1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(28 Jul 2005)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
14 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
16 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [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 super-user privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
48 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
50 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
51 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
52 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
53 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
54 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
55 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
56 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
57 "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
58 an exception to this latter rule).
60 As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
61 the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
63 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
64 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
68 See the file README for installation instructions.
70 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
71 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
72 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
73 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
74 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
76 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
77 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
79 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
84 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
85 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
87 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
89 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
91 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
92 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
93 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
94 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
95 differences. See the tech report for details.
97 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
99 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
100 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
101 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
102 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
103 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
104 size of data portions of the transfer.
106 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
108 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
109 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
110 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
111 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
112 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
113 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
114 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
118 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
119 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
122 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
123 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
124 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
127 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
128 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
131 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
132 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
133 an improved copy command.
135 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
136 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
138 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
140 See the following section for more details.
142 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
144 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
145 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
147 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
149 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
150 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
151 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
152 to be a part of the filenames.
154 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
156 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
157 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
158 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
159 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
160 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
161 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
162 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
165 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
166 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
169 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
170 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
172 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
174 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
175 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
176 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
177 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
178 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
180 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
184 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
185 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
186 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
187 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
189 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
190 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
191 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
192 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
193 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
196 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
198 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
200 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
201 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
202 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
203 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
204 may be useful when scripting rsync.
206 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
207 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
209 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
210 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
211 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
212 proxy connections to port 873.
214 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
216 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
217 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
218 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
219 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
220 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
221 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
222 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
223 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
224 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
225 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
226 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
227 connections from "localhost".)
229 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
230 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
231 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
232 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
233 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
234 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
236 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
238 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
239 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
240 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
241 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
243 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
245 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
246 used to log-in to the "module".
248 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
250 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
251 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
252 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
253 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
254 socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
255 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
256 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
258 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
259 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
261 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
263 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
265 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
266 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
268 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
270 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
273 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
277 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
279 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
282 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
283 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
284 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
286 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
289 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
291 This is launched from cron every few hours.
293 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
295 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
296 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
297 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
298 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
299 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
300 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
301 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
302 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
303 -R, --relative use relative path names
304 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
305 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
306 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
307 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
308 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
309 --inplace update destination files in-place
310 --append append data onto shorter files
311 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
312 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
313 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
314 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
315 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
316 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
317 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
318 -p, --perms preserve permissions
319 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
320 -g, --group preserve group
321 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
322 --specials preserve special files
323 -D same as --devices --specials
324 -t, --times preserve times
325 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
326 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
327 --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
328 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
329 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
330 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
331 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
332 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
333 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
334 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
335 --existing ignore non-existing files on receiving side
336 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
337 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
338 --del an alias for --delete-during
339 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
340 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
341 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
342 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
343 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
344 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
345 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
346 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
347 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
348 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
349 --partial keep partially transferred files
350 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
351 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
352 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
353 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
354 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
355 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
356 --size-only skip files that match in size
357 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
358 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
359 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
360 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
361 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
362 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
363 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
364 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
365 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
366 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
367 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
368 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
369 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
370 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
371 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
372 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
373 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
374 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
375 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
376 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
377 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
378 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
379 --stats give some file-transfer stats
380 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
381 --si like human-readable, but use powers of 1000
382 --progress show progress during transfer
383 -P same as --partial --progress
384 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
385 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
386 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
387 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
388 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
389 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
390 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
391 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
392 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
393 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
394 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
395 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
396 --version print version number
397 --help show this help screen)
399 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
401 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
402 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
403 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
404 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
405 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
406 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
407 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
408 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
409 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
410 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
411 --help show this help screen)
415 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
416 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
417 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
418 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
422 dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
423 available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
424 versions of rsync, the same help output can also be requested by using
425 the bf(-h) option without any other args.
427 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
429 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
430 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
431 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
432 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
433 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
434 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
435 you are debugging rsync.
437 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
438 a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
439 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
440 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
441 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
442 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
443 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
444 any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
446 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
447 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
448 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
451 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
452 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
453 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
455 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
456 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
457 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
458 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
459 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
462 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
463 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
464 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
465 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
466 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
467 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
468 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
470 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
471 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
472 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
473 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
474 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
476 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
477 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
478 everything (with -H being a notable omission).
479 The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
480 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
482 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
483 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
486 dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
487 the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
488 only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
489 bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
490 (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
491 specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
492 (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
494 For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
495 bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
496 could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
498 The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
499 bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
500 Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
501 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
502 changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
505 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
506 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
508 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
509 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
510 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
511 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
512 example, if you used this command:
514 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
516 ... this would create a file called baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
517 machine. If instead you used
519 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
521 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
522 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
523 path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
524 a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
525 insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
527 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
529 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
530 dot dir must followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
531 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
532 source path. For example, when pushing files:
534 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
536 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
537 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
538 If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
542 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
543 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
546 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
547 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
548 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
549 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
550 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
551 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
552 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
553 the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
554 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
555 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
557 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
558 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
559 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
560 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
562 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
563 bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
564 also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a protect
565 filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
566 (e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
567 deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
568 need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
569 in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
570 your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
571 rule would never be reached).
573 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
574 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
575 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
576 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
577 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
578 will keep their original filenames).
580 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
581 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
582 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
584 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
585 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
586 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
587 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
589 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
590 between the sender and receiver is always
591 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
592 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
593 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
594 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
595 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
597 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
598 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
599 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
600 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
601 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
602 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
603 basis file for the transfer.
605 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
606 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
609 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
610 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
611 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
614 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
615 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
616 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
617 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
620 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
621 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
622 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
623 side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
624 resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
625 Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
626 file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
627 Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
628 bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
631 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
632 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
633 unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
634 (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
635 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
636 output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
637 bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
639 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
640 symlink on the destination.
642 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
643 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
644 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
645 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
646 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
647 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
648 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
649 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
651 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
652 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
653 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
654 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
656 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
657 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
658 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
659 give unexpected results.
661 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
662 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
663 option hard links are treated like regular files.
665 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
666 are in the list of files being sent.
668 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
670 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
671 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
674 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
675 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
676 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
677 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
678 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
679 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
681 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
682 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
684 Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
685 their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
686 based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
688 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
690 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
691 destination file to be the same as the source file. By default, the
692 preservation is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number
693 in some circumstances (see the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full
695 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
696 super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
698 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
699 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
700 program is not running as the super-user (or with the bf(--no-super)
701 option), only groups that the
702 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
703 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
704 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
706 dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
707 block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
708 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
709 super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
711 dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
712 such as named sockets and fifos.
714 dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
716 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
717 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
718 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
719 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
720 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
721 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
722 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
724 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
725 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
726 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
727 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
729 dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
730 activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
731 activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
732 all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
733 option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
734 for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
735 also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
736 being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
737 super-user can use bf(--no-super).
739 dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply the listed "chmod" pattern
740 to the permission of the files on the destination. In addition to the normal
741 parsing rules specified in the chmod manpage, you can specify an item that
742 should only apply to a directory by prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an
743 item that should only apply to a file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
745 quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
747 It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options.
749 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
750 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
752 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
753 up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
754 not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
756 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
757 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
758 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
760 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
761 filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
762 to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
763 through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
764 the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
765 in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
768 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
769 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
770 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
771 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
773 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
774 bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
775 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
778 dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
779 updating files that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is
780 combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
781 (which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete missing files).
783 dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
784 already exist on the destination. See also bf(--ignore-non-existing).
786 dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
787 side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
788 updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
789 nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
791 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
792 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
793 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
794 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
795 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
796 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
797 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
798 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
799 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
800 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
802 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
803 was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
804 (bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
806 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
807 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
808 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
810 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
811 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
812 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
813 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
814 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
816 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
817 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
818 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
819 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
820 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
822 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
823 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
824 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
825 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
827 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
828 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
829 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
830 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
833 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
834 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
835 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
836 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
837 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
839 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
840 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
841 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
842 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
844 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
846 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
847 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
848 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
849 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
850 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
851 bf(--delete-excluded).
852 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
854 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
855 even when there are I/O errors.
857 dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
858 when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
859 deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
861 Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
862 using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
863 bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
865 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
866 files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
867 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
869 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
870 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
871 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
872 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
874 The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
875 "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
876 gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
877 If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
878 "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
879 Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
880 be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
882 Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
885 dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
886 file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
887 transferring small, junk files.
888 See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
890 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
891 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
892 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
894 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
895 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
896 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
897 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
899 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
900 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
901 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
902 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
903 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
904 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
906 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
907 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
908 or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
909 and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
910 argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
911 inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
912 double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
913 shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
916 tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
917 tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
920 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
921 options in their .ssh/config file.)
923 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
924 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
926 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
928 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
929 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
930 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
931 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
932 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
933 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
936 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
937 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
939 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
941 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
942 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
943 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
944 a file should be ignored.
946 The exclude list is initialized to:
948 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
949 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
950 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
952 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
953 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
954 are delimited by whitespace).
956 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
957 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
958 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
959 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
961 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
962 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
963 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
964 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
965 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
966 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
967 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
968 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
969 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
970 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
973 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
974 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
975 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
977 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
978 to build up the list of files to exclude.
980 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
982 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
983 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
985 quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
987 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
988 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
989 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
992 quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
994 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
996 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
999 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1000 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1001 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1003 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1005 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1006 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1007 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1008 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1010 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1011 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1012 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1014 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1016 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1017 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1018 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1019 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1021 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1022 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1023 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1024 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1027 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1028 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1029 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1030 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1031 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1032 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1033 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1034 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1035 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1036 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1037 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1038 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1041 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1042 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1043 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1046 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1048 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1049 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1050 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1051 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1052 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1053 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1054 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1055 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1057 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1058 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1059 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1061 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1062 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1063 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1064 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1065 transfer". For example:
1067 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1069 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1070 was located on the remote "src" host.
1072 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1073 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1074 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1075 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1076 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1077 file are split on whitespace).
1079 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1080 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1081 on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1082 file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1084 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1085 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1086 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1087 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1088 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1089 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1090 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1091 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1092 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1093 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1094 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1095 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1096 new version on the disk at the same time.
1098 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1099 space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1100 which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1101 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1102 have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1103 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1104 about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1105 path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1106 single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1107 partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1108 rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1109 an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1111 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1112 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1113 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1114 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1115 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1117 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1118 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1119 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1121 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1122 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1123 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1124 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1125 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1126 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1127 have changed from an earlier backup.
1129 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1130 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1132 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1133 and the attributes updated.
1134 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1135 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1137 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1138 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1140 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1141 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1142 directory using a local copy.
1143 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1144 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1145 been successfully transferred.
1147 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1148 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1149 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1150 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1152 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1153 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1155 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1156 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1157 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1158 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1161 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1163 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1164 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1166 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1167 and the attributes updated.
1168 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1169 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1171 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1172 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1174 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1175 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1176 specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1177 the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1179 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1180 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1181 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1183 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
1184 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1185 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1186 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1188 dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1189 (see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1190 the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1192 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1193 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1196 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1197 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1198 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1199 option is not specified.
1201 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1202 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1203 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1204 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1205 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1206 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1208 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1209 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1210 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1212 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1213 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1214 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1215 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1217 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1218 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1219 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1220 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1221 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1223 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1224 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1225 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1226 slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
1227 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1228 special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1229 connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1230 bf(--daemon) mode section.
1232 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1233 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1234 rsync defaults to using
1235 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1236 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1238 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1239 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1240 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
1241 If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1242 if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1243 with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1246 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1247 format is like the string bf(UXcstpog)), where bf(U) is replaced by the
1248 kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1249 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1252 The update types that replace the bf(U) are as follows:
1255 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1257 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1259 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1260 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1261 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
1263 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1264 have attributes that are being modified).
1267 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1268 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1269 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1271 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1272 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1273 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1274 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1275 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1276 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1278 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1281 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1282 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1283 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1284 by the file transfer.
1285 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1286 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1287 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1288 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1289 without bf(--times).
1290 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1291 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1292 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1293 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1294 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1295 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1298 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1299 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1300 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1301 outputting them as a verbose message).
1303 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1304 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1305 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1306 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1307 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1308 option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1310 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1311 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1312 touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
1313 the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
1314 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1315 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1318 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1319 bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1320 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1322 Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1323 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1324 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1325 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1326 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1327 (followed, of course, by the log-format output).
1329 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1330 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1331 algorithm is for your data.
1333 dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1334 Large numbers may be output in larger units, with a K (1024), M (1024*1024),
1335 or G (1024*1024*1024) suffix.
1337 dit(bf(--si)) Similar to the bf(--human-readable) option, but using powers
1338 of 1000 instead of 1024.
1340 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1341 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1342 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1343 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1344 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1346 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1347 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1348 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1349 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1350 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1351 after it has served its purpose.
1353 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1354 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1356 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1358 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1359 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1360 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1361 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1362 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1364 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
1365 bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1366 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1367 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1368 the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1369 rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1370 supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to manually insert your own
1371 exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that
1372 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1373 a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added rule would never be
1376 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1377 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1379 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1380 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1381 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1382 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1383 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1384 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1385 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1386 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1387 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1388 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1390 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1391 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1392 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1393 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1394 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1396 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1397 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1398 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1399 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1400 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1401 each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1402 bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead.
1403 Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1405 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1406 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1407 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1408 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1410 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1411 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1413 and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1414 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1416 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1417 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1418 parallel hierarchy of files).
1420 dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1421 rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1422 that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1423 creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1424 recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1427 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1428 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1429 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1430 being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1433 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1434 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1435 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1437 quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1439 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1440 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1441 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1442 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1444 quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide! */' src/ dest)
1446 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1447 time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
1448 in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1450 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1451 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1453 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1455 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1457 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1459 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1460 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1461 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1462 remaining in this transfer.
1464 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1466 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1468 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1469 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1470 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1471 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1472 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1474 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1475 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1476 transfer that may be interrupted.
1478 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1479 in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1480 is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1481 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1482 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1485 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1486 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1487 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1488 come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1489 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1490 non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1491 copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1492 must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
1494 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1495 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1496 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1497 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1498 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1499 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1500 of zero specifies no limit.
1502 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1503 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1504 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1506 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1507 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1508 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1509 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1511 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1512 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1513 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1514 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1515 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1518 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1519 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1520 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1521 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1523 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1524 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1525 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1526 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1528 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1529 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1530 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1531 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1532 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1533 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1534 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1536 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1537 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1538 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1539 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1541 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1542 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1543 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1544 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1545 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1546 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1547 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1548 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1552 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1554 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1557 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1558 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1559 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1561 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1562 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1563 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1564 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1565 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1568 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1569 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1570 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1571 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1572 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1574 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1575 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1576 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1577 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1578 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1580 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1581 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1582 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1583 a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
1584 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1586 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1587 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1588 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1589 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1590 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1591 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1592 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1595 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1596 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1597 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1599 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
1600 rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
1602 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1603 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1604 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1605 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1607 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1608 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1609 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1610 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1611 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1612 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1614 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1615 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1618 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1620 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1621 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1622 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1623 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1625 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1626 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1627 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1628 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1629 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1630 filename is not skipped.
1632 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1633 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1636 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1637 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1640 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1641 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1642 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1643 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1644 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1647 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1648 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1649 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1650 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1651 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1652 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1653 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1654 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1655 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1658 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1659 comment lines that start with a "#".
1661 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1662 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1663 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1664 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1666 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1667 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1668 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1669 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1672 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1673 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1674 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1675 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1677 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1679 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1680 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1681 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1682 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1683 can take several forms:
1686 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1687 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1688 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1689 regular expressions.
1690 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1691 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1692 per-directory rule).
1693 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1694 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1696 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1697 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1698 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1699 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1700 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1702 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1703 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1705 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
1706 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
1707 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
1708 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
1709 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
1710 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
1711 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
1712 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
1713 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
1714 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
1715 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1716 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1717 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1718 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1719 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1721 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
1722 "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
1723 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
1727 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1728 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1729 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1730 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1731 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1732 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1733 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1734 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1735 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1736 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1737 For instance, this won't work:
1740 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1741 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1745 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1746 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1747 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1748 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1749 "- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1750 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1755 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1756 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1757 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1761 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1764 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1765 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1766 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1767 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1768 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1769 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1770 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1771 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1772 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1773 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1774 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1775 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1778 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1780 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1781 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1784 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1785 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1786 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1787 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1788 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1789 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1790 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1791 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1792 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1793 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1799 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1800 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1801 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1802 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1803 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1806 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1809 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1810 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1811 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1812 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1813 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1814 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1815 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1816 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1817 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1818 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1819 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1820 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1821 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1822 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1823 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1825 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1826 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1827 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1828 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1829 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1830 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
1833 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1836 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
1837 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
1838 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1839 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
1840 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
1841 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
1842 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1843 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1845 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1846 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1848 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1849 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1850 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1851 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1852 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1853 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
1854 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1855 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1856 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1857 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1858 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1861 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1862 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1863 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1864 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1865 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1866 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1867 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1868 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1869 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1871 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1872 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1873 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1874 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1877 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1880 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1882 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1887 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1888 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1889 filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1890 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1893 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1894 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1895 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1896 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1898 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1900 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1901 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1902 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1903 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1904 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1906 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1909 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1910 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1911 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1914 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1915 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1916 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1917 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1918 a part of the transfer.
1920 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1921 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1922 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1923 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1924 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1925 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1926 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1927 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1931 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1936 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1939 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1940 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1941 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1942 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1943 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1944 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1945 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1946 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1948 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1950 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1951 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1952 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1953 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1954 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1955 out the parent's rules).
1957 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1959 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1960 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1961 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1962 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1963 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1964 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1966 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1967 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1968 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1969 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1970 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1972 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1973 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1974 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1977 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1978 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1979 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1980 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1981 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1985 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1986 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1987 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1988 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1989 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1993 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1994 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1995 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1996 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1997 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2001 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2002 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2003 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2004 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2005 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2008 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2009 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2010 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2012 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2014 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2015 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2016 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2017 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2020 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2021 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2024 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2025 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2026 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2027 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2028 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2029 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2031 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2033 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2034 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2035 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2036 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2037 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2039 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2040 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2042 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2043 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2044 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2045 per-directory merge rule.
2047 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2048 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2049 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2050 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2051 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2052 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2054 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2056 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2058 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2060 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2061 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2062 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2063 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2064 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2065 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2066 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2067 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2068 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2070 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2071 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2072 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2073 using the information stored in the batch file.
2075 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2076 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2077 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2078 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2079 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
2080 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2081 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2082 path differs from the original destination tree path.
2084 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2085 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2086 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2087 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2088 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2093 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2094 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2095 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2099 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2100 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2103 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2104 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2105 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2106 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2107 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2110 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2111 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2112 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2113 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2114 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2115 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2116 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2117 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2118 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2119 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2120 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2125 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2126 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2127 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2128 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2129 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2130 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2131 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2132 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2133 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2134 option (when reading the batch).
2135 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2136 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2137 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2140 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2141 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2142 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2143 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2144 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2145 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2146 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2148 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2149 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2150 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2151 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2152 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2153 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2154 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2156 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2157 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2158 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2159 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2160 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2161 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2163 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2164 version uses a new implementation.
2166 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2168 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2169 link in the source directory.
2171 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2172 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2174 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2175 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2178 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2179 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2181 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2182 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2183 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2184 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2185 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2186 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2187 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2188 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2190 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2191 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
2192 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2194 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2195 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2196 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2198 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2199 symlinks for any other options to affect).
2201 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2202 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2204 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2205 skip all safe symlinks.
2207 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2210 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2212 manpagediagnostics()
2214 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2215 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2216 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2218 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2219 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2220 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2221 remote shell like this:
2223 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2225 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2226 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2227 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2228 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2229 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2230 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2231 for non-interactive logins.
2233 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2234 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2235 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2237 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2241 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2242 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2243 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2244 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2245 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2246 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2248 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2249 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2250 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2251 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2252 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2253 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2254 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2255 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2256 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2257 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2258 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2259 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2260 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2261 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2264 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2267 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2268 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2270 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2271 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2272 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2273 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2274 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2275 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2276 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2277 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2278 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2279 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2280 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2281 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2282 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2283 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2284 default .cvsignore file.
2289 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2297 times are transferred as unix time_t values
2299 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2301 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2303 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2306 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2308 Please report bugs! See the website at
2309 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2311 manpagesection(VERSION)
2313 This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
2315 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2317 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2318 COPYING for details.
2320 A WEB site is available at
2321 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2322 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2325 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2326 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2328 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2330 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2331 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2333 manpagesection(THANKS)
2335 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2336 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2337 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2339 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2340 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2344 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2345 Many people have later contributed to it.
2347 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2348 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)