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::path path
14 rsync [options] path [user@]host::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 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
197 -c, --checksum always checksum
198 -a, --archive archive mode
199 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
200 -R, --relative use relative path names
201 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
202 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
203 -l, --links preserve soft links
204 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
205 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
206 -p, --perms preserve permissions
207 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
208 -g, --group preserve group
209 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
210 -t, --times preserve times
211 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
212 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
213 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
214 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
215 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size
216 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
217 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
218 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
219 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
220 --partial keep partially transferred files
221 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
222 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
223 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
224 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
225 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
226 -z, --compress compress file data
227 --exclude=PATTERN exclude file FILE
228 --exclude-from=PATTERN exclude files listed in FILE
229 --include=PATTERN don't exclude file FILE
230 --include-from=PATTERN don't exclude files listed in FILE
231 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
232 --version print version number
233 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
234 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
235 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
236 --stats give some file transfer stats
237 -h, --help show this help screen
242 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
243 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
244 below separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
247 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
250 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
252 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
253 are given during the transfer. By default rsync works silently. A
254 single -v will give you information about what files are being
255 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
256 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
257 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
258 you are debugging rsync
260 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
261 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
264 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
265 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
266 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
267 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
268 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
270 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
271 of saying I want recursion and want to preserve everything.
273 Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
274 uid) is also implied.
276 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively
278 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
279 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
280 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
281 you want to sent several different directories at the same time. For
282 example if you used the command
284 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
286 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
287 machine. If instead you used
289 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
291 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
292 machine. The full path name is preserved.
294 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
295 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
296 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
298 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
299 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
302 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
303 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
304 option all symbolic links are skipped.
306 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
309 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
310 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
311 option hard links are treated like regular files.
313 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
314 are in the list of files being sent.
316 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
318 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
319 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
320 useful when using rsync with a local machine.
322 dit(bf(--partial)) By default rsync will delete any partially
323 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
324 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
325 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
326 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
328 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
329 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
331 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
332 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
335 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
336 of the file to be the same as the local group.
338 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
339 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
340 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
342 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
343 with the files and update them on the remote system
345 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
346 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
348 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
349 up less space on the destination.
351 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
352 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
353 contents of only one filesystem.
355 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
356 side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
359 It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
360 see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
363 rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
364 dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
365 that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
366 these directories are deleted.
368 Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
369 of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
370 behavior of --delete.
372 NOTE: It also may delete files on the destination if the sending side
373 can't open them or stat them. This is a bug that hopefully will be
374 fixed in a future release.
376 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
377 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
378 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
379 contains a directory of the same name. Normally rsync will refuse to
380 do a recursive directory deletion in such cases, by using --force
381 the recursive deletion will be done.
383 Use this option with caution!
385 dit(bf(-B , --block_size BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
386 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
388 dit(bf(-e, --rsh COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
389 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
390 remote copies of rsync. By default rsync will use rsh, but you may
391 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
393 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
394 environment variable.
396 dit(bf(--rsync-path PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
397 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when its not in your path.
399 dit(bf(--exclude pattern)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
400 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
401 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
403 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
404 to build up the list of files to exclude.
406 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
409 dit(bf(--exclude-from FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
410 option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
413 dit(bf(--include pattern)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
414 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
415 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
417 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
420 dit(bf(--include-from FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
423 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
424 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
425 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
426 a file should be ignored.
428 The exclude list is initialized to:
430 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
431 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
432 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
434 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
435 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
437 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
438 that directory are added to the list.
440 dit(bf(--suffix SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
441 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
443 dit(bf(--csum-length LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
444 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
445 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
446 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
447 making things faster.
449 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
450 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
452 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
453 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
454 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
455 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
457 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
458 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
459 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
460 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
462 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir DIR)) This options instructs rsync to use DIR as a
463 scratch directory when creating a temporary copies of the files
464 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
465 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
467 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
468 the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
469 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
470 same method that gzip uses.
472 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
473 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
474 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
475 information sent for matching data blocks.
477 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
478 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
481 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
482 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
483 0 and never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
484 option is not specified.
486 If a user or group name does not exist on the destination system then
487 the numeric id from the source system is used instead.
489 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
490 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
491 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
493 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
494 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
495 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
496 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
497 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
498 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
501 dit(bf(--config FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
502 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
505 dit(bf(--port PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
506 rather than the default port 873.
508 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
509 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
510 algorithm is for your data. This option only works in conjunction with
511 the -v (verbose) option.
515 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
517 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
518 selection of what files to transfer and what files to skip.
520 rsync build a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
521 the command line. When a filename is encountered rsync then checks the
522 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
523 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
524 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
525 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
526 filename is not skipped.
528 The patterns themselves can take several forms. The rules are:
531 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
532 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
533 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
534 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
535 called foo anywhere in the tree.
537 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
538 directory, not a file, link or device.
540 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
541 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
542 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
545 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
546 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
547 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
548 only against the final component of the filename.
550 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
551 then it is always considered a include pattern, even if specified as
552 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
554 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
555 then it is always considered a exclude pattern, even if specified as
556 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
558 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
559 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
562 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
563 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
565 Here are some examples:
568 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
569 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
570 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
571 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
572 directories and C source files.
575 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
579 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
580 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
583 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
584 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
585 be used instead of the -e option.
587 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
588 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
589 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
590 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
592 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
593 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
595 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the users
596 default .cvsignore file.
612 times are transferred as unix time_t values
614 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
617 see also the comments on the --delete option
619 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
620 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
622 manpagesection(VERSION)
623 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
625 manpagesection(CREDITS)
627 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
630 The primary ftp site for rsync is
631 url(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync)(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync).
633 A WEB site is available at
634 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
636 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
638 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
639 Gailly and Mark Adler.
641 manpagesection(THANKS)
643 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
644 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
645 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
650 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
651 contacted via email at tridge@samba.anu.edu.au and
652 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au