mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(11 Oct 2006)()()
+manpage(rsyncd.conf)(5)(8 Nov 2007)()()
manpagename(rsyncd.conf)(configuration file for rsync in daemon mode)
manpagesynopsis()
manpagedescription()
The rsyncd.conf file is the runtime configuration file for rsync when
-run as an rsync daemon.
+run as an rsync daemon.
The rsyncd.conf file controls authentication, access, logging and
available modules.
manpagesection(FILE FORMAT)
-The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
+The file consists of modules and parameters. A module begins with the
name of the module in square brackets and continues until the next
-module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form 'name = value'.
+module begins. Modules contain parameters of the form "name = value".
The file is line-based -- that is, each newline-terminated line represents
either a comment, a module name or a parameter.
-Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
+Only the first equals sign in a parameter is significant. Whitespace before
or after the first equals sign is discarded. Leading, trailing and internal
whitespace in module and parameter names is irrelevant. Leading and
trailing whitespace in a parameter value is discarded. Internal whitespace
within a parameter value is retained verbatim.
-Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing
+Any line beginning with a hash (#) is ignored, as are lines containing
only whitespace.
Any line ending in a \ is "continued" on the next line in the
The values following the equals sign in parameters are all either a string
(no quotes needed) or a boolean, which may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or
true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, but is preserved
-in string values.
+in string values.
manpagesection(LAUNCHING THE RSYNC DAEMON)
The rsync daemon is launched by specifying the bf(--daemon) option to
-rsync.
+rsync.
The daemon must run with root privileges if you wish to use chroot, to
bind to a port numbered under 1024 (as is the default 873), or to set
verb( rsync 873/tcp)
and a single line something like this to /etc/inetd.conf:
-
+
verb( rsync stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/rsync rsyncd --daemon)
Replace "/usr/bin/rsync" with the path to where you have rsync installed on
Note that you should bf(not) send the rsync daemon a HUP signal to force
it to reread the tt(rsyncd.conf) file. The file is re-read on each client
-connection.
+connection.
manpagesection(GLOBAL OPTIONS)
The first parameters in the file (before a [module] header) are the
-global parameters.
+global parameters.
You may also include any module parameters in the global part of the
config file in which case the supplied value will override the
is no motd file.
dit(bf(pid file)) The "pid file" option tells the rsync daemon to write
-its process ID to that file.
+its process ID to that file. If the file already exists, the rsync
+daemon will abort rather than overwrite the file.
dit(bf(port)) You can override the default port the daemon will listen on
by specifying this value (defaults to 873). This is ignored if the daemon
dit(bf(use chroot)) If "use chroot" is true, the rsync daemon will chroot
to the "path" before starting the file transfer with the client. This has
the advantage of extra protection against possible implementation security
-holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
+holes, but it has the disadvantages of requiring super-user privileges,
of not being able to follow symbolic links that are either absolute or outside
of the new root path, and of complicating the preservation of usernames and groups
-(see below). When "use chroot" is false, for security reasons,
-symlinks may only be relative paths pointing to other files within the root
-path, and leading slashes are removed from most absolute paths (options
-such as bf(--backup-dir), bf(--compare-dest), etc. interpret an absolute path as
-rooted in the module's "path" dir, just as if chroot was specified).
-The default for "use chroot" is true.
+(see below). When "use chroot" is false, rsync will: (1) munge symlinks by
+default for security reasons (see "munge symlinks" for a way to turn this
+off, but only if you trust your users), (2) substitute leading slashes in
+absolute paths with the module's path (so that options such as
+bf(--backup-dir), bf(--compare-dest), etc. interpret an absolute path as
+rooted in the module's "path" dir), and (3) trim ".." path elements from
+args if rsync believes they would escape the chroot.
+The default for "use chroot" is true, and is the safer choice (especially
+if the module is not read-only).
In order to preserve usernames and groupnames, rsync needs to be able to
use the standard library functions for looking up names and IDs (i.e.
differently from your normal system. For example, you could abbreviate
the list of users and groups. Also, you can protect this information from
being downloaded/uploaded by adding an exclude rule to the rsyncd.conf file
-(e.g. "exclude = /etc/**"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
+(e.g. "bf(exclude = /etc/**)"). Note that having the exclusion affect uploads
is a relatively new feature in rsync, so make sure your daemon is
at least 2.6.3 to effect this. Also note that it is safest to exclude a
directory and all its contents combining the rule "/some/dir/" with the
do this automatically, but you might as well specify both to be extra
sure).
+dit(bf(munge symlinks)) The "munge symlinks" option tells rsync to modify
+all incoming symlinks in a way that makes them unusable but recoverable
+(see below). This should help protect your files from user trickery when
+your daemon module is writable. The default is disabled when "use chroot"
+is on and enabled when "use chroot" is off.
+
+If you disable this option on a daemon that is not read-only, there
+are tricks that a user can play with uploaded symlinks to access
+daemon-excluded items (if your module has any), and, if "use chroot"
+is off, rsync can even be tricked into showing or changing data that
+is outside the module's path (as access-permissions allow).
+
+The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with
+the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used
+as long as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled,
+rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to
+a directory. When using the "munge symlinks" option in a chroot area,
+you should add this path to the exclude setting for the module so that
+the user can't try to create it.
+
+Note: rsync makes no attempt to verify that any pre-existing symlinks in
+the hierarchy are as safe as you want them to be. If you setup an rsync
+daemon on a new area or locally add symlinks, you can manually protect your
+symlinks from being abused by prefixing "/rsyncd-munged/" to the start of
+every symlink's value. There is a perl script in the support directory
+of the source code named "munge-symlinks" that can be used to add or remove
+this prefix from your symlinks.
+
dit(bf(max connections)) The "max connections" option allows you to
specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections you will allow.
Any clients connecting when the maximum has been reached will receive a
-message telling them to try later. The default is 0 which means no limit.
+message telling them to try later. The default is 0, which means no limit.
+A negative value disables the module.
See also the "lock file" option.
dit(bf(log file)) When the "log file" option is set to a non-empty
dit(bf(lock file)) The "lock file" option specifies the file to use to
support the "max connections" option. The rsync daemon uses record
locking on this file to ensure that the max connections limit is not
-exceeded for the modules sharing the lock file.
+exceeded for the modules sharing the lock file.
The default is tt(/var/run/rsyncd.lock).
dit(bf(read only)) The "read only" option determines whether clients
was run as root. This complements the "uid" option. The default is gid -2,
which is normally the group "nobody".
+dit(bf(fake super)) Setting "fake super = yes" for a module causes the
+daemon side to behave as if the bf(--fake-user) command-line option had
+been specified. This allows the full attributes of a file to be stored
+without having to have the daemon actually running as root.
+
dit(bf(filter)) The "filter" option allows you to specify a space-separated
list of filter rules that the daemon will not allow to be read or written.
This is only superficially equivalent to the client specifying these
the daemon: that is, it excludes files received by a client when receiving
from a daemon and files deleted on a daemon when sending to a daemon, but
it doesn't exclude files from being deleted on a client when receiving
-from a daemon.
+from a daemon.
dit(bf(exclude from)) The "exclude from" option specifies a filename
on the daemon that contains exclude patterns, one per line.
with a hash (#) is considered a comment and is skipped. The passwords
can contain any characters but be warned that many operating systems
limit the length of passwords that can be typed at the client end, so
-you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work.
+you may find that passwords longer than 8 characters don't work.
There is no default for the "secrets file" option, you must choose a name
(such as tt(/etc/rsyncd.secrets)). The file must normally not be readable
by "other"; see "strict modes".
-dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
+dit(bf(strict modes)) The "strict modes" option determines whether or not
the permissions on the secrets file will be checked. If "strict modes" is
true, then the secrets file must not be readable by any user ID other
than the one that the rsync daemon is running under. If "strict modes" is
option. If both options are specified then the "hosts allow" option s
checked first and a match results in the client being able to
connect. The "hosts deny" option is then checked and a match means
-that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the
+that the host is rejected. If the host does not match either the
"hosts allow" or the "hosts deny" patterns then it is allowed to
connect.
I/O errors have occurred in order to prevent disastrous deletion due
to a temporary resource shortage or other I/O error. In some cases this
test is counter productive so you can use this option to turn off this
-behavior.
+behavior.
dit(bf(ignore nonreadable)) This tells the rsync daemon to completely
ignore files that are not readable by the user. This is useful for
public archives that may have some non-readable files among the
directories, and the sysadmin doesn't want those files to be seen at all.
-dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file
+dit(bf(transfer logging)) The "transfer logging" option enables per-file
logging of downloads and uploads in a format somewhat similar to that
used by ftp daemons. The daemon always logs the transfer at the end, so
if a transfer is aborted, no mention will be made in the log file.
The format is a text string containing embedded single-character escape
sequences prefixed with a percent (%) character. An optional numeric
field width may also be specified between the percent and the escape
-letter (e.g. "%-50n %8l %07p").
+letter (e.g. "bf(%-50n %8l %07p)").
The default log format is "%o %h [%a] %m (%u) %f %l", and a "%t [%p] "
is always prefixed when using the "log file" option.
quote(itemization(
it() %a the remote IP address
- it() %b the number of bytes actually transferred
+ it() %b the number of bytes actually transferred
it() %B the permission bits of the file (e.g. rwxrwxrwt)
it() %c the checksum bytes received for this file (only when sending)
it() %f the filename (long form on sender; no trailing "/")
delete modes without affecting bf(--remove-sent-files).
When an option is refused, the daemon prints an error message and exits.
-To prevent all compression, you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
+To prevent all compression when serving files,
+you can use "dont compress = *" (see below)
instead of "refuse options = compress" to avoid returning an error to a
client that requests compression.
dit(bf(dont compress)) The "dont compress" option allows you to select
filenames based on wildcard patterns that should not be compressed
-during transfer. Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage so it
+when pulling files from the daemon (no analogous option exists to
+govern the pushing of files to a daemon).
+Compression is expensive in terms of CPU usage, so it
is usually good to not try to compress files that won't compress well,
-such as already compressed files.
+such as already compressed files.
The "dont compress" option takes a space-separated list of
case-insensitive wildcard patterns. Any source filename matching one
of the patterns will not be compressed during transfer.
-The default setting is tt(*.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.rpm *.deb *.iso *.bz2 *.tbz)
+See the bf(--skip-compress) option in the bf(rsync)(1) manpage for the list
+of file suffixes that are not compressed by default. Specifying a value
+for the bf(dont compress) option changes the default when the daemon is
+the sender.
dit(bf(pre-xfer exec), bf(post-xfer exec)) You may specify a command to be run
before and/or after the transfer. If the bf(pre-xfer exec) command fails, the
[rsyncftp]
path = /var/ftp/pub/rsync
comment = rsync ftp area (approx 6 MB)
-
+
[sambawww]
path = /public_html/samba
comment = Samba WWW pages (approx 240 MB)
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 2.6.9pre1 of rsync.
+This man page is current for version 3.0.0pre5 of rsync.
manpagesection(CREDITS)
Thanks to Warren Stanley for his original idea and patch for the rsync
daemon. Thanks to Karsten Thygesen for his many suggestions and
-documentation!
+documentation!
manpageauthor()
Many people have later contributed to it.
Mailing lists for support and development are available at
-url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
+url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff