1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(28 Jul 2005)()()
3 manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync in daemon mode)
10 The rsyncd.conf file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when
11 run as an rsync daemon.
13 The rsyncd.conf file controls authentication, access, logging and
16 manpagesection(FILE FORMAT)
18 The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
19 name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next
20 module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
22 The file is line-based -- that is, each newline-terminated line represents
23 either a comment, a module name or a parameter.
25 Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
26 or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
27 whitespace in module and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
28 trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
29 within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
31 Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing
34 Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the
35 customary UNIX fashion.
37 The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
38 (no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
39 true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
42 manpagesection(LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON)
44 The rsync daemon is launched by specifying the bf(--daemon) option to
47 The daemon must run with root privileges if you wish to use chroot, to
48 bind to a port numbered under 1024 (as is the default 873), or to set
49 file ownership. Otherwise, it must just have permission to read and
50 write the appropriate data, log, and lock files.
52 You can launch it either via inetd, as a stand-alone daemon, or from
53 an rsync client via a remote shell. If run as a stand-alone daemon then
54 just run the command "bf(rsync --daemon)" from a suitable startup script.
56 When run via inetd you should add a line like this to /etc/services:
60 and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf:
62 verb( rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon)
64 Replace "/usr/bin/rsync" with the path to where you have rsync installed on
65 your system. You will then need to send inetd a HUP signal to tell it to
66 reread its config file.
68 Note that you should bf(not) send the rsync daemon a HUP signal to force
69 it to reread the tt(rsyncd.conf) file. The file is re-read on each client
72 manpagesection(GLOBAL OPTIONS)
74 The first parameters in the file (before a [module] header) are the
77 You may also include any module parameters in the global part of the
78 config file in which case the supplied value will override the
79 default for that parameter.
82 dit(bf(motd file)) The "motd file" option allows you to specify a
83 "message of the day" to display to clients on each connect. This
84 usually contains site information and any legal notices. The default
87 dit(bf(log file)) The "log file" option tells the rsync daemon to log
88 messages to that file rather than using syslog. This is particularly
89 useful on systems (such as AIX) where syslog() doesn't work for
90 chrooted programs. If the daemon fails to open to specified file, it
91 will fall back to using syslog and output an error about the failure.
92 (Note that a failure to open the specified log file used to be a fatal
95 dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write
96 its process ID to that file.
98 dit(bf(syslog facility)) The "syslog facility" option allows you to
99 specify the syslog facility name to use when logging messages from the
100 rsync daemon. You may use any standard syslog facility name which is
101 defined on your system. Common names are auth, authpriv, cron, daemon,
102 ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news, security, syslog, user, uucp, local0,
103 local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6 and local7. The default
106 dit(bf(port)) You can override the default port the daemon will listen on
107 by specifying this value (defaults to 873). This is ignored if the daemon
108 is being run by inetd, and is superseded by the bf(--port) command-line option.
110 dit(bf(address)) You can override the default IP address the daemon
111 will listen on by specifying this value. This is ignored if the daemon is
112 being run by inetd, and is superseded by the bf(--address) command-line option.
114 dit(bf(socket options)) This option can provide endless fun for people
115 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
116 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
117 slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
118 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
119 special socket options are set. These settings are superseded by the
120 bf(--sockopts) command-line option.
125 manpagesection(MODULE OPTIONS)
127 After the global options you should define a number of modules, each
128 module exports a directory tree as a symbolic name. Modules are
129 exported by specifying a module name in square brackets [module]
130 followed by the options for that module.
134 dit(bf(comment)) The "comment" option specifies a description string
135 that is displayed next to the module name when clients obtain a list
136 of available modules. The default is no comment.
138 dit(bf(path)) The "path" option specifies the directory in the daemon's
139 filesystem to make available in this module. You must specify this option
140 for each module in tt(rsyncd.conf).
142 dit(bf(use chroot)) If "use chroot" is true, the rsync daemon will chroot
143 to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has
144 the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security
145 holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
146 of not being able to follow symbolic links that are either absolute or outside
147 of the new root path, and of complicating the preservation of usernames and groups
148 (see below). When "use chroot" is false, for security reasons,
149 symlinks may only be relative paths pointing to other files within the root
150 path, and leading slashes are removed from most absolute paths (options
151 such as bf(--backup-dir), bf(--compare-dest), etc. interpret an absolute path as
152 rooted in the module's "path" dir, just as if chroot was specified).
153 The default for "use chroot" is true.
155 In order to preserve usernames and groupnames, rsync needs to be able to
156 use the standard library functions for looking up names and IDs (i.e.
157 getpwuid(), getgrgid(), getpwname(), and getgrnam()). This means a
158 process in the chroot namespace will need to have access to the resources
159 used by these library functions (traditionally /etc/passwd and
160 /etc/group). If these resources are not available, rsync will only be
161 able to copy the IDs, just as if the bf(--numeric-ids) option had been
164 Note that you are free to setup user/group information in the chroot area
165 differently from your normal system. For example, you could abbreviate
166 the list of users and groups. Also, you can protect this information from
167 being downloaded/uploaded by adding an exclude rule to the rsyncd.conf file
168 (e.g. "exclude = /etc/**"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
169 is a relatively new feature in rsync, so make sure your daemon is
170 at least 2.6.3 to effect this. Also note that it is safest to exclude a
171 directory and all its contents combining the rule "/some/dir/" with the
172 rule "/some/dir/**" just to be sure that rsync will not allow deeper
173 access to some of the excluded files inside the directory (rsync tries to
174 do this automatically, but you might as well specify both to be extra
177 dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
178 specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
179 Any clients connecting when the maximum has been reached will receive a
180 message telling them to try later. The default is 0 which means no limit.
181 See also the "lock file" option.
183 dit(bf(max verbosity)) The "max verbosity" option allows you to control
184 the maximum amount of verbose information that you'll allow the daemon to
185 generate (since the information goes into the log file). The default is 1,
186 which allows the client to request one level of verbosity.
188 dit(bf(lock file)) The "lock file" option specifies the file to use to
189 support the "max connections" option. The rsync daemon uses record
190 locking on this file to ensure that the max connections limit is not
191 exceeded for the modules sharing the lock file.
192 The default is tt(/var/run/rsyncd.lock).
194 dit(bf(read only)) The "read only" option determines whether clients
195 will be able to upload files or not. If "read only" is true then any
196 attempted uploads will fail. If "read only" is false then uploads will
197 be possible if file permissions on the daemon side allow them. The default
198 is for all modules to be read only.
200 dit(bf(write only)) The "write only" option determines whether clients
201 will be able to download files or not. If "write only" is true then any
202 attempted downloads will fail. If "write only" is false then downloads
203 will be possible if file permissions on the daemon side allow them. The
204 default is for this option to be disabled.
206 dit(bf(list)) The "list" option determines if this module should be
207 listed when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By
208 setting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is
209 for modules to be listable.
211 dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user ID that
212 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
213 was run as root. In combination with the "gid" option this determines what
214 file permissions are available. The default is uid -2, which is normally
217 dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group ID that
218 file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
219 was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
220 which is normally the group "nobody".
222 dit(bf(filter)) The "filter" option allows you to specify a space-separated
223 list of filter rules that the daemon will not allow to be read or written.
224 This is only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these
225 patterns with the bf(--filter) option. Only one "filter" option may be
226 specified, but it may contain as many rules as you like, including
227 merge-file rules. Note that per-directory merge-file rules do not provide
228 as much protection as global rules, but they can be used to make bf(--delete)
229 work better when a client downloads the daemon's files (if the per-dir
230 merge files are included in the transfer).
232 dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a
233 space-separated list of patterns that the daemon will not allow to be read
234 or written. This is only superficially equivalent to the client
235 specifying these patterns with the bf(--exclude) option. Only one "exclude"
236 option may be specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to
237 specify exclude/include.
239 Because this exclude list is not passed to the client it only applies on
240 the daemon: that is, it excludes files received by a client when receiving
241 from a daemon and files deleted on a daemon when sending to a daemon, but
242 it doesn't exclude files from being deleted on a client when receiving
245 dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename
246 on the daemon that contains exclude patterns, one per line.
247 This is only superficially equivalent
248 to the client specifying the bf(--exclude-from) option with an equivalent file.
249 See the "exclude" option above.
251 dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a
252 space-separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is
253 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with
254 the bf(--include) option because it applies only on the daemon. This is
255 useful as it allows you to build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
256 Only one "include" option may be specified, but you can use "+" and "-"
257 before patterns to switch include/exclude. See the "exclude" option
260 dit(bf(include from)) The "include from" option specifies a filename
261 on the daemon that contains include patterns, one per line. This is
262 only superficially equivalent to the client specifying the
263 bf(--include-from) option with a equivalent file.
264 See the "exclude" option above.
266 dit(bf(auth users)) The "auth users" option specifies a comma and
267 space-separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to
268 this module. The usernames do not need to exist on the local
269 system. The usernames may also contain shell wildcard characters. If
270 "auth users" is set then the client will be challenged to supply a
271 username and password to connect to the module. A challenge response
272 authentication protocol is used for this exchange. The plain text
273 usernames and passwords are stored in the file specified by the
274 "secrets file" option. The default is for all users to be able to
275 connect without a password (this is called "anonymous rsync").
277 See also the "CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL
278 PROGRAM" section in rsync(1) for information on how handle an
279 rsyncd.conf-level username that differs from the remote-shell-level
280 username when using a remote shell to connect to an rsync daemon.
282 dit(bf(secrets file)) The "secrets file" option specifies the name of
283 a file that contains the username:password pairs used for
284 authenticating this module. This file is only consulted if the "auth
285 users" option is specified. The file is line based and contains
286 username:password pairs separated by a single colon. Any line starting
287 with a hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped. The passwords
288 can contain any characters but be warned that many operating systems
289 limit the length of passwords that can be typed at the client end, so
290 you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work.
292 There is no default for the "secrets file" option, you must choose a name
293 (such as tt(/etc/rsyncd.secrets)). The file must normally not be readable
294 by "other"; see "strict modes".
296 dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
297 the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is
298 true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user ID other
299 than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is
300 false, the check is not performed. The default is true. This option
301 was added to accommodate rsync running on the Windows operating system.
303 dit(bf(hosts allow)) The "hosts allow" option allows you to specify a
304 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
305 hostname and IP address. If none of the patterns match then the
306 connection is rejected.
308 Each pattern can be in one of five forms:
311 it() a dotted decimal IPv4 address of the form a.b.c.d, or an IPv6 address
312 of the form a:b:c::d:e:f. In this case the incoming machine's IP address
314 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/n where ipaddr is the IP address
315 and n is the number of one bits in the netmask. All IP addresses which
316 match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
317 it() an address/mask in the form ipaddr/maskaddr where ipaddr is the
318 IP address and maskaddr is the netmask in dotted decimal notation for IPv4,
319 or similar for IPv6, e.g. ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:: instead of /64. All IP
320 addresses which match the masked IP address will be allowed in.
321 it() a hostname. The hostname as determined by a reverse lookup will
322 be matched (case insensitive) against the pattern. Only an exact
324 it() a hostname pattern using wildcards. These are matched using the
325 same rules as normal unix filename matching. If the pattern matches
326 then the client is allowed in.
329 Note IPv6 link-local addresses can have a scope in the address specification:
332 tt( fe80::1%link1)nl()
333 tt( fe80::%link1/64)nl()
334 tt( fe80::%link1/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::)nl()
337 You can also combine "hosts allow" with a separate "hosts deny"
338 option. If both options are specified then the "hosts allow" option s
339 checked first and a match results in the client being able to
340 connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a match means
341 that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the
342 "hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then it is allowed to
345 The default is no "hosts allow" option, which means all hosts can connect.
347 dit(bf(hosts deny)) The "hosts deny" option allows you to specify a
348 list of patterns that are matched against a connecting clients
349 hostname and IP address. If the pattern matches then the connection is
350 rejected. See the "hosts allow" option for more information.
352 The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can connect.
354 dit(bf(ignore errors)) The "ignore errors" option tells rsyncd to
355 ignore I/O errors on the daemon when deciding whether to run the delete
356 phase of the transfer. Normally rsync skips the bf(--delete) step if any
357 I/O errors have occurred in order to prevent disastrous deletion due
358 to a temporary resource shortage or other I/O error. In some cases this
359 test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this
362 dit(bf(ignore nonreadable)) This tells the rsync daemon to completely
363 ignore files that are not readable by the user. This is useful for
364 public archives that may have some non-readable files among the
365 directories, and the sysadmin doesn't want those files to be seen at all.
367 dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file
368 logging of downloads and uploads in a format somewhat similar to that
369 used by ftp daemons. The daemon always logs the transfer at the end, so
370 if a transfer is aborted, no mention will be made in the log file.
372 If you want to customize the log lines, see the "log format" option.
374 dit(bf(log format)) The "log format" option allows you to specify the
375 format used for logging file transfers when transfer logging is enabled.
376 The format is a text string containing embedded single-character escape
377 sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character. An optional numeric
378 field width may also be specified between the percent and the escape
379 letter (e.g. "%-50n %8l %07p").
381 The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] "
382 is always prefixed when using the "log file" option.
383 (A perl script that will summarize this default log format is included
384 in the rsync source code distribution in the "support" subdirectory:
387 The single-character escapes that are understood are as follows:
390 it() %h for the remote host name
391 it() %a for the remote IP address
392 it() %l for the length of the file in bytes
393 it() %p for the process ID of this rsync session
394 it() %o for the operation, which is "send", "recv", or "del."
395 (the latter includes the trailing period)
396 it() %f for the filename (long form on sender; no trailing "/")
397 it() %n for the filename (short form; trailing "/" on dir)
398 it() %L either the string " -> SYMLINK", or " => HARDLINK" or an
399 empty string (where bf(SYMLINK) or bf(HARDLINK) is a filename)
400 it() %P for the module path
401 it() %m for the module name
402 it() %t for the current date time
403 it() %u for the authenticated username (or the null string)
404 it() %b for the number of bytes actually transferred
405 it() %c when sending files this gives the number of checksum bytes
406 received for this file
407 it() %i an itemized list of what is being updated
410 For a list of what the characters mean that are output by "%i", see the
411 bf(--itemize-changes) option in the rsync manpage.
413 Note that some of the logged output changes when talking with older
414 rsync versions. For instance, deleted files were only output as verbose
415 messages prior to rsync 2.6.4.
417 dit(bf(timeout)) The "timeout" option allows you to override the
418 clients choice for I/O timeout for this module. Using this option you
419 can ensure that rsync won't wait on a dead client forever. The timeout
420 is specified in seconds. A value of zero means no timeout and is the
421 default. A good choice for anonymous rsync daemons may be 600 (giving
422 a 10 minute timeout).
424 dit(bf(refuse options)) The "refuse options" option allows you to
425 specify a space-separated list of rsync command line options that will
426 be refused by your rsync daemon.
427 You may specify the full option name, its one-letter abbreviation, or a
428 wild-card string that matches multiple options.
429 For example, this would refuse bf(--checksum) (bf(-c)) and all the various
432 quote(tt( refuse options = c delete))
434 The reason the above refuses all delete options is that the options imply
435 bf(--delete), and implied options are refused just like explicit options.
436 As an additional safety feature, the refusal of "delete" also refuses
437 bf(remove-sent-files) when the daemon is the sender; if you want the latter
438 without the former, instead refuse "delete-*" -- that refuses all the
439 delete modes without affecting bf(--remove-sent-files).
441 When an option is refused, the daemon prints an error message and exits.
442 To prevent all compression, you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
443 instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a
444 client that requests compression.
446 dit(bf(dont compress)) The "dont compress" option allows you to select
447 filenames based on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed
448 during transfer. Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage so it
449 is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well,
450 such as already compressed files.
452 The "dont compress" option takes a space-separated list of
453 case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
454 of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
456 The default setting is tt(*.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz)
458 dit(bf(pre-xfer exec), bf(post-xfer exec)) You may specify a command to be run
459 before and/or after the transfer. If the bf(pre-xfer exec) command fails, the
460 transfer is aborted before it begins.
462 The following environment variables will be set, though some are
463 specific to the pre-xfer or the post-xfer environment:
466 it() bf(RSYNC_MODULE_NAME): The name of the module being accessed.
467 it() bf(RSYNC_MODULE_PATH): The path configured for the module.
468 it() bf(RSYNC_HOST_ADDR): The accessing host's IP address.
469 it() bf(RSYNC_HOST_NAME): The accessing host's name.
470 it() bf(RSYNC_USER_NAME): The accessing user's name (empty if no user).
471 it() bf(RSYNC_REQUEST): (pre-xfer only) The module/path info specified
472 by the user (note that the user can specify multiple source files,
473 so the request can be something like "mod/path1 mod/path2", etc.).
474 it() bf(RSYNC_ARG#): (pre-xfer only) The pre-request arguments are set
475 in these numbered values. RSYNC_ARG0 is always "rsyncd", and the last
476 value contains a single period.
477 it() bf(RSYNC_EXIT_STATUS): (post-xfer only) rsync's exit value. This will be 0 for a
478 successful run, a positive value for an error that rsync returned
479 (e.g. 23=partial xfer), or a -1 if rsync failed to exit properly.
480 it() bf(RSYNC_RAW_STATUS): (post-xfer only) the raw exit value from waitpid().
483 Even though the commands can be associated with a particular module, they
484 are run using the permissions of the user that started the daemon (not the
485 module's uid/gid setting) without any chroot restrictions.
489 manpagesection(AUTHENTICATION STRENGTH)
491 The authentication protocol used in rsync is a 128 bit MD4 based
492 challenge response system. This is fairly weak protection, though (with
493 at least one brute-force hash-finding algorithm publicly available), so
494 if you want really top-quality security, then I recommend that you run
495 rsync over ssh. (Yes, a future version of rsync will switch over to a
496 stronger hashing method.)
498 Also note that the rsync daemon protocol does not currently provide any
499 encryption of the data that is transferred over the connection. Only
500 authentication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want
503 Future versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and
504 encryption, but that is still being investigated.
506 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
508 A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp area at
509 tt(/home/ftp) would be:
514 comment = ftp export area
517 A more sophisticated example would be:
524 syslog facility = local5
525 pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid
529 comment = whole ftp area (approx 6.1 GB)
532 path = /var/ftp/pub/samba
533 comment = Samba ftp area (approx 300 MB)
536 path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync
537 comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB)
540 path = /public_html/samba
541 comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB)
545 comment = CVS repository (requires authentication)
546 auth users = tridge, susan
547 secrets file = /etc/rsyncd.secrets
550 The /etc/rsyncd.secrets file would look something like this:
553 tt(tridge:mypass)nl()
554 tt(susan:herpass)nl()
559 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
569 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
570 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
572 manpagesection(VERSION)
574 This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
576 manpagesection(CREDITS)
578 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
581 The primary ftp site for rsync is
582 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
584 A WEB site is available at
585 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
587 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
589 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
590 Gailly and Mark Adler.
592 manpagesection(THANKS)
594 Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the rsync
595 daemon. Thanks to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and
600 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
601 Many people have later contributed to it.
603 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
604 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)