to the detailed description below for a complete description.
verb(
-Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
- or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
- or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
- or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
- or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
- or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
-SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by remote shell
-SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell wildcards or multiple
- sources separated by space as long as they have same top-level
-
-Options
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-q, --quiet decrease verbosity
-c, --checksum always checksum
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
-b, --backup make backups (default ~ suffix)
+ --backup-dir=DIR put backups in the specified directory
--suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
-u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
-l, --links preserve soft links
-x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
-B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size (default 700)
-e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
- --rsync-path=PATH specify full path to rsync on the remote machine
+ --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
-C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
+ --existing only update files that already exist
--delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
--delete-excluded also delete excluded files on the receiving side
+ --delete-after delete after transferring, not before
+ --ignore-errors delete even if there are IO errors
+ --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
--partial keep partially transferred files
--force force deletion of directories even if not empty
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
--size-only only use file size when determining if a file should be transferred
-T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
--compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
+ -P equivalent to --partial --progress
-z, --compress compress file data
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
--exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
--include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
--version print version number
--daemon run as a rsync daemon
+ --address bind to the specified address
--config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
--port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
+ --blocking-io use blocking IO for the remote shell
--stats give some file transfer stats
--progress show progress during transfer
--log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
--password-file=FILE get password from FILE
+ --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
-h, --help show this help screen
)
already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
off this behavior.
-dit(bf(-I, --size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
+dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
already the same length and have the same time-stamp. With the
--size-only option files will be skipped if they have the same size,
regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
-dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptg. It is a quick way
+dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick way
of saying you want recursion and want to preserve everything.
-Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o (preserve
-uid) and -D (preserve devices) options are also implied.
-
dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
recursively. If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
directories at all.
renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
+dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
+tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
+very useful for incremental backups.
+
dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
useful when using rsync with a local machine.
-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
---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(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
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(--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.
+
dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
side that aren't on the sending side. Files that are excluded from
transfer are excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
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 --exclude).
+dit(bf(--delete-after)) By default rsync does file deletions before
+transferring files to try to ensure that there is sufficient space on
+the receiving filesystem. If you want to delete after transferring
+then use the --delete-after switch.
+
dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
details.
+dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
+when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
+rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
+address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
+in conjunction with the --config option.
+
dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
specified.
dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
rather than the default port 873.
+dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This specifies whether rsync will use blocking
+IO when launching a remote shell transport. You may find this is
+needed for some remote shells that can't handle the default
+non-blocking IO.
+
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
on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
algorithm is for your data.
+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
+--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(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
something to watch.
This option is normally combined with -v. Using this option without
the -v option will produce weird results on your display.
+dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. I
+found myself typing that combination quite often so I created an
+option to make it easier.
+
dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
is only useful when accessing a rsync server using the built in
transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
-must not be world readable.
+must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
+single line.
+
+dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
+transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
+using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
+of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
+transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
+result is an average transfer rate equalling the specified limit. A value
+of zero specifies no limit.
enddit()
skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
filename is not skipped.
+Note that when used with -r (which is implied by -a), every subcomponent of
+every path is visited from top down, so include/exclude patterns get
+applied recursively to each subcomponent.
+
+Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
+each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
+--exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
+
The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
itemize(
it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
- the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
- at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
- called foo anywhere in the tree.
+ the filename. Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the base of
+ the tree. On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
+ anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
+ top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
+ end of the file name.
it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
directory, not a file, link or device.
*?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
+ it() if the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
+ the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
+
it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
is matched against the full filename, including any leading
directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
- only against the final component of the filename. Furthermore, if
- the pattern includes a double asterisk "**" then all wildcards in
- the pattern will match slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
+ only against the final component of the filename. Again, remember
+ that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
+ actually be any portion of a path.
it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
-Here are some examples:
+If you end an exclude list with --exclude '*', note that since the
+algorithm is applied recursively that unless you explicitly include
+parent directories of files you want to include then the algorithm
+will stop at the parent directories and never see the files below
+them. To include all directories, use --include '*/' before the
+--exclude '*'.
+
+Here are some exclude/include examples:
itemize(
it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff