4 rsync is a replacement for rcp that has many more features.
6 rsync uses the "rsync algorithm" which provides a very fast method for
7 bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the
8 differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both
9 sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand.
10 At first glance this may seem impossible because the calculation of
11 diffs between two files normally requires local access to both
14 A technical report describing the rsync algorithm is included with
21 Basically you use rsync just like rcp, but rsync has many additional options.
23 Here is a brief description of rsync usage:
25 Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
26 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
27 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
28 or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
29 or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
30 or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
31 SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
32 SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
33 sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
36 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
37 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
38 -c, --checksum always checksum
39 -a, --archive archive mode
40 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
41 -R, --relative use relative path names
42 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
43 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
44 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
45 -l, --links preserve soft links
46 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
47 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
48 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
49 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
50 -p, --perms preserve permissions
51 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
52 -g, --group preserve group
53 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
54 -t, --times preserve times
55 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
56 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
57 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
58 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
59 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
60 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
61 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
62 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
63 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
64 --partial keep partially transferred files
65 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
66 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
67 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
68 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
69 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
70 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
71 -z, --compress compress file data
72 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
73 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
74 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
75 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
76 --version print version number
77 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
78 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
79 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
80 --stats give some file transfer stats
81 --progress show progress during transfer
82 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
83 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
84 -h, --help show this help screen
91 Rsync uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to be setuid
92 and requires no special privileges for installation. It does not
93 require a inetd entry or a daemon. You must, however, have a working
94 rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is recommended for its security
97 To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a
98 Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type
101 Note that on some systems you will have to force configure not to use
102 gcc because gcc may not support some features (such as 64 bit file
103 offsets) that your system may support. Set the environment variable CC
104 to the name of your native compiler before running configure in this
107 Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and
108 remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!
113 rsync can also talk to "rsync servers" which can provide anonymous or
114 authenticated rsync. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for details on how
115 to setup a rsync server. See the rsync(1) man page for info on how to
116 connect to a rsync server.
122 There is a mailing list for the discussion of rsync and its
123 applications. It is open to anyone to join. I will announce new
124 versions on this list.
126 To join the mailing list send mail to listproc@samba.org with
127 no subject and a body of "subscribe rsync Your Name".
129 To send mail to everyone on the list send it to rsync@samba.org
135 If you have web access then please look at
136 http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/
138 This will give you access to the bug tracking system used by the
139 developers of rsync and will allow you to look at other bug reports or
140 submit a new bug report.
142 If you don't have web access then mail bug reports to
143 rsync-bugs@samba.org or (if you think it will be of interest to lots
144 of people) send it to rsync@samba.org
150 If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the
151 source code repository then you can use anonymous cvs. You will need a
152 recent version of cvs then use the following commands:
154 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@cvs.samba.org:/cvsroot login
157 cvs -d :pserver:cvs@cvs.samba.org:/cvsroot co rsync
159 Look at the cvs documentation for more details.
165 Rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras, and is
166 available under the Gnu Public License.
175 The main web site for rsync is http://rsync.samba.org/
176 The main ftp site is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/
177 This is also available as rsync://rsync.samba.org/rsyncftp/