--partial keep partially transferred files
--partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
--delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
+ -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
--timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
-I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
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
+positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
details).
It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options.
+If permissions are not being preserved (via bf(--perms)), the resulting value
+will still be masked by the receiving end's umask setting.
+
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(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
even when there are I/O errors.
-dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete directories even if
-they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
-is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
-Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
+dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
+when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
+deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
+
+Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
+using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
+bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
file are split on whitespace).
dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
-scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
-transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
-the temporary files in the receiving directory.
+scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
+on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
+file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
+
+This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
+have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
+In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory in on a different disk
+partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
+over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
+into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
+destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
+truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
+the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
+temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
+it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
+someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
+new version on the disk at the same time.
+
+If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
+space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
+which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
+destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
+have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
+partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
+about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
+path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
+single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
+partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
+rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
+an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
output of "%i".
The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
-bf(--log-format) without bv(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
+bf(--log-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
the format of its per-file output using this option.
Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
-dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
+dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
after it has served its purpose.
+
Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
(since
specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
-.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
-option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
-specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
+.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
+option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
+specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
parallel hierarchy of files).
+dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
+rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
+that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
+creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
+recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
+rules.
+
+Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
+what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
+mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
+being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
+destination files).
+
+You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
+by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
+that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
+
+quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
+
+Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
+the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
+that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
+(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
+
+quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide! */' src/ dest)
+
+If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
+time-honored options of "--include='*/' --exclude='*'" would work fine
+in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
+
dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
something to watch.
Matt McCutchen's Web Site / rsync / rsync.git / blobdiff