mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(22 Apr 2006)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(6 Nov 2006)()()
manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
manpagesynopsis()
manpagedescription()
-rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
+Rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
updated.
an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
report that accompanies this package.
+Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
+that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified time (by
+default). Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by
+options) are made on the destination file directly when the quick check
+indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
+
Some of the additional features of rsync are:
-itemize(
+itemization(
it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
that:
-itemize(
+itemization(
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.
to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
+ --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
-c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
- -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
+ -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
--no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
-H, --hard-links preserve hard links
-p, --perms preserve permissions
-E, --executability preserve executability
- --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
+ --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
+ -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
+ -X, --xattrs preserve extended attrs (implies -p)
-o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
-g, --group preserve group
--devices preserve device files (super-user only)
-t, --times preserve times
-O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
--super receiver attempts super-user activities
+ --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
-S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
-n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
-W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
-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 ignore non-existing files on receiving side
- --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-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
--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-delay find deletions during, delete after
--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
--progress show progress during transfer
-P same as --partial --progress
-i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
- --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
- --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
+ --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
+ --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
+ --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
+ --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
--list-only list the files instead of copying them
--bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
--write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
--only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
--read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
--protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
+ --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filesnames
--checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
--version print version number
-(-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment)
-)
+(-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
+ --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
+ --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
--sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
- -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon)
-)
+ -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
manpageoptions()
you are debugging rsync.
Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
-a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
+a default bf(--out-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
-bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
+bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--out-format) setting), the
output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
-any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
+any way. See the bf(--out-format) option for more details.
dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
cron.
+dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
+by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
+message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
+that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
+a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
+request the list of modules from the daemon.
+
dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
-already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
-This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
+already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
+This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
+be updated.
-dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
-already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
-bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
-regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
-after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
-exactly.
+dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
+finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
+transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
+time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
+when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
+not preserve timestamps exactly.
dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
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 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
+dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
+been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
+uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
+of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
+changes this to compare a 128-bit MD4 checksum for each file that has a
+matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
+a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
+this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
+so this can slow things down significantly.
+
+The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
+scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
+its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
+file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
+either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
+
+Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
+correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
+checksum that is generated when as the file is transferred, 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
dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
+Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
+incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
+transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
+completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
+does not change a non-recursive transfer (e.g. when using a fully-specified
+bf(--files-from) list). It is also only possible when both ends of the
+transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
+
+Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
+disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
+bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), bf(--delay-updates), and bf(--hard-links).
+Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
+bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
+(use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
+explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
+than using bf(--delete-after).
+
dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
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
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
+(e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). 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
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
-very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
+tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
+side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
will keep their original filenames).
also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
give unexpected results.
-dit(bf(-K, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
+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).
When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
-quote(itemize(
+quote(itemization(
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
+ file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
+ permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
+ specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
))
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.)
+destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
+observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
+non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
+(Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
+these behaviors.)
dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
-quote(itemize(
+quote(itemization(
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
If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
+dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
+ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs. This nonstandard option only
+works if the remote rsync also supports it. bf(--acls) implies bf(--perms).
+
+dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
+extended attributes to be the same as the local ones. This will work
+only if the remote machine's rsync supports this option also. This is
+a non-standard option.
+
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
dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
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).
+and bf(--fake-super) options).
Without this option, the owner is set to the invoking user on the
receiving side.
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.
+super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
such as named sockets and fifos.
being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
super-user can use bf(--no-super).
+dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
+super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via a
+special extended attribute that is attached to each file (as needed). This
+includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
+device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
+any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
+the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
+access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file or
+directory, the files we create can always be accessed/changed by the
+creating user).
+
+The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
+To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, specify an rsync
+path:
+
+quote(tt( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --fake-super" /src/ host:/dest/))
+
+Since there is only one "side" in a local copy, this option affects both
+the sending and recieving of files. You'll need to specify a copy using
+"localhost" if you need to avoid this. Note, however, that it is always
+safe to copy from some non-fake-super files into some fake-super files
+using a local bf(--fake-super) command because the non-fake source files
+will just have their normal attributes.
+
+This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
+
+See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
+
dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
by this option.
dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
-updating files that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is
+creating files (including directories) 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).
+(which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete extraneous files).
dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
-already exist on the destination. See also bf(--ignore-non-existing).
+already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
+directories, or nothing would get done). 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
-updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
-nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
+dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
+side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
+and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
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.
+was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
+(bf(-d)) is enabled, 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
The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
---delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
-bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
-bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
+--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
+bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
+the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
+bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
-side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
-or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
+side be done before the transfer starts.
See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
-specified).
+specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
+algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
+memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
+dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
+side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
+completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
+temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
+is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
+the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
+using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
+incremental scan).
+
dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
-current transfer.
+current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
+recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
+transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on 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).
+files or directories.
+Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to
+be warned about any extraneous files in the destination, but be very
+careful to never specify a 0 value to an older rsync client, or the
+option will be silently ignored. (A 3.0.0 client will die with an
+error if the remote rsync is not new enough to handle the situation.)
This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
-quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
+quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
-systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
+systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
a file should be ignored.
-The exclude list is initialized to:
+The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
+initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
-.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
+.del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .bzr/)))
-then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
+then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
are delimited by whitespace).
for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
-quote(itemize(
+quote(itemization(
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) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
selected to try to speed up the transfer.
+This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
+rsync treats existing files as definitive (so it never looks in the link-dest
+dirs when a destination file already exists), and as malleable (so it might
+change the attributes of a destination file, which affects all the hard-linked
+versions).
+
+Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
+link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
+substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
+file is updated.
+
If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
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').
+This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-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(YXcstpogz), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
+The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
+format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), 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(Y) are as follows:
-quote(itemize(
+quote(itemization(
it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
(sent).
it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
-quote(itemize(
+quote(itemization(
it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
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(z) slot is reserved for future use.
+ it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for reporting update (access) time changes
+ (a feature that is not yet released).
+ it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
+ it() The bf(x) slot is reserved for reporting extended attribute changes
+ (a feature that is not yet released).
))
One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
outputting them as a verbose message).
-dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
-rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
+dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
+rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
-the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
-option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
+the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
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 itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
-the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
+touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
+included in the string, 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(--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 bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
+bf(--out-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
+Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
-(followed, of course, by the log-format output).
+(followed, of course, by the out-format output).
+
+dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
+to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
+requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
+transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
+enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
+option if you wish to override this.
+
+Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
+happening:
+
+verb( rsync -av --rsync-path="rsync --log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/)
+
+This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
+unexpectedly.
+
+dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
+per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
+(which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
+specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
+For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
+in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
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(
+The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
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
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
+the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .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
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.
+you want 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
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
+time-honored options of "bf(--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
something to watch.
Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
-When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
+While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
+looks like this:
verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
-This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
-is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
-data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
-remaining in this transfer.
+In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
+sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
+per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
+is maintained until the end.
-After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
+These statistics can be misleading if the incremental transfer algorithm is
+in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
+followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
+dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
+will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
+was finishing the matched part of the file.
-verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
+When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
+summary line that looks like this:
-This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
-transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
-the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
-These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
-what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
+verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396))
+
+In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate
+of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
+seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
+during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
+receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
+the 396 total files in the file-list.
dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
transfer that may be interrupted.
-dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
-in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
-is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
-transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
-must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
-single line.
+dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password in a
+file for accessing an rsync daemon. The file must not be world readable.
+It should contain just the password as a single line.
+
+When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
+option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
+authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
+config file).
dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
+dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
+sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
+the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
+fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
+separated by a comma (local first), e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591).
+Finally, you can specify a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion.
+The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
+affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
+
+Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
+(including include/exclude files), in a files-from file, nor those
+specified on the command line. It is up to you to ensure that you're
+requesting the right names from a remote server, and you can specify
+extra include/exclude rules if there are filename differences on the
+two sides that need to be accounted for. (In the future there may be
+a way to specify a UTF-8 filter rule that gets auto-converted to the
+local side's character set.)
+
dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
+given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
+file.
+
+dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
+given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
+file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
+case transfer logging is turned off.
+
dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
can take several forms:
-itemize(
+itemization(
it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
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.)
+ (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
+ version 2.6.7.
)
Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
-itemize(
+itemization(
it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
transfer-root directory
The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
-itemize(
+itemization(
it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
-itemize(
- it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
+itemization(
+ it() A bf(/) 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, 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
+ it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
non-directories.
it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
+ it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
+ ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
+ option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
+ marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
+ on the source from being deleted on the destination.
)
Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
-your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
+your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
-itemize(
+itemization(
it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
-(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
+(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
components to ascend from the directory being copied.
Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
more details.
+dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
+environment variable.
dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.6.8 of rsync.
+This man page is current for version 2.6.9 of rsync.
+
+manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
+
+The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
+and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
+awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
+when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
+the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
+named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
+ssh login.
manpagesection(CREDITS)
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff