1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(13 May 1998)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [options] [user@]host:path path
8 rsync [options] path [user@]host:path
10 rsync [options] path path
12 rsync [options] [user@]host::module[/path] path
14 rsync [options] path [user@]host::module[/path]
18 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
19 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
20 greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
24 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
25 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
26 report that accompanies this package.
28 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
32 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
33 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
34 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
35 it() does not require root privileges
36 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
37 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
41 manpagesection(GENERAL)
43 There are five different ways of using rsync. They are:
46 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
47 source nor destination path contains a : separator
49 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
50 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
51 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
55 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the local path
56 contains a : separator.
58 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
59 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
67 Note that in all cases at least one of the source and destination
72 See the file README for installation instructions.
74 Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
75 to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
76 destination are local.
78 You can also specify a alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
79 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
81 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
84 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
89 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
90 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
92 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
94 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
96 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
97 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
98 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
99 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
100 differences. See the tech report for details.
102 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
104 recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
105 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
106 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
107 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
108 in the transfer. Additionally compression will be used to reduce the
109 size of data portions of the transfer.
111 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
113 With a trailing slash on the source this behavior changes to transfer
114 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
115 /data/tmp/. With a trailing / on a source name it means "copy the
116 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
117 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
118 using the --delete option.
120 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
121 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
122 an improved copy command.
125 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
127 It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
128 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
129 running on TCP port 873.
131 Using rsync in this was is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
135 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
136 separate the hostname from the path.
138 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
141 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
142 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
145 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
146 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
147 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
148 the password you want to use. This may be useful when scripting rsync.
150 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
152 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
153 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
156 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
158 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
160 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS word
161 files and mail folders I use a cron job that runs
163 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
165 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
168 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
172 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
175 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
179 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
180 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
181 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
183 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
186 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
188 this is launched from cron every few hours.
190 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
192 Here is a short summary of the options avalable in rsync. Please refer
193 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
196 Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [USER@]HOST:DEST
197 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
198 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC DEST
199 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC DEST
200 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [USER@]HOST::DEST
203 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
204 -c, --checksum always checksum
205 -a, --archive archive mode
206 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
207 -R, --relative use relative path names
208 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
209 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
210 -l, --links preserve soft links
211 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
212 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
213 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
214 -p, --perms preserve permissions
215 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
216 -g, --group preserve group
217 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
218 -t, --times preserve times
219 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
220 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
221 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
222 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
223 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size
224 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
225 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
226 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
227 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
228 --partial keep partially transferred files
229 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
230 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
231 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
232 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
233 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
234 -z, --compress compress file data
235 --exclude=PATTERN exclude file FILE
236 --exclude-from=PATTERN exclude files listed in FILE
237 --include=PATTERN don't exclude file FILE
238 --include-from=PATTERN don't exclude files listed in FILE
239 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
240 --version print version number
241 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
242 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
243 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
244 --stats give some file transfer stats
245 --progress show progress during transfer
246 -h, --help show this help screen
251 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
252 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
253 below separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
256 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
259 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
261 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
262 are given during the transfer. By default rsync works silently. A
263 single -v will give you information about what files are being
264 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
265 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
266 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
267 you are debugging rsync
269 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
270 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
273 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
274 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
275 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
276 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
277 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
279 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
280 of saying I want recursion and want to preserve everything.
282 Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
283 uid) is also implied.
285 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively
287 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
288 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
289 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
290 you want to sent several different directories at the same time. For
291 example if you used the command
293 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
295 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
296 machine. If instead you used
298 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
300 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
301 machine. The full path name is preserved.
303 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
304 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
305 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
307 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
308 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
311 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
312 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
313 option all symbolic links are skipped.
315 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
318 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
319 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
320 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
321 give unexpecetd results.
323 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
324 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
325 option hard links are treated like regular files.
327 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
328 are in the list of files being sent.
330 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
332 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
333 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
334 useful when using rsync with a local machine.
336 dit(bf(--partial)) By default rsync will delete any partially
337 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
338 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
339 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
340 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
342 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
343 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
345 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
346 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
349 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
350 of the file to be the same as the local group.
352 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
353 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
354 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
356 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
357 with the files and update them on the remote system
359 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
360 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
362 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
363 up less space on the destination.
365 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
366 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
367 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
369 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
370 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
371 contents of only one filesystem.
373 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
374 side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
377 It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
378 see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
381 rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
382 dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
383 that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
384 these directories are deleted.
386 Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
387 of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
388 behavior of --delete.
390 NOTE: It also may delete files on the destination if the sending side
391 can't open them or stat them. This is a bug that hopefully will be
392 fixed in a future release.
394 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
395 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
396 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
397 contains a directory of the same name. Normally rsync will refuse to
398 do a recursive directory deletion in such cases, by using --force
399 the recursive deletion will be done.
401 Use this option with caution!
403 dit(bf(-B , --block_size BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
404 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
406 dit(bf(-e, --rsh COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
407 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
408 remote copies of rsync. By default rsync will use rsh, but you may
409 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
411 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
412 environment variable.
414 dit(bf(--rsync-path PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
415 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when its not in your path.
417 dit(bf(--exclude pattern)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
418 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
419 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
421 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
422 to build up the list of files to exclude.
424 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
427 dit(bf(--exclude-from FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
428 option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
431 dit(bf(--include pattern)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
432 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
433 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
435 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
438 dit(bf(--include-from FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
441 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
442 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
443 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
444 a file should be ignored.
446 The exclude list is initialized to:
448 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
449 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
450 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
452 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
453 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
455 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
456 that directory are added to the list.
458 dit(bf(--suffix SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
459 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
461 dit(bf(--csum-length LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
462 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
463 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
464 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
465 making things faster.
467 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
468 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
470 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
471 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
472 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
473 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
475 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
476 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
477 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
478 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
480 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir DIR)) This options instructs rsync to use DIR as a
481 scratch directory when creating a temporary copies of the files
482 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
483 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
485 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
486 the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
487 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
488 same method that gzip uses.
490 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
491 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
492 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
493 information sent for matching data blocks.
495 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
496 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
499 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
500 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
501 0 and never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
502 option is not specified.
504 If a user or group name does not exist on the destination system then
505 the numeric id from the source system is used instead.
507 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
508 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
509 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
511 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
512 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
513 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
514 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
515 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
516 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
519 dit(bf(--config FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
520 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
523 dit(bf(--port PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
524 rather than the default port 873.
526 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
527 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
528 algorithm is for your data. This option only works in conjunction with
529 the -v (verbose) option.
531 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
532 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
537 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
539 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
540 selection of what files to transfer and what files to skip.
542 rsync build a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
543 the command line. When a filename is encountered rsync then checks the
544 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
545 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
546 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
547 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
548 filename is not skipped.
550 The patterns themselves can take several forms. The rules are:
553 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
554 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
555 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
556 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
557 called foo anywhere in the tree.
559 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
560 directory, not a file, link or device.
562 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
563 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
564 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
567 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
568 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
569 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
570 only against the final component of the filename.
572 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
573 then it is always considered a include pattern, even if specified as
574 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
576 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
577 then it is always considered a exclude pattern, even if specified as
578 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
580 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
581 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
584 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
585 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
587 Here are some examples:
590 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
591 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
592 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
593 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
594 directories and C source files.
597 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
599 rsync occasinally produces error messages that may seem a little
600 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
601 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
603 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
604 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
605 for its transport. The way ot diagnose this problem is to run your
606 remote shell like this:
609 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
612 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
613 should be a zero length file. You you are getting the above error from
614 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
615 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
616 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configued shell startup
617 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
618 for non-interactive logins.
620 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
624 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
625 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
628 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
629 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
630 be used instead of the -e option.
632 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
633 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
634 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
635 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
637 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
638 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
640 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the users
641 default .cvsignore file.
657 times are transferred as unix time_t values
659 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
662 see also the comments on the --delete option
664 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
665 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
667 manpagesection(VERSION)
668 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
670 manpagesection(CREDITS)
672 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
675 The primary ftp site for rsync is
676 url(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync)(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync).
678 A WEB site is available at
679 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
681 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
683 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
684 Gailly and Mark Adler.
686 manpagesection(THANKS)
688 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
689 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
690 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
695 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
696 contacted via email at tridge@samba.anu.edu.au and
697 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au