1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
87 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88 and destination paths must be local.
92 See the file README for installation instructions.
94 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
100 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
106 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
109 manpagesection(USAGE)
111 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
114 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
116 quote(rsync -t *.c foo:src/)
118 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122 differences. See the tech report for details.
124 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
126 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
130 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131 size of data portions of the transfer.
133 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
135 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
144 quote(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)
145 quote(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
147 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149 an improved copy command.
151 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
153 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
157 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
159 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
160 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
162 quote(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest)
164 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
165 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
166 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
167 to be a part of the filenames.
169 quote(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)
171 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
172 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
173 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
174 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
175 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
176 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
177 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
179 quote(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)
180 quote(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)
182 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
183 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
186 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
188 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
189 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
190 running on TCP port 873.
192 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
193 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
194 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
195 proxy connections to port 873.
197 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
201 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
202 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
204 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
207 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
208 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
210 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
211 specified files on the remote server is provided.
214 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
215 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
216 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
217 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
218 may be useful when scripting rsync.
220 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
221 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
223 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
225 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
226 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
227 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
228 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
229 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
230 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
233 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
234 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
235 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
236 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
239 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
240 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
242 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
244 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
245 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
247 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
249 An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
250 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
251 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
252 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
253 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
256 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
258 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
259 server configuration file.
261 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
262 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
263 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
264 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
266 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
267 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
269 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
271 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
273 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
274 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
276 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
278 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
281 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
285 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
288 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
292 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
293 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
294 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
296 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
299 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
301 this is launched from cron every few hours.
303 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
305 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
306 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
309 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
310 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
311 -c, --checksum always checksum
312 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
313 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
314 -R, --relative use relative path names
315 --no-relative turn off --relative
316 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
317 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
318 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
319 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
320 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
321 --inplace update the destination files 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 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
349 --partial keep partially transferred files
350 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
351 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
352 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
353 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
354 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
355 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
356 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
357 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
358 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
359 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
360 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
361 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
362 -z, --compress compress file data
363 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
364 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
366 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
367 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
368 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
369 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
370 --version print version number
371 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
372 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
373 --stats give some file transfer stats
374 --progress show progress during transfer
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
377 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
378 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
379 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
380 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
381 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
382 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
383 -h, --help show this help screen
386 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:
389 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
390 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
391 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
392 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
393 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
394 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen
402 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
403 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
404 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
405 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
409 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
412 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
414 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
415 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
416 single -v will give you information about what files are being
417 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
418 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
419 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
420 you are debugging rsync.
422 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
423 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
424 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
427 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
428 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
429 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
431 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
432 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
433 --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
434 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
435 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
438 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
439 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
440 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
441 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
442 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
443 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
445 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
446 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
447 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
448 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
449 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
451 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
452 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
455 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
456 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
459 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
460 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
463 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
464 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
465 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
466 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
467 example, if you used the command
469 verb(rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
471 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
472 machine. If instead you used
474 verb(rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
476 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
477 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
478 path information that is sent, do something like this:
481 rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
483 That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
485 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
486 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
489 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
490 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
491 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
492 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
493 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
494 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
495 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
496 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
497 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
498 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
500 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
501 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
502 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
503 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
505 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
506 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
507 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
508 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
509 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
510 will keep their original filenames).
511 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
512 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
514 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
515 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
516 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
518 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
519 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
520 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
521 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
523 In the current implementation of --update, a difference of file format
524 between the sender and receiver is always
525 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
526 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
527 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
528 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
529 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
531 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
532 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
535 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
536 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
537 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
538 network reduction it might otherwise (since it does not yet try to sort
539 data matches -- a future version may improve this).
541 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
542 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
545 The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
546 the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir, --compare-dest, --copy-dest, and
547 --link-dest (a future rsync version will hopefully update the protocol to
548 remove some of these restrictions).
550 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
551 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
552 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
553 rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
556 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
557 symlink on the destination.
559 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
560 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
561 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
562 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
563 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
564 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
565 an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
566 will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
568 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
569 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
570 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
571 source path itself when --relative is used.
573 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
574 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
575 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
576 give unexpected results.
578 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
579 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
580 option hard links are treated like regular files.
582 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
583 are in the list of files being sent.
585 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
587 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
588 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
589 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
590 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
591 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
592 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
594 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
597 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
598 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
600 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
601 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
602 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
603 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
605 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
606 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
607 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
608 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
609 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
611 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
612 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
613 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
614 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
615 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
616 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
618 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
619 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
620 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
622 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
623 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
624 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
625 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
626 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
627 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
628 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
630 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
631 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
633 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
634 up less space on the destination.
636 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
637 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
638 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
640 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
641 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
642 contents of only one filesystem.
644 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
645 only update files that already exist on the destination.
647 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
648 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
651 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
652 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
653 to prevent disasters.
655 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
656 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
657 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
658 may be a fractional value (e.g. "--max-size=1.5m").
660 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
661 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
662 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
664 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
666 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
667 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
668 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
670 If the sending side detects any I/O errors then the deletion of any
671 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
672 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
673 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
674 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
676 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
677 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
678 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
681 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
682 receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
683 sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
684 after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
686 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
687 even when there are I/O errors.
689 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
690 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
691 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
692 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
694 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
695 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
696 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
698 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
699 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
700 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
701 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
703 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
704 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
705 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
706 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
707 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
708 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
710 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
711 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
713 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
715 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
716 options in their .ssh/config file.)
718 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
719 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
721 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
723 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
724 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
725 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
728 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
729 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
730 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
731 a file should be ignored.
733 The exclude list is initialized to:
735 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
736 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
737 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
739 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
740 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
741 are delimited by whitespace).
743 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
744 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
745 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
747 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
748 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
749 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
751 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
752 to build up the list of files to exclude.
754 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
756 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
757 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
758 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
759 ';' or '#' are ignored.
760 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
762 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
763 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
764 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
766 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
768 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
770 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
772 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
773 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
774 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
775 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
776 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
777 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
778 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
779 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
780 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
783 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
784 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
785 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
788 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
790 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
791 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
792 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
793 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
794 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
795 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
796 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
798 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
799 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
800 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
801 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
802 transfer". For example:
804 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
806 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
807 was located on the remote "src" host.
809 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
810 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
811 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
812 It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
813 file are split on whitespace).
815 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
816 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
817 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
818 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
820 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
821 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
822 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
823 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
824 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
825 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
826 have changed from an earlier backup.
828 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --compare-dest directories may be
829 provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
830 finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
831 and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
833 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
834 See also --copy-dest and --link-dest.
836 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
837 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
838 directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
839 useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
840 files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
841 successfully transferred.
843 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
844 See also --compare-dest and --link-dest.
846 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
847 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
848 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
849 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
853 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
856 Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one --link-dest option is
857 specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
858 the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
859 of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
861 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
862 See also --compare-dest and --copy-dest.
864 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
865 --link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
866 (or implied by -a). If the receiving rsync is not new enough, you can work
867 around this bug by avoiding the -o option.
869 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
870 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
871 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
872 same method that gzip uses.
874 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
875 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
876 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
877 information sent for matching data blocks.
879 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
880 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
883 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
884 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
885 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
886 option is not specified.
888 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
889 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
890 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
891 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
892 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
893 users and groups and what you can do about it.
895 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
896 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
897 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
899 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
900 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
901 rsync defaults to using
902 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
903 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
905 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
908 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
909 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
910 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
913 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
914 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
915 algorithm is for your data.
917 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
918 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
919 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
920 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
921 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
923 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
924 put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
925 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
926 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
927 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
928 its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
929 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
930 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
932 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
933 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
934 "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
935 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
936 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
937 DIR was specified as a relative path).
939 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
940 --exclude of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
941 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
942 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
943 the above --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
944 rule at the end of any other include/exclude rules. Note that if you are
945 supplying your own include/exclude rules, you may need to manually insert a
946 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
947 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
948 a trailing --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
950 IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users or it
951 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
953 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
954 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force --partial to be
955 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial (or
956 -P) is used. For instance, instead of specifying --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
957 along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
958 environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
959 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time the --partial option
960 does not look for this environment value is when --inplace was also
961 specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir).
963 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
964 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
966 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
968 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
971 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
974 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
975 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
976 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
977 remaining in this transfer.
979 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
982 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
985 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
986 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
987 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
988 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
989 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
991 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
992 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
993 transfer that may be interrupted.
995 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
996 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
997 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
998 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
999 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1002 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1003 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1004 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1005 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1006 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1007 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1008 of zero specifies no limit.
1010 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1011 another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
1012 section for details.
1014 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1015 file previously generated by --write-batch.
1016 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1017 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1019 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1020 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1021 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1022 rsync daemon (see also these options in the --daemon mode section).
1024 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1025 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1026 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1027 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1028 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1029 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1030 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1031 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1036 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1040 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1041 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1042 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1044 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1045 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1046 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1047 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1048 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1051 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1052 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
1053 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
1054 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1055 in conjunction with the --config option. See also the "address" global
1056 option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1058 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1059 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1060 The client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value, but their
1061 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1062 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1064 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1065 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
1066 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1067 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1068 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1070 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1071 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1072 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1073 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1074 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1075 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1076 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1079 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1080 rather than the default port 873. See also the "port" global option in
1081 the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1083 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1084 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1085 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1086 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1087 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1088 try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
1090 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after --daemon, print a short help
1091 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1095 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1097 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
1098 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
1100 Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
1101 the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
1102 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
1103 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
1104 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
1105 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
1106 filename is not skipped.
1108 The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
1109 to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
1110 subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
1111 is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
1112 This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
1114 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1115 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
1116 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1117 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1118 system). The following examples demonstrate this.
1120 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1121 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1122 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1125 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1126 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1127 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1128 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1129 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1131 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1132 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1133 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1134 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1135 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1137 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1138 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1139 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1140 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1141 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1143 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1144 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1145 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1146 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1147 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1150 The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1151 look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1152 (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1154 Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1155 every subcomponent of
1156 every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1157 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
1158 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1159 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1160 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1161 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1164 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1165 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1166 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1168 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1172 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1173 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1175 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1176 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1177 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1178 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1179 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1180 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1181 end of the file name.
1183 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1184 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1186 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1187 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1188 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1190 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1191 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1193 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1194 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1195 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1196 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1197 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1198 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1200 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1201 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1202 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1204 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1205 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1206 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1208 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1209 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1212 The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1213 you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1214 options in the proper order.
1216 Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1217 directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1218 the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1219 important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1222 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1227 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1228 so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1229 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1230 to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1231 before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1232 include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1233 instance, this set of rules works fine:
1238 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1239 + /file-also-included
1243 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1246 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1247 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1248 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1249 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1250 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1251 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1252 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1253 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1254 directories and C source files
1255 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1256 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1257 it would be excluded by the "*")
1260 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1262 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1263 of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1264 feel free to try this out.
1266 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1267 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1268 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1269 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1270 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1271 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1272 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1273 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1274 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1276 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1277 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1278 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1279 using the information stored in the batch file.
1281 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1282 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1283 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1284 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1285 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1286 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1287 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1288 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1290 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1291 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1292 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1293 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1294 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1299 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1301 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1305 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1306 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1309 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1310 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1311 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1312 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1313 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1317 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1318 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1319 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1321 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1322 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1324 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1325 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1326 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1327 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1328 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1329 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1335 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1336 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1337 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1338 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1339 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1340 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1341 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1342 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1343 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1344 option (when reading the batch).
1345 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1346 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1347 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1350 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1351 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1352 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1355 The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1358 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1359 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1360 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1362 --write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1363 --include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1364 without --delete-excluded.
1366 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1367 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1368 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1369 list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1370 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1371 to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1373 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1374 version uses a new implementation.
1376 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1378 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1379 link in the source directory.
1381 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1382 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1384 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1385 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1388 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1389 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1391 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1392 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1393 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1394 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1395 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1396 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1397 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1399 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1400 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1401 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1403 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1405 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1406 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1407 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1409 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1410 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1411 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1412 remote shell like this:
1415 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1418 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1419 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1420 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1421 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1422 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1423 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1424 for non-interactive logins.
1426 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1427 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1428 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1430 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1434 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1435 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1436 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1437 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1438 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1439 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1441 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1442 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1443 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1444 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1445 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1446 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1447 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1448 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1449 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1450 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1451 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1452 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1455 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1459 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1460 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1463 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1464 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1465 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1467 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1468 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1469 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1471 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1472 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1473 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1474 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1476 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1477 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1478 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1480 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1481 default .cvsignore file.
1487 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1493 manpagediagnostics()
1497 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1499 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1501 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1503 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1506 see also the comments on the --delete option
1508 Please report bugs! See the website at
1509 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1511 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1513 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1514 COPYING for details.
1516 A WEB site is available at
1517 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1518 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1521 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1522 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1524 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1526 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1527 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1529 manpagesection(THANKS)
1531 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1532 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1533 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1535 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1536 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1540 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1541 Many people have later contributed to it.
1543 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1544 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)