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]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync 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 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
82 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
87 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
88 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
90 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
92 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
94 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
95 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
96 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
97 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
98 differences. See the tech report for details.
100 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
102 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
103 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
104 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
105 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
106 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
107 size of data portions of the transfer.
109 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
111 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
112 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
113 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
114 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
115 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
116 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
117 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
121 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
122 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
125 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
126 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
127 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
130 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
131 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
134 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
135 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
136 an improved copy command.
138 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
139 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
141 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
143 See the following section for more details.
145 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
147 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
148 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
150 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
152 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
153 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
154 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
155 to be a part of the filenames.
157 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
159 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
160 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
161 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
162 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
163 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
164 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
165 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
168 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
169 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
172 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
173 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
175 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
177 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
178 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
179 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
180 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
181 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
183 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
187 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
188 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
189 it() the first word after the :: is a module name.
190 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
192 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
193 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
194 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
195 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
198 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
200 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
202 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
203 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
204 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
205 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
206 may be useful when scripting rsync.
208 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
209 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
211 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
212 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
213 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
214 proxy connections to port 873.
216 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
218 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
219 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
220 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
221 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
222 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
223 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
224 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
225 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
226 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
227 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
228 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
229 connections from "localhost".)
231 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
232 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
233 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
234 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
235 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
236 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
238 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
240 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
241 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
242 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
243 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
245 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
247 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
248 used to log-in to the "module".
250 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
252 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
253 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
254 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
255 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
256 socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
257 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
258 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
260 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
261 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
263 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
265 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
267 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
268 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
270 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
272 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
275 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
279 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
281 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
284 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
285 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
286 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
288 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
291 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
293 This is launched from cron every few hours.
295 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
297 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
298 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
299 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
300 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
312 --append append data onto shorter files
313 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
314 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
315 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
316 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
317 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
318 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
319 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
320 -p, --perms preserve permissions
321 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
322 -g, --group preserve group
323 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
324 -t, --times preserve times
325 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
326 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
327 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
328 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
329 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
330 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
331 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
332 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
333 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
334 --existing only update files that already exist
335 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
336 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
337 --del an alias for --delete-during
338 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
339 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
340 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
341 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
342 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
343 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
344 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
345 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
346 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
347 --partial keep partially transferred files
348 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
349 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
350 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
351 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
352 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
353 --size-only skip files that match in size
354 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
355 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
356 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
357 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
358 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
359 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
360 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
361 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
362 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
363 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
364 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
365 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
366 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
367 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
368 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
369 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
370 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
371 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
372 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
373 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
374 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
375 --stats give some file-transfer stats
376 --progress show progress during transfer
377 -P same as --partial --progress
378 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
379 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
380 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
381 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
382 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
383 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
384 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
385 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
386 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
387 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
388 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
389 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
390 --version print version number
391 -h, --help show this help screen)
393 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
395 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
396 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
397 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
398 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
399 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
400 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
401 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
402 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
403 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
404 -h, --help show this help screen)
408 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
409 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
410 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
411 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
415 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
418 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
420 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
421 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
422 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
423 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
424 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
425 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
426 you are debugging rsync.
428 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
429 a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
430 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
431 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
432 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
433 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
434 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
435 any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
437 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
438 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
439 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
442 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
443 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
444 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
446 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
447 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
448 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
449 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
450 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
453 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
454 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
455 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
456 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
457 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
458 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
459 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
461 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
462 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
463 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
464 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
465 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
467 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
468 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
469 everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
470 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
472 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
473 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
476 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
477 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
479 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
480 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
481 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
482 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
483 example, if you used this command:
485 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
487 ... this would create a file called baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
488 machine. If instead you used
490 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
492 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
493 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
494 path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
495 a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
496 insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
498 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
500 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
501 dot dir must followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
502 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
503 source path. For example, when pushing files:
505 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
507 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
508 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
509 If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
513 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
514 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
517 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
518 needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
521 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
522 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
523 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
524 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
525 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
526 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
527 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
528 the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
529 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
530 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
532 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
533 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
534 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
535 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
536 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), the bf(--omit-dir-times)
537 option will be enabled.
539 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
540 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
541 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
542 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
543 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
544 will keep their original filenames).
546 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
547 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
548 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
550 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
551 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
552 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
553 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
555 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
556 between the sender and receiver is always
557 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
558 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
559 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
560 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
561 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
563 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
564 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
565 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
566 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
567 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
568 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
569 basis file for the transfer.
571 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
572 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
575 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
576 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
577 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
580 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
581 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
582 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
583 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
586 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
587 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
588 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
589 side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
590 resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
591 Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
592 file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
593 Implies bf(--inplace).
595 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
596 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
597 unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
598 name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
599 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
600 output a message to that effect for each one).
602 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
603 symlink on the destination.
605 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
606 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
607 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
608 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
609 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
610 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
611 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
612 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
614 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
615 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
616 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
617 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
619 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
620 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
621 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
622 give unexpected results.
624 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
625 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
626 option hard links are treated like regular files.
628 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
629 are in the list of files being sent.
631 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
633 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
634 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
637 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
638 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
639 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
640 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
641 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
642 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
644 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
647 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
648 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
650 Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
651 their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
652 based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
654 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
656 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
657 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
658 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
659 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
660 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
662 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
663 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
664 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
665 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
666 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
667 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
669 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
670 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
671 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
673 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
674 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
675 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
676 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
677 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
678 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
679 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
681 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
682 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
683 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
684 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
686 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
687 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
689 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
690 up less space on the destination.
692 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
693 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
694 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
696 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
697 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
698 contents of only one filesystem.
700 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
701 only update files that already exist on the destination.
703 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
704 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
707 dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
708 side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
709 updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
710 nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
712 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
713 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
714 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
715 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
716 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
717 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
718 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
719 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
720 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
721 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
723 This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
725 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
726 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
727 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
729 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
730 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
731 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
732 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
733 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
735 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
736 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
737 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
738 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
739 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
741 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
742 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
743 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
744 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
746 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
747 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
748 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
749 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
752 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
753 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
754 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
755 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
756 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
758 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
759 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
760 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
761 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
763 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
765 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
766 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
767 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
768 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
769 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
770 bf(--delete-excluded).
771 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
773 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
774 even when there are I/O errors.
776 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
777 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
778 is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
779 Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
781 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
782 files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
783 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
785 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
786 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
787 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
788 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
790 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
791 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
792 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
794 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
795 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
796 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
797 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
799 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
800 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
801 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
802 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
803 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
804 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
806 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
807 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
809 quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
811 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
812 options in their .ssh/config file.)
814 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
815 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
817 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
819 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
820 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
821 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
822 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
823 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
824 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
827 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
828 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
830 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
832 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
833 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
834 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
835 a file should be ignored.
837 The exclude list is initialized to:
839 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
840 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
841 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
843 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
844 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
845 are delimited by whitespace).
847 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
848 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
849 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
850 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
852 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
853 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
854 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
855 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
856 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
857 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
858 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
859 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
860 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
861 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
864 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
865 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
866 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
868 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
869 to build up the list of files to exclude.
871 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
873 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
874 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
876 quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
878 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
879 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
880 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
883 quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
885 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
887 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
890 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
891 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
892 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
894 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
896 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
897 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
898 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
899 ';' or '#' are ignored.
900 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
902 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
903 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
904 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
906 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
908 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
910 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
912 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
913 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
914 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
915 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
918 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
919 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
920 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
921 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
922 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
924 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
925 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
928 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
929 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
930 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
933 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
935 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
936 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
937 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
938 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
939 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
940 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
941 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
942 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
944 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
945 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
946 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
948 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
949 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
950 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
951 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
952 transfer". For example:
954 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
956 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
957 was located on the remote "src" host.
959 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
960 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
961 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
962 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
963 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
964 file are split on whitespace).
966 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
967 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
968 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
969 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
971 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
972 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
973 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
974 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
975 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
977 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
978 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
979 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
981 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
982 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
983 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
984 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
985 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
986 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
987 have changed from an earlier backup.
989 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
990 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
992 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
993 and the attributes updated.
994 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
995 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
997 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
998 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1000 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1001 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1002 directory using a local copy.
1003 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1004 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1005 been successfully transferred.
1007 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1008 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1009 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1010 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1012 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1013 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1015 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1016 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1017 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1018 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1021 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1023 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1024 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1026 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1027 and the attributes updated.
1028 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1029 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1031 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1032 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1034 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1035 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
1036 (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
1037 when sending to an old rsync.
1039 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1040 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1041 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1043 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
1044 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1045 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1046 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1048 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1049 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1052 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1053 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1054 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1055 option is not specified.
1057 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1058 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1059 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1060 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1061 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1062 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1064 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1065 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1066 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1068 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1069 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1070 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1071 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1073 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1074 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1075 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1076 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1077 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1079 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1080 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1081 rsync defaults to using
1082 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1083 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1085 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
1088 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1089 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1090 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
1092 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1093 format is like the string bf(UXcstpoga)), where bf(U) is replaced by the
1094 kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1095 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1098 The update types that replace the bf(U) are as follows:
1101 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1103 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1105 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1106 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1107 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
1109 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1110 have attributes that are being modified).
1113 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1114 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, and a bf(D) for a device.
1116 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1117 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1118 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1119 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1120 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1121 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1123 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1126 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1127 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1128 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1129 by the file transfer.
1130 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1131 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1132 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1133 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1134 without bf(--times).
1135 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1136 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1137 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1138 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and root privileges).
1139 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1140 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1141 it() The bf(a) is reserved for a future enhanced version that supports
1142 extended file attributes, such as ACLs.
1145 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1146 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1147 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1148 outputting them as a verbose message).
1150 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1151 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1152 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1153 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1154 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1155 option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1157 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1158 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1159 touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
1160 the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
1161 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1162 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemized-changes) option for a description of the
1165 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1166 bf(--log-format) without bv(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1167 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1169 Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1170 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1171 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1172 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1173 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1174 (followed, of course, by the log-format output).
1176 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1177 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1178 algorithm is for your data.
1180 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1181 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1182 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1183 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1184 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1186 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1187 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1188 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1189 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1190 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
1191 after it has served its purpose.
1192 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1193 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1195 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1197 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1198 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1199 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1200 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1201 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1203 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
1204 bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1205 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1206 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1207 the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1208 rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1209 supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1210 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1211 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1212 a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
1215 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1216 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1218 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1219 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1220 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1221 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1222 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1223 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1224 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1225 option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1226 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1227 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1229 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1230 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1231 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1232 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1233 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1235 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1236 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1237 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1238 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1239 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1240 each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
1241 the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
1242 on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
1243 purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting.)
1244 Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1246 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1247 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1248 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1249 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1250 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1251 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1254 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1255 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1256 parallel hierarchy of files).
1258 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1259 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1261 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1263 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1265 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1267 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1268 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1269 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1270 remaining in this transfer.
1272 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1274 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1276 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1277 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1278 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1279 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1280 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1282 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1283 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1284 transfer that may be interrupted.
1286 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1287 in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1288 is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1289 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1290 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1293 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1294 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1295 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1296 come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1297 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1298 non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1299 copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1300 must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
1302 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1303 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1304 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1305 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1306 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1307 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1308 of zero specifies no limit.
1310 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1311 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1312 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1314 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1315 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1316 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1317 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1319 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1320 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1321 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1322 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1323 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1326 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1327 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1328 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1329 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1331 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1332 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1333 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1334 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1336 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1337 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1338 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1339 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1340 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1341 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1342 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1344 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1345 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1346 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1347 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1349 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1350 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1351 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1352 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1353 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1354 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1355 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1356 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1360 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1362 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1365 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1366 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1367 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1369 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1370 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1371 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1372 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1373 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1376 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1377 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1378 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1379 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1380 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1382 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1383 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1384 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1385 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1386 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1388 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1389 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1390 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1391 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1392 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1394 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1395 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1396 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1397 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1398 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1399 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1400 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1403 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1404 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1405 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1407 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1408 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1409 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1410 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1412 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1413 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1414 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1415 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1416 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1417 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1419 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1420 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1423 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1425 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1426 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1427 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1428 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1430 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1431 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1432 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1433 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1434 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1435 filename is not skipped.
1437 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1438 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1441 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1442 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1445 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1446 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1447 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1448 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1449 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1452 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1453 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1454 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1455 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1456 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1457 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1458 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1459 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1460 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1463 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1464 comment lines that start with a "#".
1466 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1467 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1468 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1469 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1471 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1472 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1473 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1474 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1477 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1478 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1479 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1480 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1482 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1484 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1485 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1486 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1487 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1488 can take several forms:
1491 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1492 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1493 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1494 regular expressions.
1495 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1496 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1497 per-directory rule).
1498 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1499 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1501 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1502 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1503 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1504 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1505 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1507 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1508 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1509 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1510 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1511 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1512 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1513 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1514 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1515 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1516 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1517 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1518 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1519 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1523 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1524 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1525 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1526 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1527 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1528 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1529 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1530 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1531 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1532 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1533 For instance, this won't work:
1536 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1537 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1541 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1542 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1543 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1544 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1545 "- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1546 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1551 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1552 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1553 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1557 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1560 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1561 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1562 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1563 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1564 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1565 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1566 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1567 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1568 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1569 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1570 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1571 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1574 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1576 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1577 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1580 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1581 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1582 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1583 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1584 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1585 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1586 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1587 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1588 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1589 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1595 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1596 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1597 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1598 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1599 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1602 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1605 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1606 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1607 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1608 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1609 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1610 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1611 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1612 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1613 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1614 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1615 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1616 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1617 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1618 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1619 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1621 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1622 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1623 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1624 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1625 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1626 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
1629 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1632 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1633 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1634 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1635 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1636 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1637 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1639 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1640 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1642 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1643 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1644 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1645 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1646 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1647 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
1648 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1649 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1650 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1651 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1652 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1655 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1656 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1657 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1658 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1659 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1660 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1661 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1662 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1663 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1665 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1666 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1667 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1668 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1671 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1674 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1676 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1681 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1682 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1683 filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1684 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1687 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1688 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1689 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1690 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1692 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1694 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1695 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1696 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1697 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1698 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1700 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1703 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1704 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1705 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1708 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1709 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1710 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1711 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1712 a part of the transfer.
1714 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1715 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1716 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1717 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1718 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1719 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1720 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1721 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1725 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1730 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1733 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1734 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1735 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1736 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1737 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1738 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1739 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1740 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1742 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1744 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1745 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1746 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1747 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1748 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1749 out the parent's rules).
1751 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1753 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1754 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1755 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1756 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1757 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1758 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1760 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1761 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1762 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1763 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1764 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1766 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1767 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1768 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1771 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1772 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1773 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1774 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1775 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1779 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1780 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1781 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1782 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1783 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1787 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1788 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1789 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1790 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1791 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1795 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1796 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1797 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1798 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1799 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1802 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1803 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1804 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1806 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1808 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1809 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1810 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1811 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1814 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1815 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1818 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1819 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1820 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1821 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1822 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1823 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1825 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1827 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1828 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1829 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1830 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1831 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1833 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1834 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1836 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1837 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1838 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1839 per-directory merge rule.
1841 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1842 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1843 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1844 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1845 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1846 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1848 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1850 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1852 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1854 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1855 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1856 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1857 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1858 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1859 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1860 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1861 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1862 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1864 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1865 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1866 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1867 using the information stored in the batch file.
1869 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1870 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1871 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1872 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1873 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1874 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1875 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1876 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1878 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1879 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1880 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1881 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1882 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1887 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1888 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1889 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1893 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1894 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1897 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1898 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1899 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1900 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1901 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1904 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1905 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1906 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1907 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1908 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1909 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1910 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1911 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1912 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1913 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1914 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1919 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1920 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1921 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1922 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
1923 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1924 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1925 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1926 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1927 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1928 option (when reading the batch).
1929 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1930 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1931 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1934 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1935 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1936 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1937 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
1938 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
1939 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
1940 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
1942 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1943 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1944 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1945 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1946 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1947 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1948 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1950 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1951 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1952 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1953 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1954 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1955 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1957 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1958 version uses a new implementation.
1960 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1962 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1963 link in the source directory.
1965 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1966 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1968 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1969 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1972 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1973 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1975 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1976 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1977 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1978 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1979 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1980 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1981 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
1982 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
1984 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1985 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1986 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1988 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
1989 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
1990 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
1992 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
1993 symlinks for any other options to affect).
1995 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
1996 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
1998 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
1999 skip all safe symlinks.
2001 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2004 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2006 manpagediagnostics()
2008 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2009 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2010 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2012 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2013 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2014 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2015 remote shell like this:
2017 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2019 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2020 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2021 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2022 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2023 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2024 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2025 for non-interactive logins.
2027 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2028 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2029 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2031 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2035 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2036 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2037 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2038 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2039 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2040 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2042 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2043 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2044 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2045 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2046 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2047 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2048 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2049 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2050 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2051 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2052 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2053 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2054 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2055 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2058 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2061 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2062 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2064 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2065 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2066 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2067 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2068 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2069 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2070 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2071 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2072 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2073 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2074 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2075 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2076 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2077 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2078 default .cvsignore file.
2083 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2091 times are transferred as unix time_t values
2093 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2095 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2097 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2100 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2102 Please report bugs! See the website at
2103 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2105 manpagesection(VERSION)
2107 This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
2109 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2111 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2112 COPYING for details.
2114 A WEB site is available at
2115 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2116 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2119 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2120 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2122 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2124 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2125 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2127 manpagesection(THANKS)
2129 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2130 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2131 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2133 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2134 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2138 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2139 Many people have later contributed to it.
2141 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2142 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)