Basically you use rsync just like rcp, but rsync has many additional options.
-Here is a brief description of available options:
-
--v, --verbose increase verbosity
--c, --checksum always checksum
--a, --archive archive mode (same as -rlptDog)
--r, --recursive recurse into directories
--b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
--u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
--l, --links preserve soft links
--H, --hard-links preserve hard links
--p, --perms preserve permissions
--o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
--g, --group preserve group
--D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
--t, --times preserve times
--S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
--n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
--x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
--B, --block-size SIZE checksum blocking size
--e, --rsh COMMAND specify rsh replacement
- --rsync-path PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
--C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
- --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
--I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
--z, --compress compress file data
- --exclude FILE exclude file FILE
- --exclude-from FILE exclude files listed in FILE
- --suffix SUFFIX override backup suffix
- --version print version number
+Here is a brief description of rsync usage:
+
+Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
+ or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
+ or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
+ or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
+ or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
+ or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
+SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
+SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
+ sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
+
+Options
+ -v, --verbose increase verbosity
+ -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
+ -c, --checksum always checksum
+ -a, --archive archive mode
+ -r, --recursive recurse into directories
+ -R, --relative use relative path names
+ -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
+ --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
+ -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
+ -l, --links preserve soft links
+ -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
+ --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
+ --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
+ -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
+ -p, --perms preserve permissions
+ -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
+ -g, --group preserve group
+ -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
+ -t, --times preserve times
+ -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
+ -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
+ -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
+ -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
+ -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
+ -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
+ --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
+ -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
+ --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
+ --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
+ --partial keep partially transferred files
+ --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
+ --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
+ --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
+ -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
+ --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
+ -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
+ --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
+ -z, --compress compress file data
+ --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
+ --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
+ --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
+ --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
+ --version print version number
+ --daemon run as a rsync daemon
+ --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
+ --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
+ --stats give some file transfer stats
+ --progress show progress during transfer
+ --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
+ --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
+ -h, --help show this help screen
+
SETUP
-----
-Rsync uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to be setuid
-and requires no special privilages for installation. It does not
-require a inetd entry or a daemon. You must, however, have a working
-rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is recommended for its security
-features.
+Rsync normally uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to
+be setuid and requires no special privileges for installation. You
+must, however, have a working rsh or ssh system. Using ssh is
+recommended for its security features.
+
+Alternatively, rsync can run in `daemon' mode, listening on a socket.
+This is generally used for public file distribution, although
+authentication and access control are available.
To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a
Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type
"make".
+Note that on some systems you will have to force configure not to use
+gcc because gcc may not support some features (such as 64 bit file
+offsets) that your system may support. Set the environment variable CC
+to the name of your native compiler before running configure in this
+case.
+
Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and
remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!
+RSYNC SERVERS
+-------------
+
+rsync can also talk to "rsync servers" which can provide anonymous or
+authenticated rsync. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for details on how
+to setup a rsync server. See the rsync(1) man page for info on how to
+connect to a rsync server.
+
MAILING LIST
------------
applications. It is open to anyone to join. I will announce new
versions on this list.
-To join the mailing list send mail to listproc@samba.anu.edu.au with
-no subject and a body of "subscribe rsync Your Name".
+To join the mailing list see the web page at http://lists.samba.org/
+
+To send mail to everyone on the list send it to rsync@samba.org
+
+
+BUG REPORTS
+-----------
+
+If you have web access then please look at
+http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/
-To send mail to everyone on the list send it to rsync@samba.anu.edu.au
+This will give you access to the bug tracking system used by the
+developers of rsync and will allow you to look at other bug reports or
+submit a new bug report.
+
+If you don't have web access then mail bug reports to rsync@samba.org.
+
+
+CVS TREE
+--------
+
+If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the
+source code repository then you can use anonymous cvs. You will need a
+recent version of cvs then use the following commands:
+
+ cvs -d :pserver:cvs@pserver.samba.org:/cvsroot login
+ Password: cvs
+
+ cvs -d :pserver:cvs@pserver.samba.org:/cvsroot co rsync
+
+Look at the cvs documentation, or http://samba.org/cvs.html, for more
+details.
COPYRIGHT
---------
-Rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras, and is
-available under the GPL.
+rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and has been improved
+by many developers around the world. rsync may be used, modified and
+redistributed only under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
+found in the file COPYING in this distribution, or at
-Andrew.Tridgell@anu.edu.au
-paulus@cs.anu.edu.au
+ http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html
AVAILABILITY
------------
-The main ftp site for rsync is ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync
-
-Mirrors are available at:
-
-ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/unix/rsync
-ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/unix/admin/rsync
+The main web site for rsync is http://rsync.samba.org/
+The main ftp site is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/
+This is also available as rsync://rsync.samba.org/rsyncftp/