4 rsync is a replacement for rcp that has many more features.
6 rsync uses the "rsync algorithm" which provides a very fast method for
7 bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the
8 differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both
9 sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand.
10 At first glance this may seem impossible because the calculation of
11 diffs between two files normally requires local access to both
14 A technical report describing the rsync algorithm is included with
21 Basically you use rsync just like rcp, but rsync has many additional options.
23 Here is a brief description of available options:
25 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
26 -c, --checksum always checksum
27 -a, --archive archive mode (same as -rlptDog)
28 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
29 -R, --relative use relative path names
30 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
31 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
32 -l, --links preserve soft links
33 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
34 -p, --perms preserve permissions
35 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
36 -g, --group preserve group
37 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
38 -t, --times preserve times
39 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
40 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
41 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
42 -B, --block-size SIZE checksum blocking size
43 -e, --rsh COMMAND specify rsh replacement
44 --rsync-path PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
45 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
46 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
47 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
48 -z, --compress compress file data
49 --exclude FILE exclude file FILE
50 --exclude-from FILE exclude files listed in FILE
51 --suffix SUFFIX override backup suffix
52 --version print version number
58 Rsync uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to be setuid
59 and requires no special privilages for installation. It does not
60 require a inetd entry or a daemon. You must, however, have a working
61 rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is recommended for its security
64 To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a
65 Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type
68 Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and
69 remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!
75 There is a mailing list for the discussion of rsync and its
76 applications. It is open to anyone to join. I will announce new
77 versions on this list.
79 To join the mailing list send mail to listproc@samba.anu.edu.au with
80 no subject and a body of "subscribe rsync Your Name".
82 To send mail to everyone on the list send it to rsync@samba.anu.edu.au
88 If you have web access then please look at
89 http://samba.anu.edu.au/cgi-bin/rsync
91 This will give you access to the bug tracking system used by the
92 developers of rsync and will allow you to look at other bug reports or
93 submit a new bug report.
95 If you don't have web access then mail bug reports to
96 rsync-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au or (if you think it will be of interest to
97 lots of people) send it to rsync@samba.anu.edu.au
103 If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the
104 source code repository then you can use anonymous cvs. You will need a
105 recent version of cvs then use the following commands:
107 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@samba.anu.edu.au:/cvsroot login
110 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@samba.anu.edu.au:/cvsroot co rsync
112 Look at the cvs documentation for more details.
118 Rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras, and is
119 available under the GPL.
121 Andrew.Tridgell@anu.edu.au
128 The main ftp site for rsync is ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync
130 Mirrors are available at:
132 ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/unix/rsync
133 ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/unix/admin/rsync