mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(6 Nov 2006)()()
+manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(8 Nov 2007)()()
manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync in daemon mode)
manpagesynopsis()
The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next
-module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
+module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form "name = value".
The file is line-based -- that is, each newline-terminated line represents
either a comment, a module name or a parameter.
is no motd file.
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. If the file already exists, the rsync
+daemon will abort rather than overwrite the file.
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
holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
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 most absolute paths (options
-such as bf(--backup-dir), bf(--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.
+(see below). When "use chroot" is false, rsync will: (1) munge symlinks by
+default for security reasons (see "munge symlinks" for a way to turn this
+off, but only if you trust your users), (2) substitute leading slashes in
+absolute paths with the module's path (so that options such as
+bf(--backup-dir), bf(--compare-dest), etc. interpret an absolute path as
+rooted in the module's "path" dir), and (3) trim ".." path elements from
+args if rsync believes they would escape the chroot.
+The default for "use chroot" is true, and is the safer choice (especially
+if the module is not read-only).
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.
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 rsyncd.conf file
-(e.g. "exclude = /etc/**"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
+(e.g. "bf(exclude = /etc/**)"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
is a relatively new feature in rsync, so make sure your daemon is
at least 2.6.3 to effect this. Also note that it is safest to exclude a
directory and all its contents combining the rule "/some/dir/" with the
do this automatically, but you might as well specify both to be extra
sure).
+dit(bf(munge symlinks)) The "munge symlinks" option tells rsync to modify
+all incoming symlinks in a way that makes them unusable but recoverable
+(see below). This should help protect your files from user trickery when
+your daemon module is writable. The default is disabled when "use chroot"
+is on and enabled when "use chroot" is off.
+
+If you disable this option on a daemon that is not read-only, there
+are tricks that a user can play with uploaded symlinks to access
+daemon-excluded items (if your module has any), and, if "use chroot"
+is off, rsync can even be tricked into showing or changing data that
+is outside the module's path (as access-permissions allow).
+
+The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with
+the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used
+as long as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled,
+rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to
+a directory. When using the "munge symlinks" option in a chroot area,
+you should add this path to the exclude setting for the module so that
+the user can't try to create it.
+
+Note: rsync makes no attempt to verify that any pre-existing symlinks in
+the hierarchy are as safe as you want them to be. If you setup an rsync
+daemon on a new area or locally add symlinks, you can manually protect your
+symlinks from being abused by prefixing "/rsyncd-munged/" to the start of
+every symlink's value. There is a perl script in the support directory
+of the source code named "munge-symlinks" that can be used to add or remove
+this prefix from your symlinks.
+
dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
Any clients connecting when the maximum has been reached will receive a
-message telling them to try later. The default is 0 which means no limit.
+message telling them to try later. The default is 0, which means no limit.
+A negative value disables the module.
See also the "lock file" option.
dit(bf(log file)) When the "log file" option is set to a non-empty
was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
which is normally the group "nobody".
+dit(bf(fake super)) Setting "fake super = yes" for a module causes the
+daemon side to behave as if the bf(--fake-user) command-line option had
+been specified. This allows the full attributes of a file to be stored
+without having to have the daemon actually running as root.
+
dit(bf(filter)) The "filter" option allows you to specify a space-separated
list of filter rules that the daemon will not allow to be read or written.
This is only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these
The format is a text string containing embedded single-character escape
sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character. An optional numeric
field width may also be specified between the percent and the escape
-letter (e.g. "%-50n %8l %07p").
+letter (e.g. "bf(%-50n %8l %07p)").
The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] "
is always prefixed when using the "log file" option.
case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
-The default setting is tt(*.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz)
+See the bf(--skip-compress) option in the bf(rsync)(1) manpage for the list
+of file suffixes that are not compressed by default. Specifying a value
+for the bf(dont compress) option changes the default when the daemon is
+the sender.
dit(bf(pre-xfer exec), bf(post-xfer exec)) You may specify a command to be run
before and/or after the transfer. If the bf(pre-xfer exec) command fails, the
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.6.9 of rsync.
+This man page is current for version 3.0.0pre5 of rsync.
manpagesection(CREDITS)
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff