1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(6 Nov 2006)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
24 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
25 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
26 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
29 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
30 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
31 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
32 report that accompanies this package.
34 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
37 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
38 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
39 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
40 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
41 it() does not require super-user privileges
42 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
43 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
47 manpagesection(GENERAL)
49 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
50 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
52 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
53 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
54 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
55 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
56 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
57 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
58 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
59 "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
60 an exception to this latter rule).
62 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
63 destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
65 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
66 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
70 See the file README for installation instructions.
72 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
73 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
74 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
75 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
76 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
78 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
79 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
81 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
86 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
87 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
89 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
91 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
93 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
94 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
95 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
96 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
97 differences. See the tech report for details.
99 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
101 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
102 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
103 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
104 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
105 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
106 size of data portions of the transfer.
108 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
110 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
111 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
112 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
113 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
114 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
115 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
116 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
120 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
121 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
124 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
125 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
126 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
129 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
130 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
133 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
134 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
135 an improved copy command.
137 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
138 particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
140 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
142 See the following section for more details.
144 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
146 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
147 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
149 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
151 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
152 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
153 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
154 to be a part of the filenames.
156 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
158 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
159 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
160 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
161 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
162 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
163 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
164 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
167 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
168 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
171 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
172 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
174 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
176 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
177 In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
178 using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
179 the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
180 CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
182 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
186 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
187 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
188 it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
189 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
191 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
192 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
193 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
194 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
195 it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
198 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
200 verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
202 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
203 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
204 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
205 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
206 may be useful when scripting rsync.
208 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
209 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
211 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
212 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
213 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
214 proxy connections to port 873.
216 manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
218 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
219 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
220 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
221 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
222 a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
223 home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
224 daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
225 the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
226 change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
227 transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
228 configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
229 connections from "localhost".)
231 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
232 connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
233 rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
234 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
235 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
236 will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
238 verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
240 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
241 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
242 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
243 give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
244 this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
246 verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
248 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
249 used to log-in to the "module".
251 manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
253 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
254 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
255 to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
256 For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
257 socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
258 file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
259 daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
261 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
262 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
264 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
266 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
268 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
269 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
271 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
273 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
276 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
280 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
282 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
285 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
286 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
287 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
289 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
292 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
294 This is launched from cron every few hours.
296 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
298 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
299 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
300 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
301 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
302 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
303 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
304 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
305 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
306 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
307 -R, --relative use relative path names
308 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
309 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
310 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
311 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
312 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
313 --inplace update destination files in-place
314 --append append data onto shorter files
315 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
316 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
317 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
318 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
319 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
320 -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
321 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
322 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
323 -p, --perms preserve permissions
324 -E, --executability preserve executability
325 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
326 -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
327 -g, --group preserve group
328 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
329 --specials preserve special files
330 -D same as --devices --specials
331 -t, --times preserve times
332 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
333 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
334 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
335 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
336 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
337 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
338 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
339 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
340 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
341 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
342 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
343 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
344 --del an alias for --delete-during
345 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
346 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
347 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
348 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
349 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
350 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
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 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
356 --partial keep partially transferred files
357 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
358 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
359 -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
360 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
361 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
362 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
363 --size-only skip files that match in size
364 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
365 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
366 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
367 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
368 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
369 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
370 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
371 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
372 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
373 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
374 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
375 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
376 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
377 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
378 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
379 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
380 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
381 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
382 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
383 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
384 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
385 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
386 --stats give some file-transfer stats
387 -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
388 -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
389 --progress show progress during transfer
390 -P same as --partial --progress
391 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
392 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
393 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
394 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
395 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
396 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
397 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
398 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
399 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
400 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
401 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
402 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
403 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
404 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
405 --version print version number
406 (-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
408 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
410 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
411 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
412 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
413 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
414 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
415 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
416 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
417 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
418 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
419 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
420 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
421 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
422 -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
426 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
427 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
428 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
429 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
433 dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
434 available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
435 versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
436 option without any other args.
438 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
440 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
441 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
442 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
443 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
444 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
445 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
446 you are debugging rsync.
448 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
449 a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
450 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
451 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
452 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
453 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
454 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
455 any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
457 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
458 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
459 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
462 dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
463 by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
464 message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
465 that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
466 a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
467 request the list of modules from the daemon.
469 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
470 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
471 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
474 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
475 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
476 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
477 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
478 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
481 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
482 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
483 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
484 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
485 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
486 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
487 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
489 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum em(every)
490 regular file using a 128-bit MD4 checksum. It does this during the initial
491 file-system scan as it builds the list of all available files. The receiver
492 then checksums its version of each file (if it exists and it has the same
493 size as its sender-side counterpart) in order to decide which files need to
494 be updated: files with either a changed size or a changed checksum are
495 selected for transfer. Since this whole-file checksumming of all files on
496 both sides of the connection occurs in addition to the automatic checksum
497 verifications that occur during a file's transfer, this option can be quite
500 Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was correctly
501 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking its whole-file checksum, but
502 that automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
503 option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
505 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
506 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
507 everything (with -H being a notable omission).
508 The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
509 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
511 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
512 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
515 dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
516 the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
517 only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
518 bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
519 (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
520 specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
521 (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
523 For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
524 bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
525 could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
527 The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
528 bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
529 Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
530 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
531 changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
534 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
535 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
537 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
538 incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
539 transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
540 completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
541 does not change a non-recursive transfer (e.g. when using a fully-specified
542 bf(--files-from) list). It is also only possible when both ends of the
543 transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
545 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
546 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
547 bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), bf(--delay-updates), and bf(--hard-links).
548 Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
549 bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
550 (use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
551 explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
552 than using bf(--delete-after).
554 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
555 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
556 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
557 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
558 example, if you used this command:
560 quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
562 ... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
563 machine. If instead you used
565 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
567 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
568 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
569 path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
570 a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
571 insert a dot and a slash into the source path, like this:
573 quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
575 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
576 dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
577 (2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
578 source path. For example, when pushing files:
580 quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
582 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
583 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
584 If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
588 tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
589 tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
592 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
593 bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
594 directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
595 means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
596 left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
597 created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
598 elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
599 one side of the transfer, and a real directory on the other side.
601 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
602 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
603 are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
604 "bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
605 delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
606 the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
607 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
608 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
609 preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
610 affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
612 In a similar but opposite scenario, if the transfer of "path/foo/file" is
613 requested and "path/foo" is a symlink on the sending side, running without
614 bf(--no-implied-dirs) would cause rsync to transform "path/foo" on the
615 receiving side into an identical symlink, and then attempt to transfer
616 "path/foo/file", which might fail if the duplicated symlink did not point
617 to a directory on the receiving side. Another way to avoid this sending of
618 a symlink as an implied directory is to use bf(--copy-unsafe-links), or
619 bf(--copy-dirlinks) (both of which also affect symlinks in the rest of the
620 transfer -- see their descriptions for full details).
622 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
623 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
624 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
625 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
627 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
628 bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
629 also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
630 filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
631 (e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
632 deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
633 need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
634 in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
635 your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
636 rule would never be reached).
638 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
639 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
640 side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
641 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
642 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
643 will keep their original filenames).
645 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
646 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
647 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
649 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
650 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
651 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
652 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
654 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
655 between the sender and receiver is always
656 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
657 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
658 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
659 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
660 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
662 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
663 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
664 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
665 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
666 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
667 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
668 basis file for the transfer.
670 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
671 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
674 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
675 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
676 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
679 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
680 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
681 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
682 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
685 dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
686 the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
687 the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
688 side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
689 resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
690 Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
691 file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
692 Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
693 bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
696 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
697 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
698 unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
699 (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
700 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
701 output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
702 bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
704 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
705 symlink on the destination.
707 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
708 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
709 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
710 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
711 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
712 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
713 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
714 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
716 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
717 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
718 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
719 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
720 additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
722 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
723 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
724 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
725 give unexpected results.
727 dit(bf(-K, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
728 a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
729 useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
730 they would be using bf(--copy-links).
732 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
733 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
734 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
735 bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
737 See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
740 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
741 a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
742 matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
743 receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
745 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
746 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
747 bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
748 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
749 bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
752 See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
754 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
755 the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
756 side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
757 as though they were separate files.
759 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
760 are in the list of files being sent.
762 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
763 destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
764 also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
765 be the source permissions.)
767 When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
770 it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
771 permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
772 the execute permission for the file.
773 it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
774 file's permissions masked with the receiving end's umask setting, and
775 their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
776 directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
779 Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
780 rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
781 such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
783 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
784 permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
785 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
786 bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
787 all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
788 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
789 putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
790 and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
792 quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
794 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
796 quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
798 (Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
799 the "--no-*" options.)
801 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
802 directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
803 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
804 newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
805 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. (Keep in
806 mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects this
809 dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
810 executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
811 not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
812 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
813 executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
814 modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
817 it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
819 it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
820 has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
823 If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
825 dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
826 comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
827 transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
828 that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
829 can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
831 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
832 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
833 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
834 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
836 quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
838 It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
839 additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
841 See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
842 permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
844 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
845 destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
846 receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
847 option to force rsync to attempt super-user activities).
848 Without this option, the owner is set to the invoking user on the
851 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
852 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
853 bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
855 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
856 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
857 program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
858 specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
859 is a member of will be preserved.
860 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
861 user on the receiving side.
863 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
864 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
865 (see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
867 dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
868 block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
869 This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
870 super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
872 dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
873 such as named sockets and fifos.
875 dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
877 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
878 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
879 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
880 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
881 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
882 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
883 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
885 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
886 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
887 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
888 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
890 dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
891 activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
892 activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
893 all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
894 option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
895 for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
896 also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
897 being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
898 super-user can use bf(--no-super).
900 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
901 up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
902 not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
904 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
905 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
906 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
908 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
909 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
911 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
912 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
913 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
914 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
915 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
916 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
918 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
919 filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
920 to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
921 through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
922 the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
923 in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
926 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
927 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
928 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
929 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
931 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
932 bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
933 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
936 dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
937 creating files (including directories) that do not exist
938 yet on the destination. If this option is
939 combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
940 (which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete extraneous files).
942 dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
943 already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
944 directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
946 dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
947 side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
948 and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
950 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
951 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
952 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
953 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
954 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
955 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
956 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
957 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
958 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
959 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
961 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
962 was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
963 (bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
965 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
966 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
967 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
969 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
970 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
971 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
972 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
973 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
975 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
976 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
977 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
978 bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
979 the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
980 bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
982 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
983 side be done before the transfer starts.
984 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
986 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
987 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
988 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
989 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
990 specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
991 algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
992 memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
994 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
995 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
996 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
997 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
998 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1000 dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1001 side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
1002 completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1003 temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1004 is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1005 the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1006 using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1009 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1010 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1011 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1012 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
1013 current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1014 recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1015 transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1016 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1018 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1019 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
1020 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
1021 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1022 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1023 bf(--delete-excluded).
1024 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1026 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
1027 even when there are I/O errors.
1029 dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1030 when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1031 deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1033 Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1034 using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1035 bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
1037 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
1038 files or directories.
1039 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to
1040 be warned about any extraneous files in the destination, but be very
1041 careful to never specify a 0 value to an older rsync client, or the
1042 option will be silently ignored. (A 3.0.0 client will die with an
1043 error if the remote rsync is not new enough to handle the situation.)
1044 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
1046 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1047 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
1048 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
1049 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1051 The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1052 "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1053 gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1054 If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1055 "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
1056 Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1057 be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
1059 Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
1062 dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1063 file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1064 transferring small, junk files.
1065 See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
1067 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1068 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1069 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
1071 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
1072 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
1073 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1074 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
1076 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
1077 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
1078 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1079 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
1080 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1081 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1083 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1084 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1085 or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1086 and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1087 argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1088 inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1089 double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1090 shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1093 tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1094 tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1097 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1098 options in their .ssh/config file.)
1100 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1101 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1103 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1105 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1106 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1107 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1108 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1109 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1110 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1113 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1114 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1116 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
1118 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1119 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1120 systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
1121 a file should be ignored.
1123 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1124 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1126 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1127 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
1128 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .bzr/)))
1130 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1131 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1132 are delimited by whitespace).
1134 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1135 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1136 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1137 See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
1139 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1140 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1141 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1142 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1143 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1144 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1145 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1146 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1147 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1148 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1151 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1152 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1153 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1155 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1156 to build up the list of files to exclude.
1158 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1160 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1161 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1163 quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1165 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1166 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1167 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1170 quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1172 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1174 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1177 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1178 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1179 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1181 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1183 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1184 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1185 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1186 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1188 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1189 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1190 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1192 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1194 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1195 option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1196 Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1197 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1199 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1200 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1201 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1202 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1205 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1206 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1207 bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1208 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1209 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1210 them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1211 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1212 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1213 it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1214 of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1215 other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1216 bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1219 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1220 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1221 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1224 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1226 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1227 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1228 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1229 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1230 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1231 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1232 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1233 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1235 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1236 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1237 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1239 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1240 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1241 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1242 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1243 transfer". For example:
1245 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1247 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1248 was located on the remote "src" host.
1250 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1251 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1252 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1253 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1254 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1255 file are split on whitespace).
1257 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1258 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1259 on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1260 file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1262 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1263 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1264 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
1265 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1266 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1267 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1268 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1269 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1270 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1271 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1272 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1273 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1274 new version on the disk at the same time.
1276 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1277 space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1278 which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1279 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1280 have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1281 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1282 about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1283 path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1284 single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1285 partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1286 rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1287 an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1289 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1290 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1291 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1292 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1293 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1295 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1296 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1297 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1299 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1300 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1301 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1302 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1303 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1304 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1305 have changed from an earlier backup.
1307 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1308 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1310 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1311 and the attributes updated.
1312 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1313 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1315 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1316 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1318 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1319 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1320 directory using a local copy.
1321 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1322 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1323 been successfully transferred.
1325 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1326 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1327 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1328 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1330 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1331 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1333 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1334 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1335 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1336 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1339 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1341 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1342 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1344 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1345 and the attributes updated.
1346 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1347 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1349 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1350 rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
1351 dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
1352 change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
1355 Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1356 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1357 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1360 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1361 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1363 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1364 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1365 specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1366 the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1368 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1369 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1370 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1372 Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1373 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1374 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1375 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1377 dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1378 (see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1379 the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1381 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1382 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1385 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1386 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1387 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1388 option is not specified.
1390 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1391 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1392 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1393 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1394 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1395 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1397 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1398 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1399 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1401 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1402 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1403 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1404 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1406 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1407 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1408 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1409 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1410 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1412 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
1413 who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
1414 sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
1415 slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
1416 details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
1417 special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
1418 connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
1419 bf(--daemon) mode section.
1421 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1422 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1423 rsync defaults to using
1424 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1425 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1427 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1428 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1429 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
1430 If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
1431 if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
1432 with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
1435 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1436 format is like the string bf(YXcstpogz), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
1437 type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1438 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1441 The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
1444 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1446 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1448 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1449 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1450 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
1452 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1453 have attributes that are being modified).
1456 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1457 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
1458 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
1460 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1461 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1462 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1463 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1464 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1465 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1467 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1470 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1471 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1472 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1473 by the file transfer.
1474 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1475 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1476 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1477 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1478 without bf(--times).
1479 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1480 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1481 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1482 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
1483 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1484 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1485 it() The bf(z) slot is reserved for future use.
1488 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1489 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1490 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1491 outputting them as a verbose message).
1493 dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1494 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
1495 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1496 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1497 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1499 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1500 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1501 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
1502 included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
1503 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1504 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
1507 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1508 bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1509 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1511 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1512 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1513 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1514 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1515 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1516 (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
1518 dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
1519 to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
1520 requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
1521 transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
1522 enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
1523 option if you wish to override this.
1525 Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
1528 verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
1530 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
1533 dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
1534 per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
1535 (which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
1536 specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
1537 For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
1538 in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1540 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1541 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1542 algorithm is for your data.
1544 The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
1545 it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
1546 sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
1547 it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
1548 were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
1549 dirs, symlinks, etc.
1550 it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
1551 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
1552 include the size of symlinks.
1553 it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
1554 for just the transferred files.
1555 it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
1556 send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
1557 it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
1558 recreating the updated files.
1559 it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
1560 sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
1561 file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
1563 it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
1564 sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
1565 sending side for this to be present.
1566 it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
1567 spent sending the file list to the receiver.
1568 it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
1569 from the client side to the server side.
1570 it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
1571 rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
1572 bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
1573 server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
1576 dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
1577 unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
1578 valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
1579 characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
1582 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
1583 and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
1584 would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
1585 escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
1587 dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
1588 This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
1589 this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
1590 G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
1593 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1594 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1595 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1596 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1597 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1599 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1600 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1601 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1602 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1603 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
1604 after it has served its purpose.
1606 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1607 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1609 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1611 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1612 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1613 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1614 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1615 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1617 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
1618 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
1619 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
1620 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
1621 receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
1622 the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
1625 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
1626 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
1627 rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
1628 to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
1629 rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
1630 should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
1631 bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
1632 bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
1633 left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
1635 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1636 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1638 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1639 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1640 enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1641 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1642 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1643 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1644 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
1645 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1646 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
1647 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1649 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1650 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1651 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1652 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1653 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1655 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1656 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1657 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1658 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1659 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1660 each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
1661 bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
1662 comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
1663 ".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
1664 you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
1665 Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
1667 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1668 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1669 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1670 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
1672 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1673 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1675 and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
1676 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
1678 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1679 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1680 parallel hierarchy of files).
1682 dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
1683 rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
1684 that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
1685 creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
1686 recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
1689 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
1690 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
1691 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
1692 being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
1695 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
1696 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
1697 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
1699 quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
1701 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
1702 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
1703 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
1704 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
1706 quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
1708 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
1709 time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
1710 in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
1712 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1713 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1715 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1717 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
1720 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1722 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
1723 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
1724 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
1725 is maintained until the end.
1727 These statistics can be misleading if the incremental transfer algorithm is
1728 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
1729 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
1730 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
1731 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
1732 was finishing the matched part of the file.
1734 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
1735 summary line that looks like this:
1737 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
1739 In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
1740 of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
1741 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
1742 during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
1743 receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
1744 the 396 total files in the file-list.
1746 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1747 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1748 transfer that may be interrupted.
1750 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
1751 file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
1752 It should contain just the password as a single line.
1754 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
1755 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
1756 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
1759 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1760 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
1761 arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
1762 command that includes a
1763 destination arg into a file-listing command, (2) to be able to specify more
1764 than one local source arg (note: be sure to include the destination), or
1765 (3) to avoid the automatically added "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')" options that
1766 rsync usually uses as a compatibility kluge when generating a non-recursive
1767 listing. Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded
1768 by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
1769 without using this option. For example:
1771 verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
1773 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1774 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1775 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1776 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1777 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1778 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1779 of zero specifies no limit.
1781 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1782 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1783 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1785 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1786 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1787 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1788 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1790 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1791 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1792 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1793 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1794 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1797 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1798 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1799 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1800 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1802 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1803 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1804 If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
1805 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1807 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1808 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1809 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1810 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1811 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1812 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1813 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1815 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1816 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1817 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1818 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1820 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1821 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1822 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1823 by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
1824 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1825 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1826 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1827 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
1831 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1833 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1836 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1837 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1838 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1840 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1841 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1842 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1843 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1844 requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
1847 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1848 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1849 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1850 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1851 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1853 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1854 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1855 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1856 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1857 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1859 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1860 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1861 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1862 a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
1863 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1865 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1866 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1867 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1868 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1869 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1870 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1871 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1874 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1875 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1876 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1878 dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
1879 given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
1882 dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
1883 given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
1884 file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
1885 case transfer logging is turned off.
1887 dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
1888 rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
1890 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1891 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1892 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1893 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1895 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1896 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1897 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1898 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1899 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1900 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1902 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1903 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1906 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1908 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1909 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1910 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1911 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1913 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1914 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1915 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1916 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1917 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1918 filename is not skipped.
1920 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1921 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1924 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1925 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1928 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1929 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1930 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1931 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1932 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1935 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1936 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1937 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1938 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1939 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1940 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1941 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1942 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1943 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1946 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1947 comment lines that start with a "#".
1949 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1950 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1951 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1952 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1954 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1955 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1956 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1957 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1960 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1961 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1962 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1963 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1965 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1967 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1968 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1969 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1970 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1971 can take several forms:
1974 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1975 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1976 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1977 regular expressions.
1978 Thus "/foo" would match a file named "foo" at either the "root of the
1979 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1980 per-directory rule).
1981 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1982 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1984 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1985 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1986 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1987 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1988 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1990 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1991 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1992 it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
1993 matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
1994 characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
1995 it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
1996 it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
1997 it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
1998 it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
1999 it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2000 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2001 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
2002 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2003 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2004 matched only against the final component of the filename.
2005 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
2006 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
2008 it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
2009 "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
2010 (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2014 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2015 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
2016 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2017 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2018 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2019 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2020 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2021 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2022 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2023 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2024 For instance, this won't work:
2027 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2028 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2032 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2033 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2034 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
2035 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
2036 "- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2037 solution is to add specific include rules for all
2038 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2043 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2044 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2045 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2049 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2052 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
2053 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2054 transfer-root directory
2055 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2056 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2057 levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2058 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2059 or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2060 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
2061 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2062 bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
2063 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2064 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2065 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2068 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2070 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
2071 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2074 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2075 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2076 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2077 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2078 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2079 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2080 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2081 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2082 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2083 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2089 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2090 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2091 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2092 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2093 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2096 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
2099 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
2100 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2101 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
2102 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2103 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2104 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2105 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2106 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2107 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
2108 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
2109 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2110 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
2111 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2112 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
2113 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2115 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
2116 (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
2117 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
2118 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2119 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
2120 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
2123 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
2126 it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
2127 against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
2128 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
2129 was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2130 would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2131 if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
2132 it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
2133 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2135 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2136 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2138 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2139 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2140 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2141 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2142 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
2143 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
2144 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2145 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2146 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2147 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2148 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
2149 it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2150 ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2151 option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2152 marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2153 on the source from being deleted on the destination.
2156 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2157 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2158 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2159 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
2160 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
2161 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
2162 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
2163 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2164 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2166 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2167 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2168 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2169 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2172 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2175 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2177 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2182 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2183 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2184 filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2185 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2188 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2189 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2190 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2191 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2193 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2195 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2196 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2197 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2198 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2199 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2201 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
2204 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2205 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2206 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
2209 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
2210 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
2211 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
2212 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
2213 a part of the transfer.
2215 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
2216 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
2217 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
2218 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
2219 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
2220 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
2221 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
2222 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
2226 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
2231 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
2234 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
2235 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
2236 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
2237 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
2238 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
2239 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
2240 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
2241 your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
2243 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
2245 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
2246 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
2247 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
2248 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
2249 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
2250 out the parent's rules).
2252 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
2254 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
2255 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
2256 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
2257 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
2258 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
2259 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
2261 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
2262 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
2263 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
2264 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
2265 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
2267 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
2268 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
2269 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
2272 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
2273 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
2274 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
2275 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2276 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2280 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
2281 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
2282 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
2283 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
2284 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
2288 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
2289 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
2290 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2291 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
2292 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
2296 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
2297 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
2298 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
2299 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
2300 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
2303 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
2304 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
2305 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
2307 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
2309 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
2310 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
2311 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
2312 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
2315 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2316 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
2319 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
2320 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
2321 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
2322 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
2323 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
2324 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
2326 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
2328 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
2329 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
2330 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
2331 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
2332 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
2334 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
2335 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2337 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
2338 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
2339 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
2340 per-directory merge rule.
2342 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
2343 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
2344 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
2345 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
2346 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
2347 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
2349 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
2351 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
2353 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
2355 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
2356 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
2357 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
2358 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
2359 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
2360 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
2361 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
2362 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
2363 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
2365 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
2366 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
2367 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
2368 using the information stored in the batch file.
2370 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
2371 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
2372 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
2373 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
2374 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
2376 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
2377 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
2378 path differs from the original destination tree path.
2380 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
2381 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
2382 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
2383 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
2384 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
2389 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2390 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
2391 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
2395 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
2396 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
2399 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
2400 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
2401 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
2402 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
2403 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
2406 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
2407 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
2408 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
2409 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
2410 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
2411 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
2412 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
2413 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
2414 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
2415 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
2416 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
2421 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
2422 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
2423 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
2424 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
2425 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
2426 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
2427 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
2428 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
2429 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
2430 option (when reading the batch).
2431 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
2432 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
2433 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
2436 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
2437 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
2438 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
2439 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
2440 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
2441 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
2442 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
2444 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
2445 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
2446 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
2447 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
2448 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
2449 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
2450 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
2452 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
2453 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
2454 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
2455 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
2456 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
2457 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
2459 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
2460 version uses a new implementation.
2462 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
2464 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
2465 link in the source directory.
2467 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
2468 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
2470 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
2471 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
2474 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
2475 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
2477 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
2478 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
2479 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
2480 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
2481 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
2482 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
2483 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
2484 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
2486 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
2487 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
2488 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
2490 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
2491 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
2492 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
2494 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
2495 symlinks for any other options to affect).
2497 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
2498 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
2500 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
2501 skip all safe symlinks.
2503 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
2506 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
2508 manpagediagnostics()
2510 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
2511 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
2512 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
2514 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
2515 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
2516 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
2517 remote shell like this:
2519 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
2521 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
2522 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
2523 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
2524 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
2525 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
2526 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
2527 for non-interactive logins.
2529 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
2530 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
2531 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
2533 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2537 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2538 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2539 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2540 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2541 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2542 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2544 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2545 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2546 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2547 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2548 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2549 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2550 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2551 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2552 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
2553 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2554 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2555 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2556 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2557 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2560 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2563 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2564 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2566 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2567 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2568 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2569 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2570 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2571 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2572 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2573 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2574 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2575 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2576 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2577 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2578 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2579 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2580 default .cvsignore file.
2585 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2593 times are transferred as *nix time_t values
2595 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2597 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2599 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2602 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2604 Please report bugs! See the website at
2605 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2607 manpagesection(VERSION)
2609 This man page is current for version 2.6.9 of rsync.
2611 manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
2613 The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
2614 and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
2615 awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
2616 when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
2617 the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
2618 named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
2621 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2623 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2624 COPYING for details.
2626 A WEB site is available at
2627 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2628 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2631 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2632 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2634 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2636 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2637 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2639 manpagesection(THANKS)
2641 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2642 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2643 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2645 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2646 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2650 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2651 Many people have later contributed to it.
2653 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2654 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)