mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(7 Jul 2005)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(28 Jul 2005)()()
manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
manpagesynopsis()
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
+
rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
-rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
-rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
+rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
-rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
+rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
-rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
+rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
-rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
-
manpagedescription()
rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
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 ssh or rsh
- it() does not require root privileges
+ it() does not require super-user privileges
it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
mirroring)
a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
-"CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" section for
+"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
an exception to this latter rule).
As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
-One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
-security.
-
Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
machines.
destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
an improved copy command.
+Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
+particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
+
quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
-This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
-somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
+See the following section for more details.
manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
-It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
-transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync daemon
-running on TCP port 873.
-
-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 support
-proxy connections to port 873.
+It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
+In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
+using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
+the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
+CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
that:
itemize(
it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
+ it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
connect.
it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
+ it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
)
-Some paths on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so then
+An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
+
+verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
+
+Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
-manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
-
-It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
-daemon 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 daemon
-features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
-below).
-
-From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
-using it to connect to an rsync daemon, except that you must
-explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
-bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
-this functionality.)
-
-In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
-daemon user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
+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 support
+proxy connections to port 873.
-verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
- rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
+manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
+
+It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
+named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
+system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
+Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
+a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
+home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
+daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
+the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
+change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
+transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
+configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
+connections from "localhost".)
+
+From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
+connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
+rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
+explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
+bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
+will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
+
+verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
+
+If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
+user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
+module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
+give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell:
+
+verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
-used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
-
-manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON)
+used to log-in to the "module".
-An rsync daemon 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 the daemon is spawned via a remote
-shell--see below).
+manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
-manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
+In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
+daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
+to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
+For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
+socket connections, see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page -- that is the config
+file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
+daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
-See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
-daemon configuration file.
-
-Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
-user is root (e.g. chroot, uid, gid, etc.). There is no need to
-configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync daemon port
-if you run an rsync daemon only via a remote shell program.
-
-To run an rsync daemon out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
-in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
+If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
+no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
-q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
-c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
-a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
+ --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
- --no-relative turn off --relative
- --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
+ --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
-b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
--backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
--suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
-H, --hard-links preserve hard links
-K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
-p, --perms preserve permissions
- -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
+ -E, --executability preserve executability
+ -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
-g, --group preserve group
- -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
+ --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
+ --specials preserve special files
+ -D same as --devices --specials
-t, --times preserve times
-O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
+ --super receiver attempts super-user activities
+ --chmod=CHMOD change destination permissions
-S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
-n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
-W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
- --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
-x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
-B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
-e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
--rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
- --existing only update files that already exist
+ --existing ignore non-existing files on receiving side
--ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
--remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
--del an alias for --delete-during
--force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
--max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
--max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
+ --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
--partial keep partially transferred files
--partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
--delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
+ -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
--timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
-I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
--copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
--link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
-z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
+ --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
-C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
-f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
-F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
-0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
--address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
--port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
+ --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
--blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
- --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
--stats give some file-transfer stats
+ -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
+ --si like human-readable, but use powers of 1000
--progress show progress during transfer
-P same as --partial --progress
-i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
--version print version number
- -h, --help show this help screen)
+ --help show this help screen)
Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
accepted: verb(
--config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
--no-detach do not detach from the parent
--port=PORT listen on alternate port number
+ --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
- -h, --help show this help screen)
+ --help show this help screen)
manpageoptions()
can be used instead.
startdit()
-dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
-available in rsync.
+dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
+available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
+versions of rsync, the same help output can also be requested by using
+the bf(-h) option without any other args.
dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
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. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
+everything (with -H being a notable omission).
+The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
specify bf(-H).
+dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
+the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
+only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
+bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
+(e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
+specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
+(e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
+
+For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
+bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
+could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
+
+The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
+bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
+Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
+positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
+changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
+details).
+
dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
-example, if you used the command
+example, if you used this command:
-quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
+quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
-then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
+... this would create a file called baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
machine. If instead you used
-quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
+quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
-then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
+then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
-path information that is sent, do something like this:
+path information that is sent, you have a couple options: (1) With
+a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can
+insert a dot dir into the source path, like this:
-quote(
-tt( cd /foo)nl()
-tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
-)
+quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
-That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
+That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
+dot dir must 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
+source path. For example, when pushing files:
-dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
-needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
-file processing.
+quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
+
+(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
+"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
+If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't work with an
+rsync daemon):
+
+quote(
+tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
+tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
+)
dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
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
bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
-Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), the bf(--omit-dir-times)
-option will be enabled.
+
+Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
+bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
+also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
+filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
+(e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
+deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
+need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
+in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
+your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
+rule would never be reached).
dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the
-resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatch. Any
-file on the receiving side that is longer than a file on the sending side
-is skipped. Implies bf(--inplace).
+resend will do a normal bf(--inplace) update to correct the mismatched data.
+Only files on the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding
+file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent.
+Implies bf(--inplace), but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (though the
+bf(--sparse) option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the already-existing
+data is required).
dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
-unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
-name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
+unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
+(e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
-output a message to that effect for each one).
+output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
+bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
symlink on the destination.
"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 bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
-default.
+dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
+destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
+also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
+be the source permissions.)
-dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
-permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
+When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
-Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
-their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
-based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
-umask setting
-(which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
+quote(itemize(
+ it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
+ permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
+ the execute permission for the file.
+ it() Each new file gets its permissions set based on the source file's
+ permissions, but masked by the receiving end's umask setting (including
+ the stripping of the three special permission bits).
+))
+
+Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
+rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
+such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
+
+dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
+executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
+not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
+'x' is turned on in the source permissions.
+
+quote(itemize(
+ it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
+ permissions.
+ it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
+ has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
+))
+
+If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
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. By default, the preservation
-is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
-circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
+destination file to be the same as the source file. By default, the
+preservation is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number
+in some circumstances (see the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full
+discussion).
+This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
+super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
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
+program is not running as the super-user (or with the bf(--no-super)
+option), only groups that the
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 bf(--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
-devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
+dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
+block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
+This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
+super-user and bf(--super) is not specified.
+
+dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
+such as named sockets and fifos.
+
+dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
+dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
+activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
+activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
+all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
+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
+super-user can use bf(--no-super).
+
+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
+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.
+
+In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
+manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
+prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
+file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:
+
+quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
+
+It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
+additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
+
+See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
+permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
+
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.
dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
-up less space on the destination.
+up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
+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.
-dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
-boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
-contents of only one filesystem.
+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
+to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
+through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
+the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
+in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
+same filesystem.
+
+If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
+the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
+encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
+the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
-dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
-only update files that already exist on the destination.
+If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
+bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
+treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
+by this option.
-dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
-This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
-the destination.
+dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
+updating files that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is
+combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
+(which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete missing files).
+
+dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
+already exist on the destination. See also bf(--ignore-non-existing).
dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
-This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
+Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
+was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
+(bf(-d)) is in effect, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
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 bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
-Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
+dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
+when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
+deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
+
+Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
+using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
+bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
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
+suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
+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).
+If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
+"MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
+Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
+be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
+
+Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
+2147483649 bytes.
+
+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.
+
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.
remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon 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 daemon on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
-TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
+running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
+RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
-presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
+presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
+or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
+and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
+argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
+inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
+double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
+shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
-quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
+quote(
+tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
+tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
+)
(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
options in their .ssh/config file.)
dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
-quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
+quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
rule:
-quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
+quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
-dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--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(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
+option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
+Blank lines in the 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 is a simplified form of the
bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
-dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
-from a file.
-If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
+dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
+option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
+Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
+If em(FILE) is bf(-), 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 "-"
+exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
quote(itemize(
it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
information that is specified for each item in the file (use
- bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
+ bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
- them.
+ them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
(bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
+ it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
+ of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
+ other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
+ bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
))
The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
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.
+scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
+on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
+file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
+
+This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
+have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
+In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
+partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
+over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
+into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
+destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
+truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
+the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
+temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
+it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
+someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
+new version on the disk at the same time.
+
+If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
+space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
+which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
+destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
+have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
+partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
+about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
+path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
+single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
+partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
+rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
+an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
-bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
-(or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
-when sending to an old rsync.
+bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
+specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
+the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
+dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
+(see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
+the bf(--compress) option is implied.
+
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
at both ends.
syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
+dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
+who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
+sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
+slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for
+details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
+special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
+connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
+bf(--daemon) mode section.
+
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 bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
-default.
-
dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
+If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
+if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
+with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
+verbose messages).
-The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
-format is like the string bf(UXcstpoga)), where bf(U) is replaced by the
+The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 8 letters long. The general
+format is like the string bf(YXcstpog), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
modified.
-The update types that replace the bf(U) are as follows:
+The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
quote(itemize(
it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
))
The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
-directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, and a bf(D) for a device.
+directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
+special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
- sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and root privileges).
+ sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
- it() The bf(a) is reserved for a future enhanced version that supports
- extended file attributes, such as ACLs.
))
One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
-2.6.4). See the bf(--itemized-changes) option for a description of the
+2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
output of "%i".
The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
-bf(--log-format) without bv(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
+bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
the format of its per-file output using this option.
Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
algorithm is for your data.
+dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
+Large numbers may be output in larger units, with a K (1024), M (1024*1024),
+or G (1024*1024*1024) suffix.
+
+dit(bf(--si)) Similar to the bf(--human-readable) option, but using powers
+of 1000 instead of 1024.
+
dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
-dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
+dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
after it has served its purpose.
+
Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
(since
untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
-supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
-rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
+supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to manually insert your own
+exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that
it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
-a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
+a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added rule would never be
reached).
IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
-.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
-option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
-specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
+.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
+option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
+specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
-each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
-the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
-on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
-purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting.)
-Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
+each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
+bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead.
+Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
-you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
+you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
+there is no
chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
-absolute).
+absolute)
+and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
+delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
parallel hierarchy of files).
+dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
+rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
+that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
+creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
+recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
+rules.
+
+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).
+
+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
+that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
+
+quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
+
+Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
+the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
+that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
+(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
+
+quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide! */' src/ dest)
+
+If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
+time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
+in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
+
dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
something to watch.
dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
-If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
+If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
the default. This is only relevant when bf(--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
+a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; 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
daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
+rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
+
dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
of the transfer.
it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
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() 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 /) or a "**"
+
+ it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
+ matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
+ characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
+ it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
+ it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
+ it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
+ it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
+ it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
+ character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
+ it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
matched only against the final component of the filename.
(Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
down.)
+ it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
+ "dir_name/" had been specified) and all the files in the directory
+ (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for
+ version 2.6.7.)
)
Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
itemize(
- it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
- absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
+ it() A "/" 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.
+ was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
+ would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
+ if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
non-directories.
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.6.6pre1 of rsync.
+This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
manpagesection(CREDITS)
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff