mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(1 Jan 2004)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(17 Apr 2004)()()
manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
manpagesynopsis()
--suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
-u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
- -L, --copy-links copy the referent of symlinks
- --copy-unsafe-links copy links outside the source tree
- --safe-links ignore links outside the destination tree
+ -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
+ --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
+ --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
-H, --hard-links preserve hard links
-p, --perms preserve permissions
-o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
-dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
+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
---size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
+--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.
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 skipped. This option can be quite slow.
+receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
(otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
will keep their original filenames).
+If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
+(which changes in a recursive transfer).
dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
symlink on the destination.
dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
-they point to is copied, rather than the symlink.
+they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink.
dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
-symbolic links that point outside the source tree. Absolute symlinks
+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 --relative is used.
dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
-which point outside the destination tree. All absolute symlinks are
+which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
give unexpected results.
The exclude list is initialized to:
-quote(RCS/ SCCS/ CVS/ .svn/ CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
-.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
-*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
+quote(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/)
then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
-files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
+files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
+are delimited by whitespace).
Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
-.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. See
-the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
+.cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
+There is not currently a way to override an exclude rule read from
+a local .cvsignore file.
+See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
+It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
+file are split on whitespace).
dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
This option increases the usefulness of --partial because partially
transferred files will remain in the new temporary destination until they
have a chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative
-to the destination directory.
+to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest) but
also will create hard links from em(DIR) to the destination directory for
unchanged files. Files with changed ownership or permissions will not be
linked.
Like bf(--compare-dest) if DIR is a relative path, it is relative
-to the destination directory.
+to the destination directory (which changes in a recursive transfer).
+An example:
+
+verb(
+ rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
+)
dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
-rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
+Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
filename is not skipped.
-The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns
-are relative to the destination directory, or "top
-directory", so patterns should not include the path elements
-of the source or destination directories. The only way in
-which a pattern will match the absolute path of a file or
-directory is if the source path is the root directory.
+The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
+to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
+subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
+is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
+This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
+
+Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
+trailing slash on the source path or changing your use of the --relative
+option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
+changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
+system). The following examples demonstrate this.
+
+Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
+path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
+Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
+
+verb(
+ Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
+ +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
+ +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
+ Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
+ Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
+
+ Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
+ +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
+ +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
+ Target file: /dest/foo/bar
+ Target file: /dest/bar/baz
+
+ Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
+ +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
+ +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
+ Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
+ Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
+
+ Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
+ +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
+ +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
+ Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
+ Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
+)
+
+The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
+look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
+(use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
-Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
-every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
+Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
+every subcomponent of
+every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
applied recursively to each subcomponent.
Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
the filename.
This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
- Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the top of the
- transferred tree.
+ Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
+ (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
end of the file name.
- The leading / does not make the pattern an absolute pathname.
it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
- directory, not a file, link or device.
+ 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
it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
- part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
+ part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
- part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
+ part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
itemize(
it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
- it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the top directory
+ it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
- levels below a directory called foo in the top directory
+ levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
- or more levels below a directory called foo in the top directory
+ or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
directories and C source files
it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
Example:
verb(
-$ rsync --write-batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
-$ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
-$ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
-# or alternatively
-$ ssh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
+ $ rsync --write-batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
+ $ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
+ $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
+ # or alternatively
+ $ ssh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
)
In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
+If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
default .cvsignore file.
and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
-Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer.
-
+Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
+Martin Pool, Wayne Davison.
manpageauthor()
-rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell <tridge@samba.org> and Paul
-Mackerras.
-
-rsync is now maintained by Martin Pool <mbp@samba.org>.
+rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
+Many people have later contributed to it.
Mailing lists for support and development are available at
url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
-
-If you suspect you have found a security vulnerability in rsync,
-please send it directly to Martin Pool and Andrew Tridgell. For other
-enquiries, please use the mailing list.