--inplace update destination files in-place
--append append data onto shorter files
--append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
+ --no-tweak recreate dest files rather than tweak attrs
+ --no-tweak-hlinked ... if they are hard-linked
-d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
-L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
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. Any files that are the same size or shorter on the receiving size
-are skipped. Files that do not yet exist on the receiving side are also
-sent, since they are considered to have 0 length. Implies bf(--inplace),
+side. If a file needs to be transferred and its size on the receiver is
+the same or longer than the size on the sender, the file is skipped. This
+does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content attributes
+(e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need to be
+transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any non-regular files.
+Implies bf(--inplace),
but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
file's length).
transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
+dit(bf(--no-tweak)) If a corresponding source file and destination file
+are determined to have identical data (or symlink target path, etc.) but differ
+in preserved attributes, rsync's default behavior (which can be explicitly
+requested via bf(--tweak)) is to tweak the attributes of the destination file
+in place. bf(--no-tweak) makes rsync recreate the destination file instead.
+
+You can use bf(--no-tweak) to avoid the race inherent in
+bf(--no-tweak-hlinked) if the destination is subject to concurrent
+modification. It may also be useful to ensure that, if multiple attributes
+of the destination file need updating, the attributes visible at the
+destination path change simultaneously. (Caveat: In the current
+implementation, the abbreviated extended attributes of the recreated file
+may be set after it is moved into place.)
+
+This option conflicts with bf(--inplace) and with bf(--append) because those
+combinations don't make sense.
+
+dit(bf(--no-tweak-hlinked)) Like bf(--no-tweak) but only affects destination
+files that have more than one hard link.
+You can use bf(--no-tweak-linked) to safely update a backup that has files
+hard-linked from a previous backup if you are not worried about concurrent
+modification to the destination.
+
+This option currently conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append). In
+the future, it might selectively disable those options for multiply linked
+destination files.
+
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 name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
extent practical, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
send the actual data for file transfers, so bf(--progress) has no effect,
the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
-statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
-where no file transfers are needed.
+statistics are too small; and the "speedup" is not printed at all because it
+is meaningless.
dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the delta-transfer algorithm
is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
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
+ it() A bf(c) means either that a regular file has a different checksum
+ (requires bf(--checksum)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has
+ a changed value.
+ Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1, this
+ change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular files.
+ it() A bf(s) means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
by the file transfer.
it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
when a file/symlink/device is updated without bf(--times) and when a
symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time.
+ (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the bf(s) flag combined
+ with bf(t) instead of the proper bf(T) flag for this time-setting failure.)
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
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff