1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(13 May 1998)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [options] [user@]host:path path
8 rsync [options] path [user@]host:path
10 rsync [options] path path
12 rsync [options] [user@]host::module[/path] path
14 rsync [options] path [user@]host::module[/path]
18 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
19 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
20 greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
24 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
25 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
26 report that accompanies this package.
28 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
32 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
33 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
34 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
35 it() does not require root privileges
36 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
37 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
41 manpagesection(GENERAL)
43 There are five different ways of using rsync. They are:
46 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
47 source nor destination path contains a : separator
49 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
50 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
51 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
55 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the local path
56 contains a : separator.
58 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
59 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
67 Note that in all cases at least one of the source and destination
72 See the file README for installation instructions.
74 Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
75 to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
76 destination are local.
78 You can also specify a alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
79 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
81 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
84 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
89 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
90 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
92 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
94 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
96 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
97 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
98 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
99 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
100 differences. See the tech report for details.
102 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
104 recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
105 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
106 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
107 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
108 in the transfer. Additionally compression will be used to reduce the
109 size of data portions of the transfer.
111 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
113 With a trailing slash on the source this behavior changes to transfer
114 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
115 /data/tmp/. With a trailing / on a source name it means "copy the
116 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
117 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
118 using the --delete option.
120 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
121 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
122 an improved copy command.
125 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
127 It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
128 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
129 running on TCP port 873.
131 Using rsync in this was is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
135 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
136 separate the hostname from the path.
138 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
141 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
142 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
144 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
145 specified files on the remote server is provided
148 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
149 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
150 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
151 the password you want to use. This may be useful when scripting rsync.
153 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
155 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
156 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
159 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
161 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
163 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS word
164 files and mail folders I use a cron job that runs
166 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
168 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
171 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
175 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
178 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
182 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
183 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
184 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
186 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
189 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
191 this is launched from cron every few hours.
193 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
195 Here is a short summary of the options avalable in rsync. Please refer
196 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
199 Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [USER@]HOST:DEST
200 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
201 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC DEST
202 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC DEST
203 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [USER@]HOST::DEST
206 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
207 -c, --checksum always checksum
208 -a, --archive archive mode
209 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
210 -R, --relative use relative path names
211 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
212 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
213 -l, --links preserve soft links
214 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
215 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
216 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
217 -p, --perms preserve permissions
218 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
219 -g, --group preserve group
220 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
221 -t, --times preserve times
222 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
223 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
224 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
225 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
226 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size
227 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
228 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
229 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
230 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
231 --partial keep partially transferred files
232 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
233 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
234 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
235 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
236 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
237 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
238 -z, --compress compress file data
239 --exclude=PATTERN exclude file FILE
240 --exclude-from=PATTERN exclude files listed in FILE
241 --include=PATTERN don't exclude file FILE
242 --include-from=PATTERN don't exclude files listed in FILE
243 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
244 --version print version number
245 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
246 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
247 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
248 --stats give some file transfer stats
249 --progress show progress during transfer
250 -h, --help show this help screen
255 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
256 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
257 below separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
260 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
263 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
265 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
266 are given during the transfer. By default rsync works silently. A
267 single -v will give you information about what files are being
268 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
269 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
270 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
271 you are debugging rsync
273 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
274 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
277 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
278 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
279 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
280 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
281 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
283 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
284 of saying I want recursion and want to preserve everything.
286 Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
287 uid) is also implied.
289 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively
291 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
292 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
293 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
294 you want to sent several different directories at the same time. For
295 example if you used the command
297 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
299 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
300 machine. If instead you used
302 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
304 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
305 machine. The full path name is preserved.
307 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
308 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
309 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
311 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
312 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
315 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
316 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
317 option all symbolic links are skipped.
319 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
322 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
323 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
324 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
325 give unexpecetd results.
327 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
328 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
329 option hard links are treated like regular files.
331 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
332 are in the list of files being sent.
334 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
336 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
337 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
338 useful when using rsync with a local machine.
340 dit(bf(--partial)) By default rsync will delete any partially
341 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
342 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
343 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
344 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
346 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
347 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
349 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
350 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
351 to the super-user. Note that if the source system is a daemon using chroot,
352 the --numeric-ids option is implied because the source system cannot get
353 access to the user names.
355 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
356 of the file to be the same as the local group. Note that if the source
357 system is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because
358 the source system cannot get access to the group names.
360 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
361 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
362 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
364 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
365 with the files and update them on the remote system
367 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
368 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
370 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
371 up less space on the destination.
373 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
374 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
375 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
377 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
378 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
379 contents of only one filesystem.
381 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
382 side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
385 It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
386 see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
389 rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
390 dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
391 that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
392 these directories are deleted.
394 Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
395 of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
396 behavior of --delete.
398 NOTE: It also may delete files on the destination if the sending side
399 can't open them or stat them. This is a bug that hopefully will be
400 fixed in a future release.
402 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
403 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
404 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
405 contains a directory of the same name. Normally rsync will refuse to
406 do a recursive directory deletion in such cases, by using --force
407 the recursive deletion will be done.
409 Use this option with caution!
411 dit(bf(-B , --block_size BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
412 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
414 dit(bf(-e, --rsh COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
415 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
416 remote copies of rsync. By default rsync will use rsh, but you may
417 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
419 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
420 environment variable.
422 dit(bf(--rsync-path PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
423 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when its not in your path.
425 dit(bf(--exclude pattern)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
426 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
427 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
429 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
430 to build up the list of files to exclude.
432 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
435 dit(bf(--exclude-from FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
436 option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
439 dit(bf(--include pattern)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
440 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
441 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
443 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
446 dit(bf(--include-from FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
449 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
450 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
451 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
452 a file should be ignored.
454 The exclude list is initialized to:
456 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
457 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
458 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
460 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
461 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
463 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
464 that directory are added to the list.
466 dit(bf(--suffix SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
467 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
469 dit(bf(--csum-length LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
470 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
471 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
472 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
473 making things faster.
475 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
476 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
478 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
479 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
480 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
481 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
483 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
484 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
485 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
486 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
488 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
489 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
490 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
491 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
493 dit(bf(--compare-dest DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an
494 additional directory to compare destination files against when doing
495 transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
496 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
497 files have been successfully transfered (for example by moving directories
498 around and removing the old directory). This option increases the
499 usefulness of --partial because partially transferred files will remain in
500 the new temporary destination until they have a chance to be completed.
501 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
503 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
504 the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
505 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
506 same method that gzip uses.
508 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
509 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
510 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
511 information sent for matching data blocks.
513 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
514 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
517 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
518 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
519 0 and never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
520 option is not specified.
522 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group name
523 does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id from the
524 source system is used instead.
526 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
527 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
528 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
530 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
531 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
532 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
533 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
534 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
535 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
538 dit(bf(--config FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
539 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
542 dit(bf(--port PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
543 rather than the default port 873.
545 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
546 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
547 algorithm is for your data. This option only works in conjunction with
548 the -v (verbose) option.
550 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
551 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
556 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
558 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
559 selection of what files to transfer and what files to skip.
561 rsync build a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
562 the command line. When a filename is encountered rsync then checks the
563 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
564 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
565 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
566 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
567 filename is not skipped.
569 The patterns themselves can take several forms. The rules are:
572 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
573 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
574 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
575 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
576 called foo anywhere in the tree.
578 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
579 directory, not a file, link or device.
581 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
582 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
583 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
586 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
587 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
588 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
589 only against the final component of the filename.
591 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
592 then it is always considered a include pattern, even if specified as
593 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
595 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
596 then it is always considered a exclude pattern, even if specified as
597 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
599 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
600 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
603 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
604 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
606 Here are some examples:
609 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
610 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
611 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
612 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
613 directories and C source files.
616 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
618 rsync occasinally produces error messages that may seem a little
619 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
620 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
622 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
623 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
624 for its transport. The way ot diagnose this problem is to run your
625 remote shell like this:
628 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
631 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
632 should be a zero length file. You you are getting the above error from
633 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
634 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
635 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configued shell startup
636 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
637 for non-interactive logins.
639 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
643 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
644 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
647 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
648 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
649 be used instead of the -e option.
651 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
652 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
653 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
654 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
656 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
657 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
659 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the users
660 default .cvsignore file.
676 times are transferred as unix time_t values
678 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
681 see also the comments on the --delete option
683 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
684 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
686 manpagesection(VERSION)
687 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
689 manpagesection(CREDITS)
691 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
694 The primary ftp site for rsync is
695 url(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync)(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync).
697 A WEB site is available at
698 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
700 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
702 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
703 Gailly and Mark Adler.
705 manpagesection(THANKS)
707 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
708 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
709 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
714 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
715 contacted via email at tridge@samba.anu.edu.au and
716 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au