uploaded by adding an exclude rule to the rsync.conf file
159 (e.g. "exclude = /etc/"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
160 is a relatively new feature in rsync, so make sure your server is running
161 at least 2.6.3 to effect this.
163 dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
164 specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
165 Any clients connecting when the maximum has been reached will receive a
166 message telling them to try later. The default is 0 which means no limit.
167 See also the "lock file" option.
169 dit(bf(lock file)) The "lock file" option specifies the file to use to
170 support the "max connections" option. The rsync server uses record
171 locking on this file to ensure that the max connections limit is not
172 exceeded for the modules sharing the lock file.
173 The default is tt(/var/run/rsyncd.lock).
175 dit(bf(read only)) The "read only" option determines whether clients
176 will be able to upload files or not. If "read only" is true then any
177 attempted uploads will fail. If "read only" is false then uploads will
178 be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The default
179 is for all modules to be read only.
181 dit(bf(write only)) The "write only" option determines whether clients
182 will be able to download files or not. If "write only" is true then any
183 attempted downloads will fail. If "write only" is false then downloads
184 will be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The
185 default is for this option to be disabled.
187 dit(bf(list)) The "list" option determines if this module should be
188 listed when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By
189 setting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is
190 for modules to be listable.
192 dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user ID that
193 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
194 was run as root. In combination with the "gid" option this determines what
195 file permissions are available. The default is uid -2, which is normally
198 dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group ID that
199 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
200 was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
201 which is normally the group "nobody".
203 dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a
204 space-separated list of patterns that the server will not allow to be read
205 or written. This is only superficially equivalent to the client
206 specifying these patterns with the --exclude option. Only one "exclude"
207 option may be specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to
208 specify exclude/include.
210 Because this exclude list is not passed to the client it only applies on
211 the server: that is, it excludes files received by a client when receiving
212 from a server and files deleted on a server when sending to a server, but
213 it doesn't exclude files from being deleted on a client when receiving
216 dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename
217 on the server that contains exclude patterns, one per line.
218 This is only superficially equivalent
219 to the client specifying the --exclude-from option with an equivalent file.
220 See the "exclude" option above.
222 dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a
223 space-separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is
224 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with
225 the --include option because it applies only on the server. This is
226 useful as it allows you to build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
227 Only one "include" option may be specified, but you can use "+" and "-"
228 before patterns to switch include/exclude. See the "exclude" option
231 dit(bf(include from)) The "include from" option specifies a filename
232 on the server that contains include patterns, one per line. This is
233 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying the
234 --include-from option with a equivalent file.
235 See the "exclude" option above.
237 dit(bf(auth users)) The "auth users" option specifies a comma and
238 space-separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to
239 this module. The usernames do not need to exist on the local
240 system. The usernames may also contain shell wildcard characters. If
241 "auth users" is set then the client will be challenged to supply a
242 username and password to connect to the module. A challenge response
243 authentication protocol is used for this exchange. The plain text
244 usernames are passwords are stored in the file specified by the
245 "secrets file" option. The default is for all users to be able to
246 connect without a password (this is called "anonymous rsync").
248 See also the bf(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL
249 PROGRAM) section in rsync(1) for information on how handle an
250 rsyncd.conf-level username that differs from the remote-shell-level
251 username when using a remote shell to connect to an rsync server.
253 dit(bf(secrets file)) The "secrets file" option specifies the name of
254 a file that contains the username:password pairs used for
255 authenticating this module. This file is only consulted if the "auth
256 users" option is specified. The file is line based and contains
257 username:password pairs separated by a single colon. Any line starting
258 with a hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped. The passwords
259 can contain any characters but be warned that many operating systems
260 limit the length of passwords that can be typed at the client end, so
261 you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work.
263 There is no default for the "secrets file" option, you must choose a name
264 (such as tt(/etc/rsyncd.secrets)). The file must normally not be readable
265 by "other"; see "strict modes".
267 dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
268 the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is
269 true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user ID other
270 than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is
271 false, the check is not performed. The default is true. This option
272 was added to accommodate rsync running on the Windows operating system.
274 dit(bf(hosts allow)) The "hosts allow" option allows you to specify a
275 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
276 hostname and IP address. If none of the patterns match then the
277 connection is rejected.
279 Each pattern can be in one of five forms:
282 it() a dotted decimal IPv4 address of the form a.b.c.d, or an IPv6 address
283 of the form a:b:c::d:e:f. In this case the incoming machine's IP address
286 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/n where ipaddr is the IP address
287 and n is the number of one bits in the netmask. All IP addresses which
288 match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
290 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/maskaddr where ipaddr is the
291 IP address and maskaddr is the netmask in dotted decimal notation for IPv4,
292 or similar for IPv6, e.g. ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:: instead of /64. All IP
293 addresses which match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
295 it() a hostname. The hostname as determined by a reverse lookup will
296 be matched (case insensitive) against the pattern. Only an exact
299 it() a hostname pattern using wildcards. These are matched using the
300 same rules as normal unix filename matching. If the pattern matches
301 then the client is allowed in.
304 Note IPv6 link-local addresses can have a scope in the address specification:
307 quote(fe80::%link1/64)
308 quote(fe80::%link1/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::)
310 You can also combine "hosts allow" with a separate "hosts deny"
311 option. If both options are specified then the "hosts allow" option s
312 checked first and a match results in the client being able to
313 connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a match means
314 that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the
315 "hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then it is allowed to
318 The default is no "hosts allow" option, which means all hosts can connect.
320 dit(bf(hosts deny)) The "hosts deny" option allows you to specify a
321 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
322 hostname and IP address. If the pattern matches then the connection is
323 rejected. See the "hosts allow" option for more information.
325 The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can connect.
327 dit(bf(ignore errors)) The "ignore errors" option tells rsyncd to
328 ignore I/O errors on the server when deciding whether to run the delete
329 phase of the transfer. Normally rsync skips the --delete step if any
330 I/O errors have occurred in order to prevent disasterous deletion due
331 to a temporary resource shortage or other I/O error. In some cases this
332 test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this
335 dit(bf(ignore nonreadable)) This tells the rsync server to completely
336 ignore files that are not readable by the user. This is useful for
337 public archives that may have some non-readable files among the
338 directories, and the sysadmin doesn't want those files to be seen at all.
340 dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file
341 logging of downloads and uploads in a format somewhat similar to that
342 used by ftp daemons. If you want to customize the log formats look at
343 the log format option.
345 dit(bf(log format)) The "log format" option allows you to specify the
346 format used for logging file transfers when transfer logging is
347 enabled. The format is a text string containing embedded single
348 character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character.
350 The prefixes that are understood are:
353 it() %h for the remote host name
354 it() %a for the remote IP address
355 it() %l for the length of the file in bytes
356 it() %p for the process ID of this rsync session
357 it() %o for the operation, which is either "send" or "recv"
358 it() %f for the filename
359 it() %P for the module path
360 it() %m for the module name
361 it() %t for the current date time
362 it() %u for the authenticated username (or the null string)
363 it() %b for the number of bytes actually transferred
364 it() %c when sending files this gives the number of checksum bytes
365 received for this file
368 The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] "
369 is always added to the beginning when using the "log file" option.
371 A perl script called rsyncstats to summarize this format is included
372 in the rsync source code distribution.
374 dit(bf(timeout)) The "timeout" option allows you to override the
375 clients choice for I/O timeout for this module. Using this option you
376 can ensure that rsync won't wait on a dead client forever. The timeout
377 is specified in seconds. A value of zero means no timeout and is the
378 default. A good choice for anonymous rsync servers may be 600 (giving
379 a 10 minute timeout).
381 dit(bf(refuse options)) The "refuse options" option allows you to
382 specify a space-separated list of rsync command line options that will
383 be refused by your rsync server.
384 You may specify the full option name, its one-letter abbreviation, or a
385 wild-card string that matches multiple options.
386 For example, this would refuse --checksum (-c) and all the options that
389 quote(refuse options = c delete*)
391 When an option is refused, the server prints an error message and exits.
392 To prevent all compression, you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
393 instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a
394 client that requests compression.
396 dit(bf(dont compress)) The "dont compress" option allows you to select
397 filenames based on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed
398 during transfer. Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage so it
399 is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well,
400 such as already compressed files.
402 The "dont compress" option takes a space-separated list of
403 case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
404 of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
406 The default setting is verb(*.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz)
410 manpagesection(AUTHENTICATION STRENGTH)
412 The authentication protocol used in rsync is a 128 bit MD4 based
413 challenge response system. Although I believe that no one has ever
414 demonstrated a brute-force break of this sort of system you should
415 realize that this is not a "military strength" authentication system.
416 It should be good enough for most purposes but if you want really top
417 quality security then I recommend that you run rsync over ssh.
419 Also note that the rsync server protocol does not currently provide any
420 encryption of the data that is transferred over the connection. Only
421 authentication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want
424 Future versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and
425 encryption, but that is still being investigated.
427 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
429 If rsync is run with both the --daemon and --rsh (-e) options, it will
430 spawn an rsync daemon using a remote shell connection. Several
431 configuration options will not be available unless the remote user is
432 root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to configure
433 inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port if you run an
434 rsync server only via a remote shell program.
436 ADVANCED: To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, use the
437 "command=em(COMMAND)" syntax in the remote user's authorized_keys entry,
438 where command would be
440 quote(rsync --server --daemon .)
442 NOTE: rsync's argument parsing expects the trailing ".", so make sure
443 that it's there. If you want to use an rsyncd.conf(5)-style
444 configuration file other than the default, you can added a
445 --config option to the em(command):
447 quote(rsync --server --daemon --config=em(file) .)
449 Note that the "--server" here is the internal option that rsync uses to
450 run the remote version of rsync that it communicates with, and thus you
451 should not be using the --server option under normal circumstances.
453 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
455 A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp area at
456 tt(/home/ftp) would be:
461 comment = ftp export area
465 A more sophisticated example would be:
470 max connections = 4 nl()
471 syslog facility = local5 nl()
472 pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
476 comment = whole ftp area (approx 6.1 GB)
479 path = /var/ftp/pub/samba
480 comment = Samba ftp area (approx 300 MB)
483 path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync
484 comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB)
487 path = /public_html/samba
488 comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB)
492 comment = CVS repository (requires authentication)
493 auth users = tridge, susan
494 secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
497 The /etc/rsyncd.secrets file would look something like this:
504 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
514 The rsync server does not send all types of error messages to the
515 client. this means a client may be mystified as to why a transfer
516 failed. The error will have been logged by syslog on the server.
518 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
519 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
521 manpagesection(VERSION)
522 This man page is current for version 2.x of rsync.
524 manpagesection(CREDITS)
526 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
529 The primary ftp site for rsync is
530 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
532 A WEB site is available at
533 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
535 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
537 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
538 Gailly and Mark Adler.
540 manpagesection(THANKS)
542 Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the rsync
543 server. Thanks to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and
548 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
549 contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
550 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au