mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Jun 2005)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(22 Apr 2006)()()
manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
manpagesynopsis()
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
+
rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
-rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
-rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
-rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC
-rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
+rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
-rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
+rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
-rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
+rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
manpagedescription()
it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
- it() does not require root privileges
+ it() does not require super-user privileges
it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
mirroring)
the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
-host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified.
+host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
+"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
+an exception to this latter rule).
-As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
-the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
+As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
+destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
-Finally, it is possible to use a remote-shell transport to contact a remote
-host and then to spawn a single-use rsync daemon. This allows the use of
-some of the daemon features (such as named modules) without having to run a
-daemon as a service. To achieve this, invoke rsync with an explicit
-bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option combined with either the
-source or destination path specified as an rsync daemon (i.e. either a ::
-separator or an rsync:// URL). In this case, rsync contacts the remote
-host specified using the specified remote shell, and then starts a
-single-use rsync daemon to deal with that copy request. See the section
-"CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" below.
-
manpagesection(SETUP)
See the file README for installation instructions.
You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
-One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
-security.
-
Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
machines.
destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
an improved copy command.
+Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
+particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
+
quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
-This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
-somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
+See the following section for more details.
manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
-It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
-transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync daemon
-running on TCP port 873.
-
-You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
-environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
-your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
-proxy connections to port 873.
+It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
+In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
+using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
+the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
+CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
that:
itemize(
it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
+ it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
connect.
it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
+ it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
)
-Some paths on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so then
+An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
+
+verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
+
+Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
-manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
-
-It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
-daemon capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
-rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
-to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
-firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync daemon
-features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
-below).
-
-From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
-using it to connect to an rsync daemon, except that you must
-explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
-bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
-this functionality.)
-
-In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
-daemon user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
+You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
+environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
+your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
+proxy connections to port 873.
-verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
- rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
+manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
+
+It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
+named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
+system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
+Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
+a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
+home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
+daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
+the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
+change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
+transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
+configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
+connections from "localhost".)
+
+From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
+connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
+rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
+explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
+bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
+will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
+
+verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
+
+If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
+user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
+module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
+give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
+this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
+
+verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
-used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
-
-manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON)
+used to log-in to the "module".
-An rsync daemon is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
-rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
-file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
-shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
-is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
-(typically $HOME).
+manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
-manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
+In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
+daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
+to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
+For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
+socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
+file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
+daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
-See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
-daemon configuration file.
-
-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 daemon port
-if you run an rsync daemon only via a remote shell program.
-
-To run an rsync daemon out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
-in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
+If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
+no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
-q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
-c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
-a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
+ --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
- --no-relative turn off --relative
- --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
+ --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
-b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
--backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
--suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
-u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
--inplace update destination files in-place
+ --append append data onto shorter files
-d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
-L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
--copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
--safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
- -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
+ -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
-K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
+ -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
-p, --perms preserve permissions
- -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
+ -E, --executability preserve executability
+ --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
+ -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
-g, --group preserve group
- -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
+ --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
+ --specials preserve special files
+ -D same as --devices --specials
-t, --times preserve times
-O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
+ --super receiver attempts super-user activities
-S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
-n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
-W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
- --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
-x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
-B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
-e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
--rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
- --existing only update files that already exist
- --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
- --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
+ --existing skip creating new files on receiver
+ --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
+ --remove-sent-files sender removes successfully sent files
--del an alias for --delete-during
- --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
+ --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
--delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
--delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
--delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
- --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
+ --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
--ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
--force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
--max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
--max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
+ --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
--partial keep partially transferred files
--partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
--delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
+ -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
--timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
-I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
--copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
--link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
-z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
+ --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
-C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
-f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
-F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
-0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
--address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
--port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
+ --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
--blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
- --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
--stats give some file-transfer stats
+ -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
+ -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
--progress show progress during transfer
-P same as --partial --progress
-i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
--version print version number
- -h, --help show this help screen)
+(-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment)
+)
Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
accepted: verb(
--config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
--no-detach do not detach from the parent
--port=PORT listen on alternate port number
+ --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
- -h, --help show this help screen)
+ -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon)
+)
manpageoptions()
can be used instead.
startdit()
-dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
-available in rsync.
+dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
+available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
+versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
+option without any other args.
dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
-dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
-a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
-explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
-which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
-receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
+dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum em(every)
+regular file using a 128-bit MD4 checksum. It does this during the initial
+file-system scan as it builds the list of all available files. The receiver
+then checksums its version of each file (if it exists and it has the same
+size as its sender-side counterpart) in order to decide which files need to
+be updated: files with either a changed size or a changed checksum are
+selected for transfer. Since this whole-file checksumming of all files on
+both sides of the connection occurs in addition to the automatic checksum
+verifications that occur during a file's transfer, this option can be quite
+slow.
+
+Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was correctly
+reconstructed on the receiving side by checking its whole-file checksum, but
+that automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
+option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
-everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
+everything (with -H being a notable omission).
+The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
specify bf(-H).
+dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
+the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
+only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
+bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
+(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
+specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
+(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
+
+For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
+bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
+could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
+
+The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
+bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
+Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
+positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
+changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
+details).
+
dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
-example, if you used the command
+example, if you used this command:
-quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
+quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
-then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
+... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
machine. If instead you used
-quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
+quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
-then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
+then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
-path information that is sent, do something like this:
+path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
+a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
+insert a dot and a slash into the source path, like this:
-quote(
-tt( cd /foo)nl()
-tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
-)
+quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
+
+That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
+dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
+(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
+source path. For example, when pushing files:
-That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
+quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
-dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
-needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
-file processing.
+(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
+"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
+If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
+rsync daemon):
-dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
-implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
-of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
-the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
-path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
-the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
-destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
-the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
-which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
-symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
+quote(
+tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
+tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
+)
+
+dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
+bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
+directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
+means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
+left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
+created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
+elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
+one side of the transfer, and a real directory on the other side.
+
+For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
+transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
+are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
+"bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
+delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
+the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
+"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
+ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
+preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
+affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
+
+In a similar but opposite scenario, if the transfer of "path/foo/file" is
+requested and "path/foo" is a symlink on the sending side, running without
+bf(--no-implied-dirs) would cause rsync to transform "path/foo" on the
+receiving side into an identical symlink, and then attempt to transfer
+"path/foo/file", which might fail if the duplicated symlink did not point
+to a directory on the receiving side. Another way to avoid this sending of
+a symlink as an implied directory is to use bf(--copy-unsafe-links), or
+bf(--copy-dirlinks) (both of which also affect symlinks in the rest of the
+transfer -- see their descriptions for full details).
dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
-Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), the bf(--omit-dir-times)
-option will be enabled.
+
+Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
+bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
+also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
+filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
+(e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
+deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
+need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
+in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
+your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
+rule would never be reached).
dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
receiving user.
+dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
+the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
+the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
+side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
+resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
+Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
+file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
+Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
+bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
+data is required).
+
dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
-unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
-name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
+unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
+(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
-output a message to that effect for each one).
+output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
+bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
symlink on the destination.
-dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
+dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
-source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
+source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
+additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
give unexpected results.
-dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
-the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
-option hard links are treated like regular files.
+dit(bf(-K, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
+a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
+useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
+they would be using bf(--copy-links).
+
+Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
+symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
+the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
+bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
+
+See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
+side.
+
+dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
+a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
+matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
+receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
+
+For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
+"file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
+bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
+directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
+bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
+"bar".
+
+See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
+
+dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
+the transfer and link together the corresponding files on the receiving
+side. Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are treated
+as though they were separate files.
Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
are in the list of files being sent.
-This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
+dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
+destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
+also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
+be the source permissions.)
-dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
-pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
-from the sender.
+When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
-dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
-is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
-faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
-destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
-"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
-the source and destination are specified as local paths.
+quote(itemize(
+ it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
+ permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
+ the execute permission for the file.
+ it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
+ file's permissions masked with the receiving end's umask setting, and
+ their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
+ directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
+))
+
+Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
+rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
+such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
+
+In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
+permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
+permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
+bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
+all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
+behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
+putting this line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the bf(-s) option,
+and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
+
+quote(tt( rsync alias -s --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
+
+You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
+
+quote(tt( rsync -asv src/ dest/))
+
+(Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-s), or it will re-enable
+the "--no-*" options.)
+
+The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
+directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
+versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
+newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
+destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. (Keep in
+mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects this
+behavior.)
+
+dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
+executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
+not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
+'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
+executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
+modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
+
+quote(itemize(
+ it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
+ permissions.
+ it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
+ has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
+))
+
+If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
+
+dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
+comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
+transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
+that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
+can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
-dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
-default.
+In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
+manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
+prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
+file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
-dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
-permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
+quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
-Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
-their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
-based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
-umask setting
-(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
+It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
+additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
+
+See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
+permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
-destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
-only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
-is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
-circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
+destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
+receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
+option to force rsync to attempt super-user activities).
+Without this option, the owner is set to the invoking user on the
+receiving side.
+
+The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
+may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
+bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
-program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
-receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
-is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
-circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
+program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
+specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
+is a member of will be preserved.
+Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
+user on the receiving side.
+
+The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
+default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
+(see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
-dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
-block device information to the remote system to recreate these
-devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
+dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
+block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
+This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
+super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
+
+dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
+such as named sockets and fifos.
+
+dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
-dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
-instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
+dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
+activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
+activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
+all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
+option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
+for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
+also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
+being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
+super-user can use bf(--no-super).
dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
-up less space on the destination.
+up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
+not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
-dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
-boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
-contents of only one filesystem.
+dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
+instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
-dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
-only update files that already exist on the destination.
+dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
+is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
+faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
+destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
+"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
+the source and destination are specified as local paths.
-dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
-This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
-the destination.
+dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
+filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
+to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
+through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
+the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
+in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
+same filesystem.
+
+If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
+the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
+encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
+the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
+
+If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
+bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
+treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
+by this option.
+
+dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
+creating files (i.e. non-directory items) that do not exist yet on the
+destination. If this option is
+combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
+(which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete missing files).
+
+dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files (i.e.
+non-directory items) that
+already exist on the destination. See also bf(--existing).
dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
-This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
+Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
+was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
+(bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
even when there are I/O errors.
-dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
-they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
-is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
-Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
+dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
+when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
+deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
+
+Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
+using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
+bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
-suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
+suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
+The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
+"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
+gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
+If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
+"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
+Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
+be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
+
+Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
+2147483649 bytes.
+
+dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
+file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
+transferring small, junk files.
+See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
+
dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
-running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
-TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
+running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
+RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
-presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
+presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
+or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
+and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
+argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
+inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
+double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
+shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
-quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
+quote(
+tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
+tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
+)
(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
options in their .ssh/config file.)
Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
-See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
+See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
-quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
+quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
rule:
-quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
+quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
-dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
-option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
-FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
-';' or '#' are ignored.
-If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
+dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
+option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
+Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
+If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
-dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
-from a file.
-If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
+dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
+option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
+Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
+If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
-exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
+exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
quote(itemize(
it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
information that is specified for each item in the file (use
- bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
+ bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
- them.
+ them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
(bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
+ it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
+ of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
+ other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
+ bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
))
The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
file are split on whitespace).
dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
-scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
-transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
-the temporary files in the receiving directory.
+scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
+on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
+file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
+
+This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
+have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
+In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
+partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
+over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
+into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
+destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
+truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
+the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
+temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
+it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
+someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
+new version on the disk at the same time.
+
+If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
+space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
+which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
+destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
+have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
+partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
+about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
+path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
+single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
+partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
+rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
+an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
-bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
-(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
-when sending to an old rsync.
+bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
+specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
+the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
-Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
+Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
+dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
+(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
+the bf(--compress) option is implied.
+
dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
at both ends.
syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
+dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
+who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
+sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
+slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
+details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
+special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
+connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
+bf(--daemon) mode section.
+
dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
rsync defaults to using
blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
-dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
-default.
-
dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
+If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
+if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
+with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
+verbose messages).
The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
-format is like the string bf(UXcstpoga)), where bf(U) is replaced by the
-kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
+format is like the string bf(YXcstpogz), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
+type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
modified.
-The update types that replace the bf(U) are as follows:
+The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
quote(itemize(
it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
(received).
it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
(such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
- it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
+ it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
bf(--hard-links)).
it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
have attributes that are being modified).
))
The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
-directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, and a bf(D) for a device.
+directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
+special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
- sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and root privileges).
+ sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
- it() The bf(a) is reserved for a future enhanced version that supports
- extended file attributes, such as ACLs.
+ it() The bf(z) slot is reserved for future use.
))
One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
-touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
+touched directory) unless the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
-2.6.4). See the bf(--itemized-changes) option for a description of the
+2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
output of "%i".
The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
-bf(--log-format) without bv(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
+bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
the format of its per-file output using this option.
Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
algorithm is for your data.
+The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemize(
+ it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
+ sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc.
+ it() bf(Number of files transferred) is the count of normal files that
+ were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not include created
+ dirs, symlinks, etc.
+ it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
+ This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
+ include the size of symlinks.
+ it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
+ for just the transferred files.
+ it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
+ send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
+ it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
+ recreating the updated files.
+ it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
+ sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
+ file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
+ list.
+ it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
+ sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
+ sending side for this to be present.
+ it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
+ spent sending the file list to the receiver.
+ it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
+ from the client side to the server side.
+ it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
+ rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
+ bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
+ server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
+))
+
+dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
+unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
+valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
+characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
+setting.
+
+The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
+and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
+would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
+escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
+
+dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
+This makes big numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If
+this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and
+G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024
+instead of 1000.
+
dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
-dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
+dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
after it has served its purpose.
+
Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
(since
partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
-If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
-bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
-will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
-untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
-the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
-rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
-supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
-rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
-it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
-a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
-reached).
+If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
+rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
+sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
+will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
+receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
+the equivalent of "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)" at the end of any other
+filter rules.
+
+If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
+exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
+rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
+to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
+rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
+should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
+bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
+bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
+left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
-enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
+enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
-.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
-option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
-specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
+.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
+option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
+specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
-each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
-the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
-on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
-purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting.)
-Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
+each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
+bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
+comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
+".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
+you wnat rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
+Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
-you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
+you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
+there is no
chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
-absolute).
+absolute)
+and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
+delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
parallel hierarchy of files).
+dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
+rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
+that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
+creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
+recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
+rules.
+
+Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
+what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
+mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
+being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
+destination files).
+
+You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
+by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
+that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
+
+quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
+
+Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
+the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
+that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
+(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
+
+quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
+
+If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
+time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
+in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
+
dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
something to watch.
single line.
dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
-instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
-specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
-come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
-options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
-non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
-copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
-must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
+instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
+arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
+command that includes a
+destination arg into a file-listing command, (2) to be able to specify more
+than one local source arg (note: be sure to include the destination), or
+(3) to avoid the automatically added "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')" options that
+rsync usually uses as a compatibility kluge when generating a non-recursive
+listing. Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded
+by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
+without using this option. For example:
+
+verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
-If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
+If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
-by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
+by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
-Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
+Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
for checksum seed.
enddit()
run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
(rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
-requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
+requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
details.
dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
-a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
+a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
+rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
+
dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
regular expressions.
- Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
+ Thus "/foo" would match a file named "foo" at either the "root of the
transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
per-directory rule).
An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
of the transfer.
it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
directory, not a file, link, or device.
- it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
- *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
- matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
- it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
- single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
- it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
+ it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
+ matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
+ characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
+ it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
+ it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
+ it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
+ it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
+ it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
+ character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
+ it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
matched only against the final component of the filename.
(Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
down.)
+ it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
+ "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
+ (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
+ version 2.6.7.)
)
Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
-"- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
+"- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
+solution is to add specific include rules for all
the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
works fine:
itemize(
it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
- it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
- it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
- it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
- levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
- it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
- or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
+ it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
+ transfer-root directory
+ it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
+ it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
+ levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
+ it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
+ or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
- directories and C source files but nothing else.
+ directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
+ bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
"- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
also disabled).
it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
- (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
+ (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
itemize(
- it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
- absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
+ it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
+ against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
"-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
- was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
+ was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
+ would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
+ if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
non-directories.
This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
-filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
+filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
of the transfer).
option is used. This file's name is created by appending
".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
-batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
+batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
+optionally
passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
path differs from the original destination tree path.
dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
skip all safe symlinks.
-dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
+dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
ones.
dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
-dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
+dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
manpageseealso()
-rsyncd.conf(5)
+bf(rsyncd.conf)(5)
manpagebugs()
-times are transferred as unix time_t values
+times are transferred as *nix time_t values
When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
unmodified files.
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.6.5 of rsync.
+This man page is current for version 2.6.8 of rsync.
manpagesection(CREDITS)
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff