1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(26 Jan 2003)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file already
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
55 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or a rsync:// URL.
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or a rsync:// URL.
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMMAND option is also provided.
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
87 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88 and destination paths must be local.
92 See the file README for installation instructions.
94 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, rsync typically uses rsh
97 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98 different remote shell by default, such as ssh.
100 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
106 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
109 manpagesection(USAGE)
111 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
114 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
116 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
118 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122 differences. See the tech report for details.
124 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
126 this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
130 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131 size of data portions of the transfer.
133 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
135 a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
136 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
137 /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
138 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
139 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
140 using the --delete option.
142 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144 an improved copy command.
146 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
148 this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
149 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
152 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
154 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
155 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
156 running on TCP port 873.
158 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
159 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
160 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must allow
161 proxying to port 873.
163 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
167 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
168 separate the hostname from the path or a rsync:// URL.
170 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
173 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
174 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
176 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
177 specified files on the remote server is provided.
180 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
181 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
182 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
183 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
184 may be useful when scripting rsync.
186 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
187 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
189 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
191 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
192 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using rsh or
193 ssh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
194 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
195 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
196 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
199 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
200 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
201 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
202 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
205 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
206 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
208 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
210 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
211 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
213 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
215 An rsync server is configured using a config file. Please see the
216 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
217 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
218 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
219 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
222 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
224 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
225 server configuration file.
227 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
228 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
229 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
230 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
232 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, use the
233 "command=em(COMMAND)" syntax in the remote user's
234 authorized_keys entry, where command would be
236 quote(rsync --server --daemon .)
238 NOTE: rsync's argument parsing expects the trailing ".", so make sure
239 that it's there. If you want to use a rsyncd.conf(5)-style
240 configuration file other than the default, you can added a
241 --config option to the em(command):
243 quote(rsync --server --daemon --config=em(file) .)
245 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
247 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
249 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
250 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
252 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
254 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
257 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
261 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
264 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
268 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
269 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
270 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
272 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
275 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
277 this is launched from cron every few hours.
279 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
281 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
282 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
285 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
286 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
287 -c, --checksum always checksum
288 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
289 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
290 -R, --relative use relative path names
291 --no-relative turn off --relative
292 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
293 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
294 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
295 --suffix=SUFFIX define backup suffix
296 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
297 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
298 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of symlinks
299 --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
300 --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
301 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
302 -p, --perms preserve permissions
303 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
304 -g, --group preserve group
305 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
306 -t, --times preserve times
307 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
308 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
309 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
310 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
311 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
312 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
313 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
314 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
315 --existing only update files that already exist
316 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on the receiving side
317 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
318 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
319 --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
320 --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
321 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
322 --partial keep partially transferred files
323 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
324 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
325 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
326 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
327 --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
328 --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0)
329 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
330 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
331 --link-dest=DIR create hardlinks to DIR for unchanged files
332 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
333 -z, --compress compress file data
334 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
335 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
336 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
337 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
338 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
339 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
340 -0 --from0 file names we read are separated by nulls, not newlines
341 --version print version number
342 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
343 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
344 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
345 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
346 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
347 --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
348 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
349 --stats give some file transfer stats
350 --progress show progress during transfer
351 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
352 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
353 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
354 --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
355 --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
356 -h, --help show this help screen
363 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
364 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
365 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
366 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
370 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
373 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
375 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
376 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
377 single -v will give you information about what files are being
378 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
379 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
380 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
381 you are debugging rsync.
383 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
384 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
385 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
388 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
389 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
392 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
393 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
394 --size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
395 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
396 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
399 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
400 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
401 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
402 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
403 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
404 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
406 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
407 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
408 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
409 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
410 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
412 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
413 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
416 Note however that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
417 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
420 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
421 recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
424 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
425 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
426 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
427 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
428 example, if you used the command
430 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
432 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
433 machine. If instead you used
435 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
437 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
438 machine -- the full path name is preserved.
440 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
441 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
444 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
445 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
446 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
447 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
448 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
449 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
450 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
451 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
452 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
453 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
455 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
456 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
457 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
459 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
460 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
461 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
462 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
463 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
464 will keep their original filenames).
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 ~.
468 If --backup-dir and --suffix are both specified,
469 the SUFFIX is appended to the filename even in the backup directory.
471 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
472 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
475 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
476 symlink on the destination.
478 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
479 they point to is copied, rather than the symlink.
481 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
482 symbolic links that point outside the source tree. Absolute symlinks
483 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
484 source path itself when --relative is used.
486 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
487 which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
488 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
489 give unexpected results.
491 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
492 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
493 option hard links are treated like regular files.
495 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
496 are in the list of files being sent.
498 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
500 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
501 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
502 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
503 target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
504 "disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both
505 the source and target are on the local machine.
507 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
510 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
511 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
513 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
514 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
515 only the super-user can set file ownership. Note that if the remote system
516 is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because the
517 remote system cannot get access to the usernames from /etc/passwd.
519 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
520 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
521 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
522 receiver is a member of will be preserved (by group name, not group id
525 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
526 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
527 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
529 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
530 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
531 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
532 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
533 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
534 their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
537 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
538 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
540 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
541 up less space on the destination.
543 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
544 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
545 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
547 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
548 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
549 contents of only one filesystem.
551 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
552 only update files that already exist on the destination.
554 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
555 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
558 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
559 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
560 to prevent disasters.
562 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
563 side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
564 transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
566 This option has no effect if directory recursion is not selected.
568 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
569 to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
570 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
572 If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
573 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
574 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
575 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
576 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
578 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
579 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
580 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
583 dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
584 transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
585 the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
586 then use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
588 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
589 even when there are IO errors.
591 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
592 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
593 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
594 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
596 dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
597 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
599 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
600 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
601 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use rsh by
602 default, but you may prefer to use ssh because of its high security.
604 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
605 remote shell em(COMMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
606 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
607 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
608 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
609 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
611 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
612 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
614 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
616 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
617 options in their .ssh/config file.)
619 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
620 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
622 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
624 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
625 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
626 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
629 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
630 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
631 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
632 a file should be ignored.
634 The exclude list is initialized to:
636 quote(RCS/ SCCS/ CVS/ .svn/ CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
637 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
638 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
640 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
641 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
643 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
644 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. See
645 the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
647 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
648 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
649 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
651 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
652 to build up the list of files to exclude.
654 See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
657 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
658 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
659 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
660 ';' or '#' are ignored.
661 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
663 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
664 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
665 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
667 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
670 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
672 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
674 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
675 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
676 for stdin). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
677 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
678 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
679 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
680 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
681 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
682 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
685 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
686 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
687 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
690 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
692 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
693 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
694 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
695 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
696 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
697 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
698 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
700 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
701 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
702 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
703 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
704 transfer". For example:
706 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
708 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
709 was located on the remote "src" host.
711 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
712 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
713 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
715 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
716 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
717 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
718 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
720 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
721 the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
722 files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
723 destination directory. This is useful for doing transfers to a new
724 destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
725 flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
726 example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
727 although this skips files that haven't changed; see also --link-dest).
728 This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
729 transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
730 have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
731 to the destination directory.
733 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
734 also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
735 unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
738 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
739 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
740 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
741 same method that gzip uses.
743 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
744 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
745 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
746 information sent for matching data blocks.
748 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
749 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
752 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
753 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
754 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
755 option is not specified.
757 If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group
758 name does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id
759 from the source system is used instead.
761 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
762 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
763 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
765 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
766 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
767 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
769 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
770 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
771 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
772 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
773 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
776 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
777 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
778 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
779 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
780 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
781 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
782 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
785 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
786 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
787 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
788 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
789 in conjunction with the --config option.
791 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
792 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
793 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
794 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
795 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
797 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
798 rather than the default port 873.
800 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching
801 a remote shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to
802 the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to
803 non-blocking IO. You may find the --blocking-io option is needed for some
804 remote shells that can't handle non-blocking IO. (Note that ssh prefers
807 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
810 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
811 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
812 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
815 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
816 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
817 algorithm is for your data.
819 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
820 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
821 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
822 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
823 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
825 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
826 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
829 This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
830 the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
832 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
833 found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
834 option to make it easier.
836 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
837 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
838 is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
839 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
840 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
843 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
844 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
845 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
846 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
847 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
848 result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
849 of zero specifies no limit.
851 dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be
852 transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with
853 PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
855 dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch,
856 using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH
857 MODE" section for details.
861 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
863 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
864 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
866 rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
867 the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
868 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
869 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
870 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
871 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
872 filename is not skipped.
874 Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
875 every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
876 applied recursively to each subcomponent.
878 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
879 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
880 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
882 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
885 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
886 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
887 the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
888 the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
889 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
890 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
891 end of the file name.
893 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
894 directory, not a file, link or device.
896 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
897 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
898 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
900 it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
901 the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
903 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
904 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
905 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
906 only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
907 that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
908 actually be any portion of a path.
910 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
911 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
912 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
914 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
915 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
916 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
918 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
919 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
922 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
923 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
925 If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
926 algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
927 parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
928 will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
929 them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
932 Here are some exclude/include examples:
935 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
936 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
937 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
938 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
939 levels below a base directory called foo
940 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
941 or more levels below a base directory called foo
942 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
943 directories and C source files
944 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
945 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
946 it would be excluded by the "*")
949 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
951 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
952 of rsync. The interface or behaviour may change before it stabilizes.
954 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
955 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
956 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
957 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
958 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
959 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
960 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
961 client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against
962 other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The
963 filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by
964 the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is
965 then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch
966 option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree.
967 Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the
968 batch update fileset.
970 The fileset consists of 4 files:
973 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments
974 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata
975 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums
976 it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change
979 The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
980 destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
981 using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
982 destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
983 path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the
984 original destination tree path.
986 Generating the batch update fileset once saves having to perform the
987 file status, checksum and data block generation more than once when
988 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
989 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at
990 once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
995 $ rsync --write_batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
996 $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
997 $ rsh remote rsync --read_batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
999 $ rsh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
1002 In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
1003 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
1004 pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
1005 Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
1006 /adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to
1011 The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update
1012 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1013 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1014 is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
1015 destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1016 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1019 The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
1020 one used on the original destination.
1022 The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
1023 error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
1024 size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.
1026 The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1029 See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
1032 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1034 Three basic behaviours are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1035 link in the source directory.
1037 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1038 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1040 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1041 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1044 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1045 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1047 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1048 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1049 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1050 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1051 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1052 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1053 unsafe links to be ommitted altogether.
1055 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1056 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1057 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1059 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1061 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1062 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1063 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1065 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1066 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1067 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1068 remote shell like this:
1071 rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1074 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1075 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1076 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1077 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1078 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1079 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1080 for non-interactive logins.
1082 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1083 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1084 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1086 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1089 dit(bf(RERR_SYNTAX 1)) Syntax or usage error
1090 dit(bf(RERR_PROTOCOL 2)) Protocol incompatibility
1091 dit(bf(RERR_FILESELECT 3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1093 dit(bf(RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1094 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1095 them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and
1098 dit(bf(RERR_SOCKETIO 10)) Error in socket IO
1099 dit(bf(RERR_FILEIO 11)) Error in file IO
1100 dit(bf(RERR_STREAMIO 12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1101 dit(bf(RERR_MESSAGEIO 13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1102 dit(bf(RERR_IPC 14)) Error in IPC code
1103 dit(bf(RERR_SIGNAL 20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1104 dit(bf(RERR_WAITCHILD 21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1105 dit(bf(RERR_MALLOC 22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1106 dit(bf(RERR_TIMEOUT 30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1109 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1113 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1114 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1117 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1118 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1119 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1121 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1122 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1123 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1125 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1126 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
1127 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1128 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1130 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1131 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
1133 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1134 default .cvsignore file.
1140 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1146 manpagediagnostics()
1150 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1152 When transferring to FAT filesystmes rsync may resync
1154 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1156 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
1159 see also the comments on the --delete option
1161 Please report bugs! See the website at
1162 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1164 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1166 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1167 COPYING for details.
1169 A WEB site is available at
1170 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1171 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1174 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1175 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1177 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1179 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1180 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1182 manpagesection(THANKS)
1184 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1185 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1186 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1188 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer.
1193 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org> and Paul
1196 rsync is now maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>.
1198 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1199 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
1201 If you suspect you have found a security vulnerability in rsync,
1202 please send it directly to Martin Pool and Andrew Tridgell. For other
1203 enquiries, please use the mailing list.