mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
+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() 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
+ it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
mirroring)
)
manpagesection(GENERAL)
-There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
+Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
+current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
-itemize(
- it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
- 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 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
- using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
- contains a : separator.
- it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
- machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
- 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 an rsync:// URL.
- it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
- program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
- machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
- separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
- also provided.
- it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
- 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
- bf(--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
- local destination.
-)
+There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
+remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
+rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
+the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
+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
+"USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
+an exception to this latter rule).
-Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
-and destination paths must be local.
+As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
+the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
+
+As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
+host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
manpagesection(SETUP)
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.
tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
)
+Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
+copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
+copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
+
+quote(
+tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
+tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
+)
+
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
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)
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)
+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 server
-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 use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
- separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
- it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
+ 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 server then the
- list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
+ 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 server is provided.
+ specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
+ it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
)
-Some paths on the remote server 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 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 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,
-below).
-
-From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
-using it to connect to an rsync server, 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
-server 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 SERVER)
-
-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).
+used to log-in to the "module".
-manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
+manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
-See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
-server configuration file.
+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).
-Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
-user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
-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, 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)
to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
- -c, --checksum always checksum
-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)
-u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
--inplace update destination files in-place
+ --append append data onto shorter files
-d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
-L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
-D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
-t, --times preserve times
-O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
+ --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
- --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
+ -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without 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=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
- --existing only update files that already exist
+ --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
+ --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
--delete delete files that don't exist on sender
--delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
--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
-I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
--size-only skip files that match in size
--modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
- -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
+ -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
+ -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
--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
- -z, --compress compress file data
+ -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=': /.rsync-filter'
+ -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
--exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
--include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
--include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
--files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
- -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
- --version print version number
+ -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
--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
- --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
+ -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
+ --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
--password-file=FILE read password from FILE
--list-only list the files instead of copying them
--bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
--write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
+ --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
--read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
+ --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
--checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
- -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
- -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
- -h, --help show this help screen)
+ -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
+ -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
+ --version print version number
+ --help show this help screen)
Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
accepted: verb(
--no-detach do not detach from the parent
--port=PORT listen on alternate port number
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
- -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
- -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
- -h, --help show this help screen)
+ -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
+ -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
+ --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.
information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
you are debugging rsync.
+Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
+a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
+file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
+level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
+changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
+bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
+output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
+any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
+
dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
exactly.
-dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
-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 Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
-with a 1 second resolution bf(--modify-window=1) is useful.
+dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
+timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
+value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
+to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
+transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
+times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
+(allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
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
-specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
+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 sligntly
+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
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), (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
very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
specify a backup suffix using the bf(--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 bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
-Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
-bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
+Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
+and bf(--link-dest).
WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
receiving user.
+dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
+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 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 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
+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).
dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
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(--chmod)) This options tells rsync to apply the listed "chmod" pattern
+to the permission of the files on the destination. In addition to the normal
+parsing rules specified in the chmod 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.
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
boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
contents of only one filesystem.
-dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
-only update files that already exist on the destination.
+dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid recursing into a
+directory that is the mount-point for another filesystem, including (as of
+2.6.7), "bind" mount-points. You can still copy the contents of multiple
+file systems if you include a source dir from each file system -- this just
+limits rsync's directory-recursion algorithm.
-dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
-This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
-the destination.
+Rsync will copy the directory at each encountered mount-point unless this
+option is repeated. Note, however, that the attributes of this mount-point
+directory are copied from those currently visible in the filesystem, not
+the inaccessible attributes of the underlying directory.
-dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
-files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
-to prevent disasters.
+This option does not affect the "collapsing" of symlinks that options such
+as bf(--copy-links) perform, irrespective of what filesystem the symlink's
+referent may be on.
-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. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
+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
+updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
+nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
-excluded from being deleted unless you use bf(--delete-excluded).
+also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
+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(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
+See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
+this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
+bf(--delete-excluded).
See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
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(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
+files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
+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 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.
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(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
+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 server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
-TO AN RSYNC SERVER 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.)
See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
-dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
-rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
-that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
-the binary is in.
+dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
+on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
+the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
+Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
+program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
+not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
+communicate.
+
+One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
+machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
+
+quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
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
If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
-regardless of where the -C was placed on the command-line. This makes them
+regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
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
quote(tt( 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 bf(-r)
-or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
+directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
+contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
+the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
+mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
+if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
+also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
+explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
+Also note
that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--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).
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
+dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
the temporary files in the receiving directory.
+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
+looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
+has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
+found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
+
+Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
+fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
+filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
+
dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
have changed from an earlier backup.
Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
-provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
-finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
-and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
+provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
+for an exact match.
+If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
+and the attributes updated.
+If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
+selected to try to speed up the transfer.
If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--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.
+directory using a local 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.
+
+Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
+rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
+If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
+selected to try to speed up the transfer.
If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
-Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--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.
+Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
+provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
+for an exact match.
+If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
+and the attributes updated.
+If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
+selected to try to speed up the transfer.
If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
(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 any data from
-the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
-option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
-same method that gzip uses.
+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
+being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
-Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
-that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
-compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
-information sent for matching data blocks.
+Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
+be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
+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
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(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
+connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
+specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
+option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
+
dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
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
+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:
+
+quote(itemize(
+ it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
+ (sent).
+ it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
+ (received).
+ it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
+ (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
+ it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
+ bf(--hard-links)).
+ it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
+ have attributes that are being modified).
+))
+
+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.
+
+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
+a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
+item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
+dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
+a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
+
+The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
+
+quote(itemize(
+ it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
+ updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
+ it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
+ by the file transfer.
+ it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
+ to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
+ means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
+ anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
+ without bf(--times).
+ 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).
+ 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
+the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
+you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
+outputting them as a verbose message).
dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
-rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
-specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
-rsyncd.conf.
+rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
+string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
+a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
+the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
+option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
+
+Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
+in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
+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(--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
+the format of its per-file output using this option.
+
+Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
+one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
+logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
+is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
+the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
+(followed, of course, by the log-format output).
dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
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 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 bf(--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 bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied) that an
-existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
+dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than 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
+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
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
-"bf(--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).
+Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
+the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
+"bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
+partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
+remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
-If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
+If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
bf(--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 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 will be ineffective).
+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
is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
+For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
+bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
+refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
+of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
+safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
+
dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
-updated file into the file's partial-dir (see above) until the end of the
+updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
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. If you don't specify the bf(--partial-dir) option, this option will
-cause it to default to ".~tmp~" (RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR is not consulted for
-this value). Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
+atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
+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
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 bf(--verbose) without incrementing verbosity.
+Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
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 an rsync server using the built in
+in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
+is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon 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.
dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
-come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
+come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
-non-recursive listing.
+non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
+copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
+must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
-section for details.
+section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
+
+dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
+no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
+This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
+other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
+
+Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
+media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
+can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
+whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
+partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
+happening).
+
+Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
+system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
+into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
+(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
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
+is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
+version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
+bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
+bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
+batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
+file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
+
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
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.
+daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client 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
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 bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
-rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
-address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
-in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
-option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
+run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
+allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
+makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
+See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
quote(
-tt(x [RULE])nl()
-tt(xMODIFIERS [RULE])nl()
+tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
+tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
)
-The 'x' is a single-letter that specifies the kind of rule to create. It
-can have trailing modifiers, and is separated from the RULE by either a
-single space or an underscore (_). Here are the available rule prefixes:
+You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
+below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
+MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
+must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
+Here are the available rule prefixes:
quote(
-bf(-) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
-bf(+) specifies an include pattern. nl()
-bf(.) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
-bf(:) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
-bf(!) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no RULE) nl()
+bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
+bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
+bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
+bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
+bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
+bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
+bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
+bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
+bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
)
+When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
+comment lines that start with a "#".
+
Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
-specification of include/exclude patterns and the "!" token (not to
-mention the comment lines when reading rules from a file). If a pattern
+specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
+list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
+If a pattern
does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
-the other hand, must always contain one of the prefixes above.
+the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
+start of the rule.
Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
-When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
-comment lines that start with a "#".
-
manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
-You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+" and
-"-" filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). These
-rules specify a pattern that is matched against the names of the files
-that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several forms:
+You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
+"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
+The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
+the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
+can take several forms:
itemize(
it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
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
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: "+_*/" (put it somewhere before the
-"-_*" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
+to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
+"- *" 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:
manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
-"." or a ":" filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
-above).
+merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
+section above).
There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
Some examples:
quote(
+tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
-tt(: .per-dir-filter)nl()
+tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
+tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
)
-The following modifiers are accepted after a "." or ":":
+The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
itemize(
it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
- patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
- token ("!").
+ patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
- patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
- token ("!").
- it() A bf(C) is a shorthand for the modifiers bf(nw-), which makes the
- parsing compatible with the way CVS parses their exclude files. If no
- filename is specified, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
- it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file from the transfer; e.g.
- ":e_.rules" is like ":_.rules" and "-_.rules".
+ patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
+ it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
+ CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
+ allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
+ provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
+ it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
+ "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
- "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that bf(-) or bf(+) was not
- specified to turn off the parsing of prefixes).
+ "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
+ also disabled).
+ it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
+ (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
+ default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
+ treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
+ while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
+ per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
)
The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
itemize(
- it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
- absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
- "-/_/etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
- was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
+ 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, 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.
+ it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
+ should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
+ follow.
+ it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
+ side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
+ being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
+ unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
+ become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
+ which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
+ it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
+ side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
+ being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
+ protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
+ specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
)
Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
-inherited rules. The entire set of per-dir rules is grouped together in
+inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
-per-dir rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
+dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
-Another way to prevent a single per-dir rule from being inherited is to
+Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
-would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the per-dir filter
+would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
file was found.
Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
quote(
-tt(. /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
+tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
tt(- *.gz)nl()
-tt(: .rules)nl()
+tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
tt(- *.o)nl()
)
a part of the transfer.
If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
-you should use the rule ":C" -- this is a short-hand for the rule
-":nw-_.cvsignore", and ensures that the .cvsignore file's contents are
-interpreted according to the same parsing rules that CVS uses. You can
+you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
+file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
-per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting a
+per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
-add the per-dir rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
+add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
example:
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 might be discarded with no error (if the file
+is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (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
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 bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
-error.
+to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
+creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
+(Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
+older than that with newer versions will not work.)
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
-bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch), bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
-bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless one of the
-bf(--delete) options is specified without bf(--delete-excluded).
+For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
+bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
+bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
+one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
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 omitted altogether.
+unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
+bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
(start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
components to ascend from the directory being copied.
+Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
+in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
+use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
+
+dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
+symlinks for any other options to affect).
+
+dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
+and duplicate all safe symlinks.
+
+dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
+skip all safe symlinks.
+
+dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
+ones.
+
+dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
+
manpagediagnostics()
rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
not by the server.
dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
+dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
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(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(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
enddit()
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 an rsync server.
+are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
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.
Please report bugs! See the website at
url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
+manpagesection(VERSION)
+
+This man page is current for version 2.6.6 of rsync.
+
manpagesection(CREDITS)
rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff