quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
-this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
+This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
-this would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
+This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
-a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to transfer
-all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
-/data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source name means "copy the
-contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
-the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
-using the --delete option.
+A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
+additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
+/ on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
+to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
+containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
+destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
+files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
+/dest/foo:
+
+quote(rsync -avz /src/foo /dest)
+quote(rsync -avz /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
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
quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
-this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
+This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)