--delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
--delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
--delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
+ --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
+ --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
--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
--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
+ --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
--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
accepted: verb(
--daemon run as an rsync daemon
--address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
- --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
+ --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
--config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
-M, --dparam=OVERRIDE override global daemon config parameter
--no-detach do not detach from the parent
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
+changes this to compare a 128-bit 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),
automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
+For protocol 30 and beyond (first supported in 3.0.0), the checksum used is
+MD5. For older protocols, the checksum used is MD4.
+
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 (with -H being a notable omission).
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
+For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
source path. For example, when pushing files:
quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
the timestamps.
-dit(bf(--inplace)) This option changes how rsync transfers a file when the
-file's data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of creating
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
+dit(bf(--inplace)) This option changes how rsync transfers a file when
+its data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of creating
a new copy of the file and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync
instead writes the updated data directly to the destination file.
WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
-This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
+This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
bound.
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
+transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it were 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.
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
+being run 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
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.
+filesystem. It seems to have problems seeking over null regions,
+and ends up corrupting the files.
dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't
make any changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real run). It
The output of bf(--itemize-changes) is supposed to be exactly the same on a
dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
-call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output is the same to the
-extent practical, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
+call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
+unchanged, 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.
+where no file transfers were needed.
dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option rsync's delta-transfer 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.
+the source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
+batch-writing option is in effect.
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
combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
(which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
-sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
+sending side from causing a massive deletion of files on the
destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
bf(--delete-excluded).
See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
+dit(bf(--ignore-missing-args)) When rsync is first processing the explicitly
+requested source files (e.g. command-line arguments or bf(--files-from)
+entries), it is normally an error if the file cannot be found. This option
+suppresses that error, and does not try to transfer the file. This does not
+affect subsequent vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be
+present and later is no longer there.
+
+dit(bf(--delete-missing-args)) This option takes the behavior of (the implied)
+bf(--ignore-missing-args) option a step farther: each missing arg will become
+a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the receiving side
+(should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will
+only be successfully deleted if --force or --delete are in effect. Other than
+that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
+
+The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
+display as a "*missing" entry in the bf(--list-only) output.
+
dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
even when there are I/O errors.
suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
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).
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.
+See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE and other information.
dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
was located on the remote "src" host.
+If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
+bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
+filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
+receiving host's charset.
+
dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
file are split on whitespace).
-If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
-bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
-filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
-receiving host's charset.
-
-dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and some options to
+dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and most options to
the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
-If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args will also be translated
+If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args related to the remote
+side will also be translated
from the local to the remote character-set. The translation happens before
wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
-"[:alpha:]", are supported).
+"[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
-The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (several
-of these are newly added for 3.0.0):
-
-verb( gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg)
+The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (in this
+version of rsync):
+
+bf(7z)
+bf(ace)
+bf(avi)
+bf(bz2)
+bf(deb)
+bf(gpg)
+bf(gz)
+bf(iso)
+bf(jpeg)
+bf(jpg)
+bf(lzma)
+bf(lzo)
+bf(mov)
+bf(mp3)
+bf(mp4)
+bf(ogg)
+bf(rar)
+bf(rpm)
+bf(rzip)
+bf(tbz)
+bf(tgz)
+bf(z)
+bf(zip)
This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+The default FORMAT used if bf(--log-file) is specified and this option is not
+is '%i %n%L'.
+
dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer
algorithm is for your data. This option is equivalent to bf(--info=stats2)
recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
rules.
+Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the bf(--min-size) option, does
+not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave directories
+empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the transfer rule.
+
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).
+being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
+destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
+this.
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
need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude
the content of subdirectories: bf(-r --exclude='/*/*').
-dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
-transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
-using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
-of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
-transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
-result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
-of zero specifies no limit.
+dit(bf(--bwlimit=RATE)) This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer
+rate for the data sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The
+RATE value can be suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may
+be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--bwlimit=1.5m)"). If no suffix is specified,
+the value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
+been appended). See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of all the
+available suffixes. A value of zero specifies no limit.
+
+For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
+nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is possible.
+
+Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits the
+size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average transfer
+rate at the requested limit. Some "burstiness" may be seen where rsync writes
+out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate into compliance.
+
+Due to the internal buffering of data, the bf(--progress) option may not be an
+accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because some
+files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly buffered,
+while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the output buffer
+occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
is the case.
-dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
+dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the 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
+checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
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
makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
-dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
-transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
-The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
-requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
-client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
+dit(bf(--bwlimit=RATE)) This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer
+rate for the data the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still
+specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but no larger value will be allowed.
+See the client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
)
+The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
+
+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 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
+ should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
+ follow.
+ it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
+ side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
+ being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
+ unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
+ become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
+ which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
+ it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
+ side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
+ 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.
+)
+
manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
"- 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
- default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
+ (above) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
+ default to having that modifier set (except for the bf(!) modifier, which
+ would not be useful). 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
- per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
-)
-
-The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
-
-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 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
- should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
- follow.
- it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
- side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
- being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
- unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
- become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
- which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
- it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
- side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
- 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 apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
+ specifies sides to affect (via the bf(s) or bf(r) modifier or both),
+ then the rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or
+ a rule prefix such as bf(hide)).
)
Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
this operation against other, identical destination trees.
-To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
-with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
-file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
-using the information stored in the batch file.
-
-For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
-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 (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.
-
Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
+To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
+with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
+file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
+using the information stored in the batch file.
+
+For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch
+option is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh"
+appended. This script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
+destination tree using the associated 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
+destination path. This is useful when the destination tree path on the
+current host differs from the one used to create the batch file.
+
Examples:
quote(
If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
-rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
-example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
-ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
+Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
+example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to
+ensure that the rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to
bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
manpagesection(THANKS)
-Especial thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
+Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.