1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
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 servers (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
87 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88 and destination paths must be local.
92 See the file README for installation instructions.
94 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
100 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
106 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
109 manpagesection(USAGE)
111 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
114 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
116 quote(rsync -t *.c foo:src/)
118 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122 differences. See the tech report for details.
124 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
126 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
130 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131 size of data portions of the transfer.
133 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
135 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
144 quote(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)
145 quote(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
147 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149 an improved copy command.
151 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
153 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
157 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
159 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
160 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
162 quote(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest)
164 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
165 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
166 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
167 to be a part of the filenames.
169 quote(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)
171 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
172 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
173 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
174 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
175 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
176 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
177 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
179 quote(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)
180 quote(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)
182 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
183 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
186 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
188 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
189 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
190 running on TCP port 873.
192 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
193 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
194 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
195 proxy connections to port 873.
197 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
201 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
202 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
204 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
207 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
208 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
210 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
211 specified files on the remote server is provided.
214 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
215 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
216 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
217 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
218 may be useful when scripting rsync.
220 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
221 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
223 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
225 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
226 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
227 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
228 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
229 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
230 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
233 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
234 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
235 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
236 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
239 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
240 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
242 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
244 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
245 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
247 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
249 An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
250 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
251 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
252 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
253 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
256 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
258 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
259 server configuration file.
261 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
262 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
263 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
264 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
266 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
267 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
269 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
271 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
273 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
274 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
276 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
278 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
281 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
285 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
288 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
292 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
293 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
294 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
296 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
299 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
301 this is launched from cron every few hours.
303 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
305 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
306 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
309 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
310 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
311 -c, --checksum always checksum
312 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
313 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
314 -R, --relative use relative path names
315 --no-relative turn off --relative
316 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
317 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
318 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
319 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
320 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
321 --inplace update the destination files in-place
322 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
323 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
324 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
325 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
326 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
327 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
328 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
329 -p, --perms preserve permissions
330 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
331 -g, --group preserve group
332 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
333 -t, --times preserve times
334 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
335 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
336 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
337 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
338 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
339 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
340 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
341 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
342 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
343 --existing only update files that already exist
344 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
345 --del an alias for --delete-during
346 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
347 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
348 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
349 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
350 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
351 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
352 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
353 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
354 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
355 --partial keep partially transferred files
356 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
357 --delay-updates update transferred files into place at end
358 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
359 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
360 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
361 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
362 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
363 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
364 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
365 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
366 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
367 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
368 -z, --compress compress file data
369 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
370 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
371 -F same as --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
372 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
373 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
374 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
375 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
376 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
377 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
378 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
379 --version print version number
380 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
381 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
382 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
383 --stats give some file transfer stats
384 --progress show progress during transfer
385 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
386 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
387 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
388 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
389 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
390 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
391 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
392 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
393 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
394 -h, --help show this help screen
397 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:
400 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
401 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
402 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
403 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
404 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
405 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
406 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
407 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
408 -h, --help show this help screen
413 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
414 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
415 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
416 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
420 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
423 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
425 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
426 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
427 single -v will give you information about what files are being
428 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
429 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
430 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
431 you are debugging rsync.
433 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
434 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
435 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
438 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
439 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
440 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
442 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
443 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
444 --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
445 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
446 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
449 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
450 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
451 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
452 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
453 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
454 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
456 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
457 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
458 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
459 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
460 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
462 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
463 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
466 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
467 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
470 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
471 recursively. See also --dirs (-d).
473 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
474 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
475 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
476 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
477 example, if you used the command
479 verb(rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
481 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
482 machine. If instead you used
484 verb(rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
486 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
487 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
488 path information that is sent, do something like this:
491 rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
493 That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
495 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
496 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
499 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
500 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
501 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
502 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
503 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
504 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
505 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
506 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
507 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
508 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
510 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
511 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
512 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
513 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
515 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
516 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
517 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
518 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
519 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
520 will keep their original filenames).
521 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
522 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
524 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
525 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
526 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
528 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
529 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
530 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
531 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
533 In the current implementation of --update, a difference of file format
534 between the sender and receiver is always
535 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
536 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
537 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
538 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
539 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
541 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
542 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
543 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
544 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
545 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
546 with --backup, since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
547 basis file for the transfer.
549 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
550 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
553 The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
554 the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir and --delay-updates.
555 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 --inplace was also incompatible with --compare-dest,
556 --copy-dest, and --link-dest.
558 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
559 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
560 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
561 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
564 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
565 are encountered. Unlike --recursive, a directory's contents are not copied
566 unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
567 name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
568 --recursive option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
569 output a message to that effect for each one).
571 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
572 symlink on the destination.
574 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
575 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
576 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
577 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
578 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
579 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
580 an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
581 will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
583 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
584 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
585 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
586 source path itself when --relative is used.
588 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
589 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
590 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
591 give unexpected results.
593 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
594 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
595 option hard links are treated like regular files.
597 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
598 are in the list of files being sent.
600 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
602 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
603 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
606 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
607 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
608 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
609 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
610 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
611 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
613 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
616 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
617 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
619 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
620 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
621 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
622 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
624 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
625 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
626 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
627 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
628 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
630 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
631 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
632 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
633 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
634 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
635 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
637 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
638 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
639 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
641 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
642 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
643 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
644 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
645 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
646 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
647 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
649 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
650 it is preserving modification times (see --times). If NFS is sharing
651 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use -O.
653 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
654 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
656 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
657 up less space on the destination.
659 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
660 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
661 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
663 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
664 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
665 contents of only one filesystem.
667 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
668 only update files that already exist on the destination.
670 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
671 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
674 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
675 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
676 to prevent disasters.
678 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
679 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
680 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
681 may be a fractional value (e.g. "--max-size=1.5m").
683 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
684 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
685 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
686 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
687 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
688 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
689 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
690 excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
692 This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
694 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
695 to run first using the --dry-run option (-n) to see what files would be
696 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
698 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
699 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
700 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
701 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
702 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
704 The --delete option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
705 without conflict, as well as --delete-excluded. However, if none of the
706 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
707 --delete-before algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
708 --delete-during algorithm. See also --delete-after.
710 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
711 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if --delete
712 or --delete-excluded is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
713 See --delete (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
715 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
716 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
717 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
718 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if --timeout was
721 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
722 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
723 a faster method than chosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
724 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
725 See --delete (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
727 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
728 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
729 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
730 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
732 See --delete (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
734 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
735 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
736 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
737 See --delete (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
739 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
740 even when there are I/O errors.
742 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
743 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
744 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
745 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
747 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
748 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
749 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
751 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
752 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
753 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
754 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
756 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
757 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
758 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
759 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
760 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
761 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
763 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
764 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
766 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
768 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
769 options in their .ssh/config file.)
771 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
772 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
774 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
776 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
777 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
778 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
781 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
782 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
783 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
784 a file should be ignored.
786 The exclude list is initialized to:
788 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
789 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
790 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
792 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
793 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
794 are delimited by whitespace).
796 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
797 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
798 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
800 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
801 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
802 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
804 You may use as many --filter options on the command line as you like
805 to build up the list of files to exclude.
807 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
809 dit(bf(-F)) The -F option is a shorthand for adding two --filter rules to
810 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
813 --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
816 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
817 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
818 files in the transfer. If -F is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
822 --filter='- .rsync-filter'
825 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
827 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
830 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
831 --filter option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
832 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
834 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
836 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
837 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
838 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
839 ';' or '#' are ignored.
840 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
842 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
843 --filter option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
844 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
846 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
848 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
850 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
852 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
853 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
854 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
855 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
856 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
857 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
858 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
859 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
860 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
863 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
864 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
865 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
868 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
870 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
871 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
872 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
873 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
874 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
875 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
876 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
878 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
879 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
880 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
881 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
882 transfer". For example:
884 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
886 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
887 was located on the remote "src" host.
889 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
890 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
891 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, --files-from, and any
892 merged files specified in a --filter rule.
893 It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
894 file are split on whitespace).
896 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
897 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
898 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
899 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
901 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
902 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
903 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
904 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
905 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
906 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
907 have changed from an earlier backup.
909 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --compare-dest directories may be
910 provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
911 finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
912 and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
914 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
915 See also --copy-dest and --link-dest.
917 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
918 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
919 directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
920 useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
921 files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
922 successfully transferred.
924 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
925 See also --compare-dest and --link-dest.
927 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
928 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
929 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
930 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
934 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
937 Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one --link-dest option is
938 specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
939 the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
940 of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
942 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
943 See also --compare-dest and --copy-dest.
945 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
946 --link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
947 (or implied by -a). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the -o option
948 when sending to an old rsync.
950 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
951 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
952 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
953 same method that gzip uses.
955 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
956 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
957 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
958 information sent for matching data blocks.
960 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
961 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
964 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
965 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
966 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
967 option is not specified.
969 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
970 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
971 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
972 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
973 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
974 users and groups and what you can do about it.
976 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
977 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
978 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
980 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
981 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
982 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
983 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
984 option in the --daemon mode section.
986 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
987 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
988 rsync defaults to using
989 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
990 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
992 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
995 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
996 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
997 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
1000 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1001 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1002 algorithm is for your data.
1004 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1005 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1006 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1007 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1008 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1010 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
1011 put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
1012 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
1013 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
1014 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
1015 its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
1016 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
1017 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1019 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
1020 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1021 "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
1022 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
1023 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
1024 DIR was specified as a relative path).
1026 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
1027 --exclude of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1028 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1029 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1030 the above --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
1031 rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1032 supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1033 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1034 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1035 a trailing --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
1037 IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users or it
1038 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1040 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1041 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force --partial to be
1042 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial is
1043 specified. For instance, instead of using --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
1044 along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1045 environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
1046 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the --partial
1047 option does not look for this environment value is (1) when --inplace was
1048 specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir), or (2) when
1049 --delay-updates was specified (see below).
1051 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1052 updated file into the file's partial-dir (see above) until the end of the
1053 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1054 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1055 atomic. If you don't specify the --partial-dir option, this option will
1056 cause it to default to ".~tmp~" (RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR is not consulted for
1057 this value). Conflicts with --inplace.
1059 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1060 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1061 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1062 you should not use an absolute path to --partial-dir unless there is no
1063 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1064 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1067 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1068 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses --link-dest and a
1069 parallel hierarchy of files).
1071 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1072 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1074 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
1076 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1079 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
1082 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1083 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1084 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1085 remaining in this transfer.
1087 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1090 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
1093 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1094 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1095 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1096 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1097 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1099 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
1100 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1101 transfer that may be interrupted.
1103 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1104 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1105 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1106 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1107 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1110 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1111 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1112 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1113 come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "-r --exclude="/*/*"
1114 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1115 non-recursive listing.
1117 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1118 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1119 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1120 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1121 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1122 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1123 of zero specifies no limit.
1125 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1126 another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
1127 section for details.
1129 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1130 file previously generated by --write-batch.
1131 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1132 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1134 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1135 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1136 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1137 rsync daemon. See also these options in the --daemon mode section.
1139 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1140 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1141 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1142 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1143 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1144 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1145 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1146 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1151 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1155 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1156 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1157 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1159 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1160 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1161 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1162 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1163 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1166 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1167 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
1168 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
1169 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1170 in conjunction with the --config option. See also the "address" global
1171 option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1173 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1174 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1175 The client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value, but their
1176 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1177 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1179 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1180 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
1181 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1182 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1183 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1185 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1186 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1187 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1188 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1189 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1190 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1191 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1194 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1195 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1196 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1198 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1199 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1200 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1201 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1202 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1203 try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
1205 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after --daemon, print a short help
1206 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1210 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1212 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1213 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1214 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1215 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1217 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1218 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1219 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1220 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1221 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1222 filename is not skipped.
1224 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1225 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1229 it() xMODIFIERS RULE
1233 The 'x' is a single-letter that specifies the kind of rule to create. It
1234 can have trailing modifiers, and is separated from the RULE by one of the
1235 following characters: a single space, an equal-sign (=), or an underscore
1236 (_). Here are the available rule prefixes:
1239 - specifies an exclude pattern.
1240 + specifies an include pattern.
1241 . specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
1242 : specifies a per-directory merge-file.
1243 ! clears the current include/exclude list
1246 Note that the --include/--exclude command-line options do not allow the
1247 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1248 specification of include/exclude patterns and the "!" token (not to
1249 mention the comment lines when reading rules from a file). If a pattern
1250 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1251 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1252 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A --filter option, on
1253 the other hand, must always contain one of the prefixes above.
1255 Note also that the --filter, --include, and --exclude options take one
1256 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1257 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the --filter option, or
1258 the --include-from/--exclude-from options.
1260 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1261 comment lines that start with a "#".
1263 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1265 You can include and exclude files by specifing patterns using the "+" and
1266 "-" filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). These
1267 rules specify a pattern that is matched against the names of the files
1268 that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several forms:
1272 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1273 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1274 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1275 regular expressions.
1276 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1277 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1278 per-directory rule).
1279 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1280 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1282 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1283 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1284 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1285 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1286 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1289 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1290 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1292 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1293 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1294 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1296 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1297 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1299 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1300 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1301 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1302 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1303 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1304 can actually be any portion of a path fomr the starting directory on
1309 Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by
1310 -a), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1311 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1312 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1313 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1314 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1315 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1316 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1317 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1318 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1319 For instance, this won't work:
1322 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1327 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1328 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1329 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1330 to be included by using a single rule: "+_*/" (put it somewhere before the
1331 "-_*" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1332 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1338 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1339 + /file-also-included
1343 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1346 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1347 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1348 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1349 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1350 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1351 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1352 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1353 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1354 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1355 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1356 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1357 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1360 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1362 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1363 "." or a ":" filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
1366 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1367 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1368 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1369 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1370 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1371 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1372 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1373 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1374 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1375 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1381 . /etc/rsync/default.rules
1383 :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
1386 The following modifiers are accepted after the "." or ":":
1389 it() A "-" specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1390 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1393 it() A "+" specifies that the file should consist of only include
1394 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1397 it() A "C" is a shorthand for the modifiers "sn-", which makes the
1398 parsing compatible with the way CVS parses their exclude files. If no
1399 filename is specified, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1401 it() A "e" will exclude the merge-file from the transfer; e.g.
1402 ":e_.rules" is like ":_.rules" and "-_.rules".
1404 it() An "n" specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1406 it() An "s" specifies that the rules are split on all whitespace instead
1407 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1408 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1409 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that "-" or "+" was not
1410 specified to turn off the parsing of prefixes).
1413 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1414 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1415 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1416 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1417 inherited rules. The entire set of per-dir rules is grouped together in
1418 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1419 per-dir rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1420 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1421 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1423 Another way to prevent a single per-dir rule from being inherited is to
1424 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1425 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1426 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the per-dir filter
1429 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via --filter=". file":
1432 . /home/user/.global-filter
1439 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1440 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1441 filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1442 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1445 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1446 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1447 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1448 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see -F):
1451 --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
1454 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1455 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1456 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1457 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1458 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1460 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1463 rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
1464 rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
1465 rsync -av --fitler=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
1468 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1469 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1470 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1471 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1472 a part of the transfer.
1474 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1475 you should use the rule ":C" -- this is a short-hand for the rule
1476 ":sn-_.cvsignore", and ensures that the .cvsignore file's contents are
1477 interpreted according to the same parsing rules that CVS uses. You can
1478 use this to affect where the --cvs-exclude (-C) option's inclusion of the
1479 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting a
1480 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1481 add the per-dir rule for the .cvignore file at the end of all your other
1482 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1486 cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
1492 rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
1495 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1496 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1497 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1498 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. (The
1499 global rules taken from the $HOME/.cvsignore file and from $CVSIGNORE are
1500 not repositioned from their spot at the end of your rules, however -- feel
1501 free to manually include $HOME/.cvsignore elsewhere in your rules.)
1503 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1505 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1506 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1507 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1508 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1509 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1510 out the parent's rules).
1512 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1514 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1515 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1516 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1517 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1518 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1519 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1521 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1522 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
1523 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1524 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1525 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1527 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1528 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1529 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1532 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1533 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1534 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1535 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1536 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1538 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1539 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1540 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1541 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1542 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1544 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1545 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1546 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1547 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1548 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1550 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1551 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1552 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1553 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1554 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1557 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1558 look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1559 (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1561 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1563 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1564 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1565 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1566 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1569 rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
1570 rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
1573 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1574 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1575 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1576 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use --delete-after,
1577 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1578 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1581 rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
1584 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1585 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1586 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1587 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1588 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1591 rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1592 --delete host:src/dir /dest
1595 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1596 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1597 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1598 per-directory merge rule.
1600 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1601 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1602 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1603 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1604 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1605 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1608 rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete host:src/dir /dest
1609 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
1612 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1614 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1615 of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1616 feel free to try this out.
1618 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1619 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1620 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1621 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1622 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1623 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1624 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1625 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1626 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1628 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1629 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1630 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1631 using the information stored in the batch file.
1633 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1634 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1635 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1636 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1637 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1638 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1639 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1640 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1642 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1643 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1644 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1645 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1646 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1651 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1653 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1657 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1658 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1661 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1662 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1663 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1664 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1665 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1669 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1670 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1671 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1673 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1674 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1676 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1677 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1678 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1679 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1680 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1681 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1687 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1688 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1689 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1690 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1691 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1692 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1693 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1694 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1695 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1696 option (when reading the batch).
1697 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1698 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1699 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1702 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1703 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1704 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1707 The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1710 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1711 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1712 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1714 --write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1715 --include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1716 without --delete-excluded.
1718 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1719 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1720 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1721 list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1722 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1723 to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1725 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1726 version uses a new implementation.
1728 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1730 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1731 link in the source directory.
1733 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1734 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1736 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1737 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1740 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1741 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1743 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1744 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1745 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1746 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1747 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1748 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1749 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1751 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1752 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1753 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1755 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1757 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1758 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1759 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1761 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1762 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1763 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1764 remote shell like this:
1767 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1770 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1771 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1772 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1773 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1774 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1775 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1776 for non-interactive logins.
1778 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1779 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1780 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1782 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1786 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1787 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1788 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1789 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1790 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1791 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1793 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1794 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1795 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1796 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1797 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1798 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1799 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1800 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1801 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1802 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1803 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1804 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1807 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1811 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1812 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1815 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1816 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1817 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1819 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1820 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1821 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1823 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1824 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1825 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1826 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1828 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1829 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1830 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1832 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1833 default .cvsignore file.
1839 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1845 manpagediagnostics()
1849 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1851 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1853 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1855 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1858 see also the comments on the --delete option
1860 Please report bugs! See the website at
1861 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1863 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1865 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1866 COPYING for details.
1868 A WEB site is available at
1869 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1870 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1873 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1874 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1876 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1878 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1879 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1881 manpagesection(THANKS)
1883 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1884 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1885 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1887 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1888 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1892 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1893 Many people have later contributed to it.
1895 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1896 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)