mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(25 Jan 2002)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
manpagesynopsis()
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 already
-exists.
+greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
+updated.
The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
-differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
+differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
report that accompanies this package.
Some of the additional features of rsync are:
itemize(
- it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
+ 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
- it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
+ it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
it() does not require root privileges
it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
source nor destination path contains a : separator
it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
- a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
- ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
+ a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
+ rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
single : separator.
it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
- separator or a rsync:// URL.
+ separator or an rsync:// URL.
it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
- separator or a rsync:// URL.
+ separator or an rsync:// URL.
it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
destination path contains a :: separator and the
- --rsh=COMMMAND option is also provided.
+ --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
-daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, rsync typically uses rsh
+daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
-different remote shell by default, such as ssh.
+different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
and a destination, one of which may be remote.
-Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
+Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
-quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
+quote(rsync -t *.c foo:src/)
-this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
+This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
-this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
+This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
-links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
+links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
size of data portions of the transfer.
quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
-a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
-all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
-/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
-contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
-the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
-using the --delete option.
+A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
+additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
+/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
+to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
+containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
+destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
+files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
+/dest/foo:
+
+quote(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)
+quote(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
-this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
+This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
+manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
+
+The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
+quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
+
+quote(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest)
+
+This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
+additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
+and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
+to be a part of the filenames.
+
+quote(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)
+
+This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
+word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
+that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
+whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
+a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
+whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
+in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
+
+quote(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)
+quote(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)
+
+This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
+wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
+
+
manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
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 allow
-proxying to port 873.
+your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
+proxy connections to port 873.
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
that:
itemize(
it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
- separate the hostname from the path or a rsync:// URL.
+ separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
connect.
manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
-server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using rsh or
-ssh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
+server 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 server
features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
-An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
-called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
-information.
+An rsync server 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(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
-To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, use the
-"command=em(COMMAND)" syntax in the remote user's
-authorized_keys entry, where command would be
-
-quote(rsync --server --daemon .)
-
-NOTE: rsync's argument parsing expects the trailing ".", so make sure
-that it's there. If you want to use a rsyncd.conf(5)-style
-configuration file other than /etc/rsyncd.conf, you can added a
---config-file option to the em(command):
-
-quote(rsync --server --daemon --config-file=em(file) .)
+To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
+in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
-each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
+each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
"arvidsjaur".
To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
sync: get put)
this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
-link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
+connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-q, --quiet decrease verbosity
-c, --checksum always checksum
- -a, --archive archive mode
+ -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
- -b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
+ --no-relative turn off --relative
+ --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
+ -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
--backup-dir make backups into this directory
- --suffix=SUFFIX define backup suffix
+ --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
-u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
+ --inplace update the destination files inplace
+ -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
-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)
-W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
--no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
-x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
- -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
- -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
+ -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
+ -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
--rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
- -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
--existing only update files that already exist
- --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on the receiving side
- --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
- --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
- --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
- --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
+ --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
+ --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
+ --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
+ --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
+ --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
--max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
+ --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
--partial keep partially transferred files
- --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
+ --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
+ --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
- --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
- -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
- --size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
- --modify-window=NUM Timestamp window (seconds) for file match (default=0)
+ --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
+ -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
+ --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
+ --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
-T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
- --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
+ --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
+ --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
+ --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
-P equivalent to --partial --progress
-z, --compress compress file data
+ -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
--exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
--include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
--include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
+ --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
+ -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
--version print version number
- --daemon run as a rsync daemon
- --no-detach do not detach from the parent
- --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
- --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
- --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
- --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
+ --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
--no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
--stats give some file transfer stats
--progress show progress during transfer
--log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
--password-file=FILE get password from FILE
--bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
- --read-batch=PREFIX read batch fileset starting with PREFIX
- --write-batch=PREFIX write batch fileset starting with PREFIX
+ --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
+ --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
+ --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
+ -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
+ -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
-h, --help show this help screen
+)
+Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:
+verb(
+ --daemon run as an rsync daemon
+ --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
+ --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
+ --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
+ --no-detach do not detach from the parent
+ --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
+ -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
+ -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
+ -h, --help show this help screen
)
manpageoptions()
startdit()
dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
-available in rsync
+available in rsync.
-dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
+dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
cron.
dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
-already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
-off this behavior.
+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
-already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
---size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
+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 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.
the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
-transferring to/from FAT filesystems which cannot represent times with
-a 1 second resolution this option is useful.
+transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
+with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
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 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
verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
-machine. The full path name is preserved.
-
-dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
-renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
-control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
+machine -- the full path name is preserved.
+
+dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
+needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
+file processing.
+
+dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --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 -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 --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.
+
+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
+--backup-dir and --suffix options.
dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
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 -b option. The default is a ~.
-If --backup-dir and --suffix are both specified,
-the SUFFIX is appended to the filename even in the backup directory.
+backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
+if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
file.
+In the currently implementation, a difference of file format is always
+considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
+is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
+symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
+regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
+free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
+
+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.
+
+dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
+and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
+file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't extract the full amount of
+network reduction it might otherwise (since it does not yet try to sort
+data matches -- a future version may improve this).
+
+This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
+or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
+bound.
+
+The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
+the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir, --compare-dest, --copy-dest, and
+--link-dest (a future rsync version will hopefully update the protocol to
+remove these restrictions).
+
+WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
+transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
+should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
+rsync will be unable to update a file inplace that is not writable by the
+receiving user.
+
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
-they point to is copied, rather than the symlink.
+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
+modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
+to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
+an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
+will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
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.
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
-target machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
-"disk" is actually a networked file system). This is the default when both
-the source and target are on the local machine.
+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(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
default.
-dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
-permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
+dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
+permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
+
+Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
+source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
+other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
+(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
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. Note that if the remote system
-is a daemon using chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because the
-remote system cannot get access to the usernames from /etc/passwd.
+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 --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 group name, not group id
-number).
+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 --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
with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
-cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
-their checksums compared and show up in log messages even if they haven't
-changed.
+cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
+updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
+if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
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.
files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
to prevent disasters.
+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
+may be a fractional value (e.g. "--max-size=1.5m").
+
dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
to run first using the dry run option (-n) to see what files would be
deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
-If the sending side detects any IO errors then the deletion of any
+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
delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
Implies --delete.
-dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
-transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
-the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
-then use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
+dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions on the
+receiving side before transferring files to try to ensure that there is
+sufficient space on the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete
+after transferring, use the --delete-after switch. Implies --delete.
dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
-even when there are IO errors.
+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 --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
-dit(bf(-B , --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
-the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
+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.
dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
-remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use rsh by
-default, but you may prefer to use ssh because of its high security.
+remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
+default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
-remote shell em(COMMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
+remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server 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 server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
the binary is in.
+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
+a file should be ignored.
+
+The exclude list is initialized to:
+
+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 (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.
+
dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
to build up the list of files to exclude.
-See the section on exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
-this option.
+See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --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(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
-See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
-this option.
+See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
from a file.
-
-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
-a file should be ignored.
-
-The exclude list is initialized to:
-
-quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
-.nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
-*.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
-
-then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
-files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
-
-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.
-
-dit(bf(--csum-length=LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
-rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
-find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
-this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
-making things faster.
-
-You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
---csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
-
-Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
-with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
-microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
-before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
-
-Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
-checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
-if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
-option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
+If em(FILE) is "-" 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 "-"
+for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
+transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
+instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
+is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
+directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
+than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
+behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
+you want it.
+
+The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
+source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
+allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
+command:
+
+quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
+
+If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
+directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
+contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
+or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
+that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
+duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
+force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
+
+In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
+instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
+(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
+specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
+transfer". For example:
+
+quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
+
+This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
+was located on the remote "src" host.
+
+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
transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
the temporary files in the receiving directory.
-dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR on
+dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
the destination machine as an additional directory to compare destination
-files against when doing transfers. This is useful for doing transfers to
-a new destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing a
-flash-cutover when all files have been successfully transferred (for
-example by moving directories around and removing the old directory,
-although this requires also doing the transfer with -I to avoid skipping
-files that haven't changed). 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.
+files against when doing transfers if the files are missing in the
+destination directory. Files that are identical to one of the specified
+directories are not transferred. This is useful for creating a sparse
+backup into a new hierarchy. If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative
+to the destination directory. See also --copy-dest and --link-dest.
+
+dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
+rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
+directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
+useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
+files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
+successfully transferred. If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to
+the destination directory. See also --compare-dest and --link-dest.
+
+dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
+unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory
+(The files must be identical in ownership and permissions--if those items
+are being preserved--in order for the files to be linked together. If
+em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
+An example:
+
+verb(
+ rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
+)
+
+If more than one --link-dest option is specified, rsync will try to find an
+exact match to link with (searching the list in the order specified), and
+if not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try
+to speed up the transfer. See also --compare-dest and --copy-dest.
+
+Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
+--link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
+(or implied by -a). If the receiving rsync is not new enough, you can work
+around this bug by avoiding the -o option.
dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
-option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
+option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
same method that gzip uses.
Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
information sent for matching data blocks.
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
+and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
at both ends.
-By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
+By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
option is not specified.
-If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or if a user or group
-name does not exist on the destination system, then the numeric id
-from the source system is used instead.
+If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
+on the destination system, then the numeric ID
+from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
+"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
+the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
+users and groups and what you can do about it.
-dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
+dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
-dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
-daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
-bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
-
-If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
-run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
-become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
-(/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
-requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
-details.
-
-dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
-rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
-option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
-be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
-bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
-bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
-debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
-sshd.
-
-dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
-when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
-rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
-address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
-in conjunction with the --config option.
-
-dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
-the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
-specified.
-
-dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
-rather than the default port 873.
-
-dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking IO when launching
-a remote shell transport. If -e or --rsh are not specified or are set to
-the default "rsh", this defaults to blocking IO, otherwise it defaults to
-non-blocking IO. You may find the --blocking-io option is needed for some
-remote shells that can't handle non-blocking IO. (Note that ssh prefers
-non-blocking IO.)
+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 --blocking-io, for use when it is the
default.
--partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
+dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
+put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
+file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
+dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
+rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
+its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
+existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
+rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
+
+Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
+whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
+"--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
+in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
+if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
+DIR was specified as a relative path).
+
+If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
+--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 --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
+rule at the end of any other include/exclude rules. Note that if you are
+supplying your own include/exclude 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 --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
+
+IMPORTANT: the --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 --partial to be
+enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial (or
+-P) is used. For instance, instead of specifying --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
+along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
+environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
+.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time the --partial option
+does not look for this environment value is when --inplace was also
+specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir).
+
dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
something to watch.
+Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
-This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
-the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
+When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
-dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
-found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
-option to make it easier.
+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.
+
+After the a file is complete, it the data looks like this:
+
+verb(
+ 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
+)
+
+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.
+
+dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --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 server. Note that this option
-is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
+is only useful when accessing an rsync server 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.
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 equalling the specified limit. A value
+result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
of zero specifies no limit.
-dit(bf(--write-batch=PREFIX)) Generate a set of files that can be
-transferred as a batch update. Each filename in the set starts with
-PREFIX. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
+dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
+another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
+section for details.
+
+dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
+file previously generated by --write-batch.
+If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
+See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
+
+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
+rsync daemon (see also these options in the --daemon mode section).
+
+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
+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()
+for checksum seed.
+
+enddit()
+
+The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
+
+startdit()
+
+dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
+daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
+bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
+
+If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
+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
+details.
+
+dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
+when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
+rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
+address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
+in conjunction with the --config option.
+
+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 --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(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
+the default. This is only relevant when --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
+the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
+
+dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
+rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
+option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
+be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
+bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
+bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
+debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
+sshd.
+
+dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
+rather than the default port 873.
+
+dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
+when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
+listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
+versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
+an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
+try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
-dit(bf(--read-batch=PREFIX)) Apply a previously generated change batch,
-using the fileset whose filenames start with PREFIX. See the "BATCH
-MODE" section for details.
+dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after --daemon, print a short help
+page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
enddit()
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
-the command line. When a filename is encountered, rsync checks the
+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 it is an include pattern then that filename is not
skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
filename is not skipped.
-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
+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 a 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 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.
+The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
+when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
+parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
+because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
+hierarchy.
Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
itemize(
+
it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
- the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
- the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
+ the filename.
+ This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
+ 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.
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
matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
- it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
- the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
+ 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 /) then it
- is matched against the full filename, including any leading
- directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
- only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
- that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
- actually be any portion of a path.
+ it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
+ then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
+ directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
+ matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
+ remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
+ actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
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.
)
-The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
-single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
+The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
+you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
+options in the proper order.
+
+Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
+directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
+the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
+important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
-If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
-algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
-parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
-will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
-them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
---exclude '*'.
+verb(
+ + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
+ + /file-is-included
+ - *
+)
+
+This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' 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: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
+before the --exclude='*' rule). 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:
+
+verb(
+ + /some/
+ + /some/path/
+ + /some/path/this-file-is-found
+ + /file-also-included
+ - *
+)
-Here are some exclude/include examples:
+Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
itemize(
it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
- it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
+ 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 base directory called foo
+ 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 base directory called foo
+ 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
manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
-of rsync. The interface or behaviour may change before it stabilizes.
+of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
+feel free to try this out.
Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
-client to store the information needed to repeat this operation against
-other destination trees in a batch update fileset (see below). The
-filename of each file in the fileset starts with a prefix specified by
-the user as an argument to the write-batch option. This fileset is
-then copied to each remote host, where rsync is run with the read-batch
-option, again specifying the same prefix, and the destination tree.
-Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the
-batch update fileset.
+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(-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.
-The fileset consists of 4 files:
+Examples:
-itemize(
-it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_argvs) command-line arguments
-it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_flist) rsync internal file metadata
-it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_csums) rsync checksums
-it() bf(<prefix>.rsync_delta) data blocks for file update & change
+verb(
+ $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
+ $ scp foo* remote:
+ $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
)
-The .rsync_argvs file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
-destination tree using that batch update fileset. It can be executed
-using a 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.
+verb(
+ $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
+ $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
+)
-Generating the batch update fileset 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.
+In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
+and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
+"foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
+into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
+reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
-Example:
+itemize(
-verb(
-$ rsync --write_batch=pfx -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
-$ rcp pfx.rsync_* remote:
-$ rsh remote rsync --read_batch=pfx -a /bdest/dir/
-# or alternatively
-$ rsh remote ./pfx.rsync_argvs /bdest/dir/
-)
+ 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.
+
+ it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
+ rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
+
+ it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
+ the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
+ This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
+ --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
+ make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
+ standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
-In this example, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ with /source/dir/
-and the information to repeat this operation is stored in the files
-pfx.rsync_*. These files are then copied to the machine named "remote".
-Rsync is then invoked on "remote" to update /bdest/dir/ the same way as
-/adest/dir/. The last line shows the rsync_argvs file being used to
-invoke rsync.
+)
Caveats:
-The read-batch option expects the destination tree it is meant to update
+The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
-is encountered the update will fail at that point, leaving the
-destination tree in a partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
+is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
+appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
+and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
+error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
+if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
+always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
+option (when reading the batch).
+If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
+partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
destination tree.
-The rsync version used on all destinations should be identical to the
-one used on the original destination.
-
-The -z/--compress option does not work in batch mode and yields a usage
-error. A separate compression tool can be used instead to reduce the
-size of the batch update files for transport to the destination.
+The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
+one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
+protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
+to handle.
-The -n/--dryrun option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
+The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
error.
-See bf(http://www.ils.unc.edu/i2dsi/unc_rsync+.html) for papers and technical
-reports.
+When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
+to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
+as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
+For instance
+--write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
+--include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
+without --delete-excluded.
+
+The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
+options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
+shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
+list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
+user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
+to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
+
+The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
+version uses a new implementation.
manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
-Three basic behaviours are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
+Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
link in the source directory.
By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
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
-unsafe links to be ommitted altogether.
+unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
remote shell like this:
verb(
- rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
+ ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
)
then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
startdit()
-dit(bf(RERR_SYNTAX 1)) Syntax or usage error
-dit(bf(RERR_PROTOCOL 2)) Protocol incompatibility
-dit(bf(RERR_FILESELECT 3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
-
-dit(bf(RERR_UNSUPPORTED 4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
+dit(bf(0)) Success
+dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
+dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
+dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
+dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
-them; or an option was speciifed that is supported by the client and
+them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
not by the server.
-
-dit(bf(RERR_SOCKETIO 10)) Error in socket IO
-dit(bf(RERR_FILEIO 11)) Error in file IO
-dit(bf(RERR_STREAMIO 12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
-dit(bf(RERR_MESSAGEIO 13)) Errors with program diagnostics
-dit(bf(RERR_IPC 14)) Error in IPC code
-dit(bf(RERR_SIGNAL 20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
-dit(bf(RERR_WAITCHILD 21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
-dit(bf(RERR_MALLOC 22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
-dit(bf(RERR_TIMEOUT 30)) Timeout in data send/receive
+dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
+dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
+dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
+dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
+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(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
+dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
+dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
+dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
enddit()
manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
-password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
+password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
password to a shell transport such as ssh.
dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
-are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
+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.
manpagefiles()
-/etc/rsyncd.conf
+/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
manpageseealso()
times are transferred as unix time_t values
-file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
+When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
+unmodified files.
+See the comments on the --modify-window option.
+
+file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
values
see also the comments on the --delete option
-Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
-url(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)(http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/)
-
-manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
+Please report bugs! See the website at
+url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
manpagesection(CREDITS)
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, J.W. Schultz.
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.
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff