mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(26 Jan 2003)()()
+manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(30 Sep 2004)()()
manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync server)
manpagesynopsis()
chrooted programs.
dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write
-its process id to that file.
+its process ID to that file.
dit(bf(syslog facility)) The "syslog facility" option allows you to
specify the syslog facility name to use when logging messages from the
to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has
the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security
holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
-of not being able to follow symbolic links outside of the new root path
-when reading, and of implying the --numeric-ids option because /etc/passwd
-becomes inaccessible. When "use chroot" is false, for security reasons
+of not being able to follow symbolic links that are either absolute or outside
+of the new root path, and of complicating the preservation of usernames and groups
+(see below). When "use chroot" is false, for security reasons,
symlinks may only be relative paths pointing to other files within the root
-path, and leading slashes are removed from absolute paths. The default for
-"use chroot" is true.
+path, and leading slashes are removed from most absolute paths (options
+such as --backup-dir, --compare-dest, etc. interpret an absolute path as
+rooted in the module's "path" dir, just as if chroot was specified).
+The default for "use chroot" is true.
+
+In order to preserve usernames and groupnames, rsync needs to be able to
+use the standard library functions for looking up names and IDs (i.e.
+getpwuid(), getgrgid(), getpwname(), and getgrnam()). This means a
+process in the chroot namespace will need to have access to the resources
+used by these library functions (traditionally /etc/passwd and
+/etc/group). If these resources are not available, rsync will only be
+able to copy the IDs, just as if the --numeric-ids option had been
+specified.
+
+Note that you are free to setup user/group information in the chroot area
+differently from your normal system. For example, you could abbreviate
+the list of users and groups. Also, you can protect this information from
+being downloaded/uploaded by adding an exclude rule to the rsync.conf file
+(e.g. "exclude = /etc/"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
+is a relatively new feature in rsync, so make sure your server is running
+at least 2.6.3 to effect this.
+
+dit(bf(port)) You can override the default port the daemon will listen on
+by specifying this value (defaults to 873). This is ignored if the daemon
+is being run by inetd, and is superseded by the --port command-line option.
+
+dit(bf(address)) You can override the default IP address the daemon
+will listen on by specifying this value. This is ignored if the daemon is
+being run by inetd, and is superseded by the --address command-line option.
dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The default
is for all modules to be read only.
+dit(bf(write only)) The "write only" option determines whether clients
+will be able to download files or not. If "write only" is true then any
+attempted downloads will fail. If "write only" is false then downloads
+will be possible if file permissions on the server allow them. The
+default is for this option to be disabled.
+
dit(bf(list)) The "list" option determines if this module should be
listed when the client asks for a listing of available modules. By
setting this to false you can create hidden modules. The default is
for modules to be listable.
-dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user id that
+dit(bf(uid)) The "uid" option specifies the user name or user ID that
file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
was run as root. In combination with the "gid" option this determines what
file permissions are available. The default is uid -2, which is normally
the user "nobody".
-dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group id that
+dit(bf(gid)) The "gid" option specifies the group name or group ID that
file transfers to and from that module should take place as when the daemon
was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
which is normally the group "nobody".
-dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a space
-separated list of patterns to add to the exclude list. This is equivalent
-to the client specifying these patterns with the --exclude option, except
-that the exclude list is not passed to the client and thus only applies on
+dit(bf(exclude)) The "exclude" option allows you to specify a
+space-separated list of patterns that the server will not allow to be read
+or written. This is only superficially equivalent to the client
+specifying these patterns with the --exclude option. Only one "exclude"
+option may be specified, but you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to
+specify exclude/include.
+
+Because this exclude list is not passed to the client it only applies on
the server: that is, it excludes files received by a client when receiving
from a server and files deleted on a server when sending to a server, but
-it doesn't exclude files sent from a client when sending to a server or
-files deleted on a client when receiving from a server.
-Only one "exclude" option may be specified, but
-you can use "-" and "+" before patterns to specify exclude/include.
-
-Note that this option is not designed with strong security in
-mind, it is quite possible that a client may find a way to bypass this
-exclude list. If you want to absolutely ensure that certain files
-cannot be accessed then use the uid/gid options in combination with
-file permissions.
+it doesn't exclude files from being deleted on a client when receiving
+from a server.
dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename
-on the server that contains exclude patterns, one per line. This is
-equivalent to the client specifying the --exclude-from option with a
-equivalent file except that it applies only on the server. See also
-the "exclude" option above.
-
-dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a space
-separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is
-equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with the --include
-option except that it applies only on the server. This is useful as it
-allows you to build up quite complex exclude/include rules. Only one
-"include" option may be specified, but you can use "+" and "-" before
-patterns to switch include/exclude. See also the "exclude" option above.
+on the server that contains exclude patterns, one per line.
+This is only superficially equivalent
+to the client specifying the --exclude-from option with an equivalent file.
+See the "exclude" option above.
+
+dit(bf(include)) The "include" option allows you to specify a
+space-separated list of patterns which rsync should not exclude. This is
+only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these patterns with
+the --include option because it applies only on the server. This is
+useful as it allows you to build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
+Only one "include" option may be specified, but you can use "+" and "-"
+before patterns to switch include/exclude. See the "exclude" option
+above.
dit(bf(include from)) The "include from" option specifies a filename
on the server that contains include patterns, one per line. This is
-equivalent to the client specifying the --include-from option with a
-equivalent file except that it applies only on the server. See also
-the "exclude" option above.
+only superficially equivalent to the client specifying the
+--include-from option with a equivalent file.
+See the "exclude" option above.
dit(bf(auth users)) The "auth users" option specifies a comma and
-space separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to
+space-separated list of usernames that will be allowed to connect to
this module. The usernames do not need to exist on the local
system. The usernames may also contain shell wildcard characters. If
"auth users" is set then the client will be challenged to supply a
See also the bf(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL
PROGRAM) section in rsync(1) for information on how handle an
rsyncd.conf-level username that differs from the remote-shell-level
-username when using a remote shell to connect to a rsync server.
+username when using a remote shell to connect to an rsync server.
dit(bf(secrets file)) The "secrets file" option specifies the name of
a file that contains the username:password pairs used for
dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is
-true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user id other
+true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user ID other
than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is
false, the check is not performed. The default is true. This option
was added to accommodate rsync running on the Windows operating system.
The default is no "hosts deny" option, which means all hosts can connect.
dit(bf(ignore errors)) The "ignore errors" option tells rsyncd to
-ignore IO errors on the server when deciding whether to run the delete
+ignore I/O errors on the server when deciding whether to run the delete
phase of the transfer. Normally rsync skips the --delete step if any
-IO errors have occurred in order to prevent disasterous deletion due
-to a temporary resource shortage or other IO error. In some cases this
+I/O errors have occurred in order to prevent disasterous deletion due
+to a temporary resource shortage or other I/O error. In some cases this
test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this
behaviour.
it() %h for the remote host name
it() %a for the remote IP address
it() %l for the length of the file in bytes
- it() %p for the process id of this rsync session
+ it() %p for the process ID of this rsync session
it() %o for the operation, which is either "send" or "recv"
it() %f for the filename
it() %P for the module path
in the rsync source code distribution.
dit(bf(timeout)) The "timeout" option allows you to override the
-clients choice for IO timeout for this module. Using this option you
+clients choice for I/O timeout for this module. Using this option you
can ensure that rsync won't wait on a dead client forever. The timeout
is specified in seconds. A value of zero means no timeout and is the
default. A good choice for anonymous rsync servers may be 600 (giving
a 10 minute timeout).
dit(bf(refuse options)) The "refuse options" option allows you to
-specify a space separated list of rsync command line options that will
-be refused by your rsync server. The full names of the options must be
-used (i.e., you must use "checksum" not "c" to disable checksumming).
+specify a space-separated list of rsync command line options that will
+be refused by your rsync server.
+You may specify the full option name, its one-letter abbreviation, or a
+wild-card string that matches multiple options.
+For example, this would refuse --checksum (-c) and all the options that
+start with "delete":
+
+quote(refuse options = c delete*)
+
When an option is refused, the server prints an error message and exits.
To prevent all compression, you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a
is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well,
such as already compressed files.
-The "dont compress" option takes a space separated list of
+The "dont compress" option takes a space-separated list of
case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
quality security then I recommend that you run rsync over ssh.
Also note that the rsync server protocol does not currently provide any
-encryption of the data that is transferred over the link. Only
+encryption of the data that is transferred over the connection. Only
authentication is provided. Use ssh as the transport if you want
encryption.
Future versions of rsync may support SSL for better authentication and
encryption, but that is still being investigated.
+manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
+
+If rsync is run with both the --daemon and --rsh (-e) options, it will
+spawn an rsync daemon using a remote shell connection. Several
+configuration options will not be available unless the remote user is
+root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to configure
+inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port if you run an
+rsync server only via a remote shell program.
+
+ADVANCED: To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, use the
+"command=em(COMMAND)" syntax in the remote user's authorized_keys entry,
+where command would be
+
+quote(rsync --server --daemon .)
+
+NOTE: rsync's argument parsing expects the trailing ".", so make sure
+that it's there. If you want to use an rsyncd.conf(5)-style
+configuration file other than the default, you can added a
+--config option to the em(command):
+
+quote(rsync --server --daemon --config=em(file) .)
+
+Note that the "--server" here is the internal option that rsync uses to
+run the remote version of rsync that it communicates with, and thus you
+should not be using the --server option under normal circumstances.
+
manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
A simple rsyncd.conf file that allow anonymous rsync to a ftp area at
url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
+This man page is current for version 2.x of rsync.
manpagesection(CREDITS)
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff