3 rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
9 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
11 Access via remote shell:
13 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
15 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
17 Access via rsync daemon:
19 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
22 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
23 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26 Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
31 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
32 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
33 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
34 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
35 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
36 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
37 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
38 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
41 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
42 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
43 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
44 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
45 the file's data does not need to be updated.
47 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
49 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
50 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
51 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
52 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
53 - does not require super-user privileges
54 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
55 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
59 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
60 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
62 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
63 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
64 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
65 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
66 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
67 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
68 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the "USING
69 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for an exception
72 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
73 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
75 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
76 the copy occurs locally (see also the `--list-only` option).
78 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
79 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
80 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
84 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
86 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
87 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
88 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
89 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
90 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
92 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the `-e`
93 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
99 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
100 destination, one of which may be remote.
102 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
104 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
106 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
107 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
108 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
109 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
110 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
111 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
112 same as all other Posix-style programs).
114 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
116 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
117 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
118 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
119 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
120 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
123 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
125 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
126 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
127 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
128 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
129 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
130 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
131 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
133 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
134 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
136 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
137 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
138 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
140 > rsync -av host: /dest
141 > rsync -av host::module /dest
143 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
144 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
145 improved copy command.
147 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
148 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
150 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
152 See the following section for more details.
156 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
157 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
158 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
160 > rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
161 > rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/
162 > rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}
164 Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
167 > rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest
168 > rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest
170 This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is not as
171 easy to use as the first method.
173 If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
174 specify the `--protect-args` (`-s`) option, or you'll need to escape the
175 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For instance:
177 > rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest
179 # CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
181 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
182 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
183 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
184 system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS section
185 below for information on that.)
187 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
190 - you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
191 hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
192 - the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
193 - the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
194 - if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
195 paths on the daemon will be shown.
196 - if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
197 the remote daemon is provided.
198 - you must not specify the `--rsh` (`-e`) option (since that overrides the
199 daemon connection to use ssh -- see USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
200 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION below).
202 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
204 > rsync -av host::src /dest
206 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
207 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
208 by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to the password you want to
209 use or using the `--password-file` option. This may be useful when scripting
212 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
213 those systems using `--password-file` is recommended.
215 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
216 variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy. Note
217 that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port 873.
219 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
220 setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you wish to
221 run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may contain the
222 escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync command (so use
223 "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
225 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
226 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
227 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
229 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
230 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
232 Note also that if the RSYNC_SHELL environment variable is set, that program
233 will be used to run the RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG command instead of using the default
234 shell of the **system()** call.
236 # USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
238 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
239 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
240 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
241 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
242 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
243 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
244 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
245 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
246 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
247 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
248 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
250 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
251 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
252 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
253 program on the command-line with the `--rsh=COMMAND` option. (Setting the
254 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
256 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
258 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
259 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
260 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
261 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
262 example that uses the short version of the `--rsh` option:
264 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
266 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
267 log-in to the "module".
269 # STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
271 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
272 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
273 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
274 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
275 connections, see the **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page -- that is the config file for
276 the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the daemon
277 (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
279 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
280 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
282 # SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
284 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
285 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
286 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse
287 someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what was given
290 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
291 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
292 `--delay-updates` (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but does
293 make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
297 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
299 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and
300 mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
302 > rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup
304 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
307 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile targets:
310 > rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
312 > rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
315 This allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the connection.
316 I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot of time as
317 the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
319 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the command:
321 > rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge"
323 This is launched from cron every few hours.
327 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer to the
328 detailed description below for a complete description.
330 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
331 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
334 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
335 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
336 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
337 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
338 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
339 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
340 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
341 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
342 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
343 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
344 --relative, -R use relative path names
345 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
346 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
347 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
348 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
349 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
350 --inplace update destination files in-place
351 --append append data onto shorter files
352 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
353 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
354 --mkpath create the destination's path component
355 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
356 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
357 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
358 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
359 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
360 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
361 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
362 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
363 --perms, -p preserve permissions
364 --executability, -E preserve executability
365 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
366 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
367 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
368 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
369 --group, -g preserve group
370 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
371 --specials preserve special files
372 -D same as --devices --specials
373 --times, -t preserve modification times
374 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
375 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
376 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
377 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
378 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
379 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
380 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
381 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
382 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
383 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
384 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
385 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
386 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
387 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
388 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
389 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
390 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
391 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
392 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
393 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
394 --del an alias for --delete-during
395 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
396 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
397 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
398 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
399 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
400 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
401 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
402 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
403 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
404 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
405 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
406 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
407 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
408 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
409 --partial keep partially transferred files
410 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
411 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
412 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
413 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
414 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
415 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
416 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
417 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
418 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
419 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
420 --size-only skip files that match in size
421 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
422 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
423 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
424 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
425 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
426 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
427 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
428 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
429 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
430 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
431 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
432 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
433 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
434 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
435 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
436 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
437 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
438 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
439 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
440 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
441 --protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
442 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
443 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
444 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
445 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
446 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
447 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
448 --stats give some file-transfer stats
449 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
450 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
451 --progress show progress during transfer
452 -P same as --partial --progress
453 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
454 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
455 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
456 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
457 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
458 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
459 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
460 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
461 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
462 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
463 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
464 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
465 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
466 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
467 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
468 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
469 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
470 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
471 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
472 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
473 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
476 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
479 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
482 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
483 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
484 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
485 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
486 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
487 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
488 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
489 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
490 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
491 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
492 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
493 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
494 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
495 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
500 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
501 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
502 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
503 Some options only have a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a
504 parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though it
505 must also be specified for the short. When specifying a parameter, you can
506 either use the form `--option=param` or replace the '=' with whitespace. The
507 parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the shell's
508 command-line parsing. Keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in a filename is
509 substituted by your shell, so `--option=~/foo` will not change the tilde into
510 your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
512 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
514 0. `--help`, `-h` `(*)`
516 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
517 (*) The `-h` short option will only invoke `--help` when used without other
518 options since it normally means `--human-readable`.
522 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
524 The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
525 list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
526 to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
530 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
531 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
532 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
533 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
534 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
535 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
537 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
538 of `--info` and `--debug` options. You can choose to use these newer
539 options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as any
540 fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both `--info`
541 and `--debug` have a way to ask for help that tells you exactly what flags
542 are set for each increase in verbosity.
544 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
545 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
546 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
547 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
548 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
552 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
553 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
554 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
555 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
556 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
557 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
558 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
560 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
561 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
563 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the `--out-format` and
564 `--itemize-changes` (`-i`) options. See those options for more information
565 on what is output and when.
567 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
568 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
569 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
570 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
574 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
575 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
576 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
577 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
578 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
579 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
580 the verbose level. Some examples:
582 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
583 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
585 Note that some debug messages will only be output when `--stderr=all` is
586 specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
588 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
589 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
590 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
591 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
592 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
593 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
595 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
597 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
599 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
600 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
601 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
603 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
604 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
605 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
606 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
607 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
610 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
611 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
612 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
613 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
614 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
615 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
616 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows `--debug` to enable
617 some extra I/O related messages.
619 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
620 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
621 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
622 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
623 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
624 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
625 been around for several releases.
627 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
628 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
629 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
630 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
631 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
635 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
636 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
637 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
641 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
642 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
643 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
644 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
645 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
648 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
650 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
651 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
652 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
654 This option can be a little confusing compared to `--ignore-existing` and
655 `--ignore-non-existing` in that that they cause rsync to transfer fewer
656 files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
660 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
661 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
662 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
663 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
664 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
667 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
669 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
670 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
671 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
672 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
673 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
674 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
675 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
677 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
678 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
680 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
681 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
683 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
684 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
685 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
687 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
689 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
690 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
691 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
692 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
693 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
694 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
695 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
696 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
697 transfer changed files)
699 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
700 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
701 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
702 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
703 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
705 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
706 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
707 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
708 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
709 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
711 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
712 can be overridden using either the `--checksum-choice` (`--cc`) option or an
713 environment variable that is discussed in that option's section.
717 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
718 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
719 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
720 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
722 The only exception to the above equivalence is when
723 `--files-from` is specified, in which case `-r` is not implied.
727 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
728 with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-": only options that
729 are implied by other options (e.g. `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have
730 different defaults in various circumstances (e.g. `--no-whole-file`,
731 `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). You may specify either the short or the
732 long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as
735 For example: if you want to use `-a` (`--archive`) but don't want `-o`
736 (`--owner`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you could specify
737 `-a --no-o` (or `-a --no-owner`).
739 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the
740 `-r` option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`.
741 Note also that the side-effects of the `--files-from` option are NOT
742 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
743 changes the meaning of `-a` (see the `--files-from` option for more
746 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
748 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also `--dirs` (`-d`).
750 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
751 incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
752 transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
753 completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
754 does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
755 both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
757 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
758 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: `--delete-before`,
759 `--delete-after`, `--prune-empty-dirs`, and `--delay-updates`. Because of
760 this, the default delete mode when you specify `--delete` is now
761 `--delete-during` when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0 (use
762 `--del` or `--delete-during` to request this improved deletion mode
763 explicitly). See also the `--delete-delay` option that is a better choice
764 than using `--delete-after`.
766 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the `--no-inc-recursive` option
767 or its shorter `--no-i-r` alias.
769 0. `--relative`, `-R`
771 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
772 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
773 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
774 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
777 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
779 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
782 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
784 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
785 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
786 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
789 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
790 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
791 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
792 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
793 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
794 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
795 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
796 the `--no-implied-dirs` option.
798 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
799 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
800 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
801 the source path, like this:
803 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
805 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
806 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
807 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
808 path. For example, when pushing files:
810 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
812 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
813 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
814 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
815 non-daemon transfer):
817 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
818 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
820 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
822 This option affects the default behavior of the `--relative` option. When
823 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
824 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
825 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
826 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
827 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
828 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
830 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
831 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
832 are implied when `--relative` is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
833 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
834 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
835 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
836 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
837 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
838 preservation is to use the `--keep-dirlinks` option (which will also affect
839 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
841 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
842 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
843 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
847 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
848 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
849 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the `--backup-dir` and `--suffix`
852 Note that if you don't specify `--backup-dir`, (1) the `--omit-dir-times`
853 option will be forced on, and (2) if `--delete` is also in effect (without
854 `--delete-excluded`), rsync will add a "protect" filter-rule for the backup
855 suffix to the end of all your existing excludes (e.g. `-f "P *~"`). This
856 will prevent previously backed-up files from being deleted. Note that if
857 you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert
858 your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that it
859 has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify a
860 trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule would never be
863 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
865 This implies the `--backup` option, and tells rsync to store all
866 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
867 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
868 using the `--suffix` option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified
869 directory will keep their original filenames).
871 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
872 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
873 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
874 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
875 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
879 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
880 `--backup` (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no `--backup-dir`
881 was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
885 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
886 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
887 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
888 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
890 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
891 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
892 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
893 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
894 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
895 regardless of the timestamps.
897 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
898 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
899 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
903 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
904 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
905 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
906 updated data directly to the destination file.
908 This has several effects:
910 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
911 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
912 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
913 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
915 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
916 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
918 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
919 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
921 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
922 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
923 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
924 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
925 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
926 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use `--backup`,
927 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
930 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
931 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
933 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
934 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
935 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
936 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
938 The option implies `--partial` (since an interrupted transfer does not
939 delete the file), but conflicts with `--partial-dir` and `--delay-updates`.
940 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also incompatible with
941 `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
945 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
946 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
947 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
948 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
949 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
950 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
952 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
953 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
954 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
955 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
956 that new files are trasnferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
957 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
958 "diminished" file when this happens).
960 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
961 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
962 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
967 This special copy mode works like `--append` except that all the data in
968 the file is included in the checksum verification (making it much less
969 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
970 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
971 files. See the `--append` option for more details.
973 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the `--append` option worked like
974 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
975 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
976 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
980 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
981 Unlike `--recursive`, a directory's contents are not copied unless the
982 directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".",
983 "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the `--recursive` option,
984 rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and output a message to that
985 effect for each one). If you specify both `--dirs` and `--recursive`,
986 `--recursive` takes precedence.
988 The `--dirs` option is implied by the `--files-from` option or the
989 `--list-only` option (including an implied `--list-only` usage) if
990 `--recursive` wasn't specified (so that directories are seen in the
991 listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to turn this off.
993 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs` (or
994 `--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
995 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
999 Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1000 to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1001 in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1002 supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1003 treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1004 same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1007 For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1008 directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1010 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1012 If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1013 sub/dir/bar directory:
1015 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1019 When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination.
1021 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1023 When symlinks are encountered, the item that they point to (the referent)
1024 is copied, rather than the symlink. In older versions of rsync, this
1025 option also had the side-effect of telling the receiving side to follow
1026 symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a modern rsync such as this
1027 one, you'll need to specify `--keep-dirlinks` (`-K`) to get this extra
1028 behavior. The only exception is when sending files to an rsync that is too
1029 old to understand `-K` -- in that case, the `-L` option will still have the
1030 side-effect of `-K` on that older receiving rsync.
1032 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1034 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1035 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1036 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when `--relative` is
1037 used. This option has no additional effect if `--copy-links` was also
1040 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1041 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1042 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1043 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1044 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1045 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1046 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1051 This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point outside the
1052 copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also ignored. Using this option in
1053 conjunction with `--relative` may give unexpected results.
1057 This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on the receiving side in
1058 a way that makes them unusable but recoverable (see below), or (2) to
1059 unmunge symlinks on the sending side that had been stored in a munged
1060 state. This is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data to
1061 not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
1063 The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with the
1064 string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used as long
1065 as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will
1066 refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a directory.
1068 The option only affects the client side of the transfer, so if you need it
1069 to affect the server, specify it via `--remote-option`. (Note that in a
1070 local transfer, the client side is the sender.)
1072 This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon configures whether
1073 it wants munged symlinks via its "`munge symlinks`" parameter. See also the
1074 "munge-symlinks" perl script in the support directory of the source code.
1076 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1078 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1079 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1080 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using `--copy-links`.
1082 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1083 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1084 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1085 `--force` or `--delete` is in effect).
1087 See also `--keep-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the receiving side.
1089 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1090 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1091 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1092 `--relative` to make the paths match up right. For example:
1094 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1096 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1097 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1098 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1101 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1103 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1104 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1105 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1106 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1108 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1109 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1110 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1111 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1112 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1115 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1116 symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create
1117 their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1118 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1119 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1120 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1121 your receiving hierarchy.
1123 See also `--copy-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the sending side.
1125 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1127 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1128 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1129 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1132 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1133 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1134 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1136 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1137 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1138 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1139 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1140 (unless you are using the `--inplace` option).
1141 - If you specify a `--link-dest` directory that contains hard links, the
1142 linking of the destination files against the `--link-dest` files can
1143 cause some paths in the destination to become linked together due to the
1144 `--link-dest` associations.
1146 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1147 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1148 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1149 you are tempted to use the `--inplace` option to avoid this breakage, be
1150 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1151 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1152 see the `--inplace` option for more caveats).
1154 If incremental recursion is active (see `--recursive`), rsync may transfer
1155 a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that
1156 contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the
1157 accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together), just
1158 its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1159 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1160 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1161 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1162 `--no-inc-recursive` option.
1166 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1167 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the `--chmod` option
1168 for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source permissions.)
1170 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1172 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1173 permissions, though the `--executability` option might change just the
1174 execute permission for the file.
1175 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1176 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1177 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1178 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1179 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1180 bit from its parent directory.
1182 Thus, when `--perms` and `--executability` are both disabled, rsync's
1183 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1186 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1187 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1188 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1189 `--perms` option is off and use `--chmod=ugo=rwX` (which ensures that all
1190 non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter behavior
1191 easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as putting this
1192 line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z` option, and
1193 includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination dir):
1195 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1197 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1199 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1201 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1202 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1204 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1205 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1206 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1207 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1208 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1209 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1210 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1211 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1214 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1216 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1217 non-executability) of regular files when `--perms` is not enabled. A
1218 regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1219 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1220 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1221 destination file's permissions as follows:
1223 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1224 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1225 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1227 If `--perms` is enabled, this option is ignored.
1231 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1232 the source ACLs. The option also implies `--perms`.
1234 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1235 this option to work properly. See the `--fake-super` option for a way to
1236 backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1240 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1241 be the same as the source ones.
1243 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1244 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1245 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1246 namespaces as a normal user, see the `--fake-super` option.
1248 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1249 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1250 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1251 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1252 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1253 namespace, you could specify:
1255 > --filter='-x system.*'
1257 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1260 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1262 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1263 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1267 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1268 those used by `--fake-super`) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1269 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with `--fake-super`.
1273 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1274 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1275 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1276 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1277 existing files if `--perms` is not enabled.
1279 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1280 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1281 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1282 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1283 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1284 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1285 consistent executability across all bits:
1287 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1289 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1291 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1293 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1294 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1296 See the `--perms` and `--executability` options for how the resulting
1297 permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1301 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1302 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1303 the super-user (see also the `--super` and `--fake-super` options). Without
1304 this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to the
1305 invoking user on the receiving side.
1307 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1308 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1309 `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
1313 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1314 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1315 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1316 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1317 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1318 user on the receiving side.
1320 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1321 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1322 (see also the `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
1326 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1327 the remote system to recreate these devices. This option has no effect if
1328 the receiving rsync is not run as the super-user (see also the `--super`
1329 and `--fake-super` options).
1333 This option causes rsync to transfer special files such as named sockets
1338 The `-D` option is equivalent to `--devices --specials`.
1340 0. `--write-devices`
1342 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1343 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1345 This option implies the `--inplace` option.
1347 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1348 receiving side of the transfer, especially if running rsync as root.
1350 This option is refused by an rsync daemon.
1354 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1355 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1356 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1357 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` or `-a` will cause the next
1358 transfer to behave as if it used `-I`, causing all files to be updated
1359 (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly
1360 efficient if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off
1365 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1366 the same value as the source files.
1368 If repeated, it also sets the `--open-noatime` option, which can help you
1369 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1370 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1373 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1374 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply `--open-noatime`
1375 when this option is repeated.
1379 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1380 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1381 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1382 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1383 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1384 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1386 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1388 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1389 files to the same value as the source files.
1391 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1393 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification
1394 times (see `--times`). If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1395 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1396 `--backup` without `--backup-dir`.
1398 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of
1399 directories in incremental recursion copies. The default `--inc-recursive`
1400 copying normally does an early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a
1401 parent directory in order for it to be able to then set the modify time of
1402 the parent directory right away (without having to delay that until a bunch
1403 of recursive copying has finished). This early-create idiom is not
1404 necessary if directory modify times are not being preserved, so it is
1405 skipped. Since early-create directories don't have accurate mode, mtime,
1406 or ownership, the use of this option can help when someone wants to avoid
1407 these partially-finished directories.
1409 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1411 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification times
1416 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1417 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1418 preserving users via the `--owner` option, preserving all groups (not just
1419 the current user's groups) via the `--groups` option, and copying devices
1420 via the `--devices` option. This is useful for systems that allow such
1421 activities without being the super-user, and also for ensuring that you
1422 will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run as the super-user.
1423 To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can use `--no-super`.
1427 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1428 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1429 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1430 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1431 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1432 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1433 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1434 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1435 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1436 ACLs (if `--acls` was specified) and non-user extended attributes (if
1437 `--xattrs` was specified).
1439 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1440 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1442 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1443 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1444 `--remote-option` (`-M`) option:
1446 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1448 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1449 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1450 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1451 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1453 This option is overridden by both `--super` and `--no-super`.
1455 See also the "`fake super`" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1459 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1460 destination. If combined with `--inplace` the file created might not end
1461 up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version and/or
1462 filesystem type. If `--whole-file` is in effect (e.g. for a local copy)
1463 then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior to writing
1464 out the updated version.
1466 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1467 `--sparse` and `--inplace`.
1471 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1472 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1473 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1474 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1475 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1477 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1478 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1479 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1480 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1482 If combined with `--sparse`, the file will only have sparse blocks (as
1483 opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1484 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1486 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1488 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1489 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1490 in combination with the `--verbose`, `-v` and/or `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
1491 options to see what an rsync command is going to do before one actually
1494 The output of `--itemize-changes` is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1495 dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1496 call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
1497 unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not send
1498 the actual data for file transfers, so `--progress` has no effect, the
1499 "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1500 statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1501 where no file transfers were needed.
1503 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1505 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1506 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1507 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1508 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1509 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1510 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1511 batch-writing option is in effect.
1513 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1515 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1516 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1517 `--checksum` is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1518 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1519 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1521 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1523 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1526 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1531 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1532 version (which may differ from the list above).
1534 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the `--whole-file`
1535 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1536 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1537 the `--checksum` option cannot be used.
1539 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1540 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1542 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1543 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1544 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1545 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1546 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1547 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1549 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1550 RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum names.
1551 If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the "client
1552 string & server string", otherwise the same string
1553 applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
1554 non-whitespace characters, the default checksum list is used. This method
1555 does not allow you to specify the transfer checksum separately from the
1556 pre-transfer checksum, and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum
1557 names. A list with only invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1559 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1561 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1563 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1564 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1565 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1566 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1567 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1568 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1570 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1571 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1572 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1573 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1575 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via `--copy-links` or
1576 `--copy-unsafe-links`), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1577 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected by
1580 0. `--existing`, `--ignore-non-existing`
1582 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1583 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1584 `--ignore-existing` option, no files will be updated (which can be useful
1585 if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1587 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1588 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1589 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1591 0. `--ignore-existing`
1593 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1594 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1595 get done). See also `--existing`.
1597 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1598 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1599 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1601 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the `--link-dest`
1602 option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1603 a `--link-dest` run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1604 used properly), using `--ignore-existing` will ensure that the
1605 already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1606 permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option is
1607 only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1609 If `--info=skip` was specified (which is implied by `-vv`) then rsync
1610 outputs a "FILENAME exists (INFO)" message where the INFO indicates one of
1611 "uptodate", "type differs", or "differs". However, if you specified the
1612 `--checksum` option, you must have specified `--info-skip2` to get the
1613 "differs" or "uptodate" info since rsync will not take the extra time to
1614 checksum these skipped files unless you really want it to (a parenthetical
1615 suffix that is not "type differs" is elided if we are skipping the checksum
1616 check for an existing file).
1618 0. `--remove-source-files`
1620 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1621 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1622 duplicated on the receiving side.
1624 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1625 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1626 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1627 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1628 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1629 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1630 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1631 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1632 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option `--exclude='*.new'` for the
1635 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1636 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1640 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1641 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1642 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1643 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1644 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1645 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1646 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1647 excluded from being deleted unless you use the `--delete-excluded` option
1648 or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1649 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1651 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless `--recursive`
1652 was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when `--dirs`
1653 (`-d`) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being
1656 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1657 first try a run using the `--dry-run` option (`-n`) to see what files are
1658 going to be deleted.
1660 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1661 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1662 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1663 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1664 this with the `--ignore-errors` option.
1666 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1667 without conflict, as well as `--delete-excluded`. However, if none of the
1668 `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1669 `--delete-during` algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and the
1670 `--delete-before` algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1671 `--delete-delay` and `--delete-after`.
1673 0. `--delete-before`
1675 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1676 transfer starts. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
1679 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1680 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1681 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1682 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1683 `--timeout` was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1684 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1685 files in the transfer into memory at once (see `--recursive`).
1687 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1689 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1690 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1691 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1692 efficient `--delete-before`, including doing the deletions prior to any
1693 per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added in
1694 rsync version 2.6.4. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
1699 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1700 the transfer (like `--delete-during`), and then removed after the transfer
1701 completes. This is useful when combined with `--delay-updates` and/or
1702 `--fuzzy`, and is more efficient than using `--delete-after` (but can
1703 behave differently, since `--delete-after` computes the deletions in a
1704 separate pass after all updates are done). If the number of removed files
1705 overflows an internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the
1706 receiving side to hold the names (it is removed while open, so you
1707 shouldn't see it during the transfer). If the creation of the temporary
1708 file fails, rsync will try to fall back to using `--delete-after` (which it
1709 cannot do if `--recursive` is doing an incremental scan). See `--delete`
1710 (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1714 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1715 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1716 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1717 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1718 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1719 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1720 (see `--recursive`). See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
1723 0. `--delete-excluded`
1725 In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side that are not on the
1726 sending side, this tells rsync to also delete any files on the receiving
1727 side that are excluded (see `--exclude`). See the FILTER RULES section for
1728 a way to make individual exclusions behave this way on the receiver, and
1729 for a way to protect files from `--delete-excluded`. See `--delete` (which
1730 is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1732 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
1734 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1735 command-line arguments or `--files-from` entries), it is normally an error
1736 if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error, and does
1737 not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1738 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1741 0. `--delete-missing-args`
1743 This option takes the behavior of (the implied) `--ignore-missing-args`
1744 option a step farther: each missing arg will become a deletion request of
1745 the corresponding destination file on the receiving side (should it exist).
1746 If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will only be
1747 successfully deleted if `--force` or `--delete` are in effect. Other than
1748 that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
1750 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1751 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the `--list-only` output.
1753 0. `--ignore-errors`
1755 Tells `--delete` to go ahead and delete files even when there are I/O
1760 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1761 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1762 active (see `--delete` for details).
1764 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
1765 using `--delete-after`, and it used to be non-functional unless the
1766 `--recursive` option was also enabled.
1768 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
1770 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
1771 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
1772 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
1773 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
1774 important error condition also occurred).
1776 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
1777 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1778 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1779 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
1780 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1781 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1783 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
1785 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
1786 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
1787 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
1788 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
1790 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1791 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1792 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1794 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
1795 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
1796 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
1797 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
1798 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
1799 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
1801 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
1802 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
1805 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
1808 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
1810 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
1812 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
1813 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
1814 the `--max-size` option for a description of SIZE and other information.
1816 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
1818 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
1820 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
1821 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
1822 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
1823 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
1824 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
1825 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
1826 consume more memory.
1828 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
1829 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
1831 See the `--max-size` option for a description of how SIZE can be specified.
1832 The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
1834 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
1836 You can set a default value using the environment variable RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC
1837 using the same SIZE values as supported by this option. If the remote
1838 rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option, you can override an
1839 environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`, which will make rsync
1840 avoid sending the option to the remote side (because "1G" is the default).
1842 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
1844 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
1845 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
1846 updated. See the technical report for details.
1848 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
1849 the `--max-size` option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
1851 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
1853 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
1854 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
1855 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
1858 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
1859 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
1860 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
1861 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
1862 remote host. See the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
1863 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1865 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the RSYNC_PORT environment variable will be set
1866 when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell connection. It
1867 is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or it is set to
1868 the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the `--port`
1869 option or a non-empty port value in an rsync:// URL. This allows the
1870 script to discern if a non-default port is being requested, allowing for
1871 things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a default or
1874 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1875 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
1876 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
1877 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
1878 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
1879 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
1880 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
1881 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1884 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
1886 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1887 options in their .ssh/config file.)
1889 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1890 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
1892 See also the `--blocking-io` option which is affected by this option.
1894 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
1896 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
1897 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
1898 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
1899 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
1900 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
1901 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
1903 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1904 machine for use with the `--relative` option. For instance:
1906 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
1908 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
1910 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
1911 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
1912 you want to pass `--log-file=FILE` and `--fake-super` to the remote system,
1913 specify it like this:
1915 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
1917 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
1918 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
1921 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
1923 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
1924 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
1925 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
1927 Note that it is best to use a separate `--remote-option` for each option
1928 you want to pass. This makes your usage compatible with the
1929 `--protect-args` option. If that option is off, any spaces in your remote
1930 options will be split by the remote shell unless you take steps to protect
1933 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
1934 "remote" side is the receiver.
1936 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
1937 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
1938 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
1939 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
1942 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
1944 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
1945 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
1946 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
1948 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1949 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1951 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
1990 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1991 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
1992 delimited by whitespace).
1994 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
1995 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
1996 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
1997 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
1999 If you're combining `-C` with your own `--filter` rules, you should note
2000 that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2001 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2002 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2003 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2004 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2005 `--filter=:C` and `--filter=-C` (either on your command-line or by putting
2006 the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules). The
2007 first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore file.
2008 The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes mentioned
2011 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2013 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2014 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2015 combination with a recursive transfer.
2017 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2018 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2019 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2020 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2021 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2023 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2027 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two `--filter` rules to your
2028 command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2030 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2032 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2033 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2034 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2037 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2039 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2041 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
2044 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2046 This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
2047 an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
2050 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2052 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2054 This option is related to the `--exclude` option, but it specifies a FILE
2055 that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
2056 lines starting with '`;`' or '`#`' are ignored. If _FILE_ is '`-`', the
2057 list will be read from standard input.
2059 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2061 This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
2062 an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
2065 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2067 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2069 This option is related to the `--include` option, but it specifies a FILE
2070 that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
2071 lines starting with '`;`' or '`#`' are ignored. If _FILE_ is '`-`', the
2072 list will be read from standard input.
2074 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2076 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2077 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2078 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2079 specified files and directories easier:
2081 - The `--relative` (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the path
2082 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2083 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2084 - The `--dirs` (`-d`) option is implied, which will create directories
2085 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
2086 them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2087 - The `--archive` (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply `--recursive`
2088 (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2089 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2090 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2091 options are parsed (e.g. `-a` works the same before or after
2092 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2094 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2095 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2096 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2098 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2100 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2101 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2102 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2103 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2104 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the `-r`
2105 option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be transferred
2106 (keep in mind that `-r` needs to be specified explicitly with
2107 `--files-from`, since it is not implied by `-a`). Also note that the
2108 effect of the (enabled by default) `--relative` option is to duplicate only
2109 the path info that is read from the file -- it does not force the
2110 duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2112 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2113 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2114 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2115 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2118 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2120 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2121 was located on the remote "src" host.
2123 If the `--iconv` and `--protect-args` options are specified and the
2124 `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
2125 filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2126 receiving host's charset.
2128 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2129 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2130 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2131 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2132 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2137 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2138 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2139 affects `--exclude-from`, `--include-from`, `--files-from`, and any merged
2140 files specified in a `--filter` rule. It does not affect `--cvs-exclude`
2141 (since all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2143 0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
2145 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
2146 without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This means that
2147 spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special characters are
2148 not translated (such as `~`, `$`, `;`, `&`, etc.). Wildcards are expanded
2149 on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
2151 If you use this option with `--iconv`, the args related to the remote side
2152 will also be translated from the local to the remote character-set. The
2153 translation happens before wild-cards are expanded. See also the
2154 `--files-from` option.
2156 You may also control this option via the RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment
2157 variable. If this variable has a non-zero value, this option will be
2158 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2159 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2160 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
2161 versions). Since this option was first introduced in 3.0.0, you'll need to
2162 make sure it's disabled if you ever need to interact with a remote rsync
2163 that is older than that.
2165 Rsync can also be configured (at build time) to have this option enabled by
2166 default (with is overridden by both the environment and the command-line).
2167 Run `rsync --version` to check if this is the case, as it will display
2168 "default protect-args" or "optional protect-args" depending on how it was
2171 This option will eventually become a new default setting at some
2172 as-yet-undetermined point in the future.
2174 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2176 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2177 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2178 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2179 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2181 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2182 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2183 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2184 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2185 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2186 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2187 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2189 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2190 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the `--remote-option` to
2191 affect the remote side, such as `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer,
2192 the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file provides a local-shell helper script that
2193 can be used to allow a "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified
2194 without needing to setup any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote
2195 options that affect the side of the transfer that is using the host-spec
2196 (and using hostname "lh" avoids the overriding of the remote directory to
2197 the user's home dir).
2199 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2201 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2203 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2204 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2205 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2206 has no permissions to change.
2208 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2209 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2211 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2213 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2215 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2216 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2217 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2218 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2219 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2220 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2222 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2223 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2224 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2225 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2226 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2227 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2228 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2229 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2230 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2231 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2232 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2233 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2234 new version on the disk at the same time.
2236 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2237 space, you may wish to combine it with the `--delay-updates` option, which
2238 will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
2239 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't have
2240 enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
2241 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about
2242 disk space is to use the `--partial-dir` option with a relative path;
2243 because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a single file
2244 in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the partial-dir as
2245 a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then rename it into place
2246 from there. (Specifying a `--partial-dir` with an absolute path does not
2247 have this side-effect.)
2251 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2252 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2253 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2254 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2255 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2257 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2258 alternate destination directories that are specified via `--compare-dest`,
2259 `--copy-dest`, or `--link-dest`.
2261 Note that the use of the `--delete` option might get rid of any potential
2262 fuzzy-match files, so either use `--delete-after` or specify some filename
2263 exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2265 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2267 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2268 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2269 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2270 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2271 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2272 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2273 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2276 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2277 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2278 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2279 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2280 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2283 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2284 See also `--copy-dest` and `--link-dest`.
2286 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2287 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2288 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2291 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2293 This option behaves like `--compare-dest`, but rsync will also copy
2294 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2295 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2296 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2297 files have been successfully transferred.
2299 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2300 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2301 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2302 try to speed up the transfer.
2304 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2305 See also `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
2307 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2309 This option behaves like `--copy-dest`, but unchanged files are hard linked
2310 from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be identical in
2311 all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order
2312 for the files to be linked together. An example:
2314 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2316 If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2317 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2318 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2319 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2322 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2323 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2324 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2325 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2326 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2327 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2329 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2330 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2331 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2332 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2333 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2334 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2336 Note that if you combine this option with `--ignore-times`, rsync will not
2337 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2338 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2339 the file is updated.
2341 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2342 See also `--compare-dest` and `--copy-dest`.
2344 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2345 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when `-o` was
2346 specified (or implied by `-a`). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
2347 the `-o` option when sending to an old rsync.
2349 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2351 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2352 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2353 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2355 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2356 unless you force the choice using the `--compress-choice` (`--zc`) option.
2358 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2361 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2362 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2363 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2364 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2365 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2367 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2368 RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable compression
2369 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
2370 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
2371 If the string (or string portion) contains no
2372 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2373 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2374 names results in a failed negotiation.
2376 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2377 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2378 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2379 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2382 See also the `--skip-compress` option for the default list of file suffixes
2383 that will be transferred with no (or minimal) compression.
2385 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2387 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2388 compression algorithm that occurs when `--compress` is used. The option
2389 implies `--compress` unless "none" was specified, which instead implies
2392 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2400 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2401 version (which may differ from the list above).
2403 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2404 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2405 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2406 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2407 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2409 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2410 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2411 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2413 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2415 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see `--compress`, `-z`)
2416 instead of letting it default. The `--compress` option is implied as long
2417 as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the compression
2418 algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level 0 as
2421 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2422 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2423 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a `--compress-choice`
2424 (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the choice in effect. For example:
2426 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2428 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2429 the default. Specifying 0 turns compression off, and specifying -1 chooses
2432 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2433 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2435 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2437 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2438 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2439 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2440 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2442 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2443 `--debug=nstr` to see the "negotiated string" results. This will report
2444 something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the checksum
2447 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2449 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2450 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2451 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level (such
2452 as zlib/zlibx) then no compression occurs for those files. Other
2453 algorithms that support changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have
2454 the level minimized to reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a
2455 matching file. At this time, only zlib & zlibx compression support this
2456 changing of levels on a per-file basis.
2458 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2459 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2462 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2463 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2464 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2466 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2468 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2469 matches 2 suffixes):
2471 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2473 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2476 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2575 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2576 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2577 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2582 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2583 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2585 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2586 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2587 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2590 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2591 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2592 instead. See also the comments on the "`use chroot`" setting in the
2593 rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how the chroot setting affects
2594 rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and what you
2597 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2599 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2600 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2601 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2602 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2603 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2604 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2605 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2606 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2607 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2610 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2612 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2613 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2614 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2616 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2617 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2618 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2619 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2620 match those in use on the receiving side.
2622 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2623 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2624 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2626 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2628 When the `--numeric-ids` option is used, the sender does not send any
2629 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2630 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
2631 nameless IDs to different values.
2633 For the `--usermap` option to have any effect, the `-o` (`--owner`) option
2634 must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running as a
2635 super-user (see also the `--fake-super` option). For the `--groupmap`
2636 option to have any effect, the `-g` (`--groups`) option must be used (or
2637 implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that group.
2639 If your shell complains about the wildcards, use `--protect-args` (`-s`).
2641 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
2643 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2644 a simpler interface than using `--usermap` and `--groupmap` directly, but
2645 it is implemented using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
2646 If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the omitted user/group
2647 will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may be omitted, but if
2648 USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2650 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
2651 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier. If your shell complains
2652 about the wildcards, use `--protect-args` (`-s`).
2654 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
2656 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2657 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2658 0, which means no timeout.
2660 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
2662 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
2663 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
2664 rsync exits with an error.
2666 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
2668 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
2669 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
2670 address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this option in the `--daemon`
2675 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
2676 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
2677 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
2678 the port as a part of the URL). See also this option in the `--daemon`
2681 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
2683 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
2684 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
2685 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the man page for the
2686 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
2687 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
2688 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
2690 This option also exists in the `--daemon` mode section.
2694 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
2695 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
2696 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
2697 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2701 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
2702 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
2703 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2705 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2706 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2708 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
2710 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
2711 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
2712 `--out-format='%i %n%L'`. If you repeat the option, unchanged files will
2713 also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7
2714 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the
2715 output of other verbose messages).
2717 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
2718 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
2719 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
2720 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
2722 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
2724 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
2725 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
2727 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
2728 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
2729 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
2731 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
2732 attributes that are being modified).
2733 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
2736 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
2737 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
2738 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
2740 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
2741 have changed, as follows:
2743 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
2744 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
2745 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
2746 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
2747 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
2749 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
2751 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
2752 `--checksum`) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a changed
2753 value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1,
2754 this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular
2756 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
2757 by the file transfer.
2758 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
2759 the sender's value (requires `--times`). An alternate value of `T` means
2760 that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which
2761 happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without `--times` and when
2762 a symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time. (Note: when
2763 using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the `s` flag combined with `t`
2764 instead of the proper `T` flag for this time-setting failure.)
2765 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
2766 sender's value (requires `--perms`).
2767 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
2768 value (requires `--owner` and super-user privileges).
2769 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
2770 value (requires `--group` and the authority to set the group).
2771 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information: `u` means the access
2772 (use) time is different and is being updated to the sender's value
2773 (requires `--atimes`); `n` means the create time (newness) is different
2774 and is being updated to the sender's value (requires `--crtimes`); `b`
2775 means that both the access and create times are being updated.
2776 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
2777 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
2779 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
2780 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
2781 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
2782 outputting them as a verbose message).
2784 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
2786 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
2787 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
2788 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
2789 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either `--info=name`
2790 or `-v` is specified (this tells you just the name of the file and, if the
2791 item is a link, where it points). For a full list of the possible escape
2792 characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2794 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the `--info=name` option,
2795 which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
2796 way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
2797 directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
2798 the string (e.g. if the `--itemize-changes` option was used), the logging
2799 of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
2800 as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the `--itemize-changes`
2801 option for a description of the output of "%i".
2803 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
2804 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
2805 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
2806 is in effect and `--progress` is also specified, rsync will also output the
2807 name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
2808 (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
2810 0. `--log-file=FILE`
2812 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
2813 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
2814 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
2815 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
2816 of "%i %n%L". See the `--log-file-format` option if you wish to override
2819 Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
2822 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
2824 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
2827 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
2829 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
2830 file specified by the `--log-file` option (which must also be specified for
2831 this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty string, updated
2832 files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the possible
2833 escape characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2835 The default FORMAT used if `--log-file` is specified and this option is not
2840 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
2841 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
2842 your data. This option is equivalent to `--info=stats2` if combined with 0
2843 or 1 `-v` options, or `--info=stats3` if combined with 2 or more `-v`
2846 The current statistics are as follows:
2848 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
2849 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
2850 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
2851 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
2852 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
2853 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
2854 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
2855 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
2856 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2857 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
2858 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
2859 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2860 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
2861 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
2862 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
2863 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
2864 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
2866 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
2867 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
2868 include the size of symlinks.
2869 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
2870 just the transferred files.
2871 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
2872 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
2873 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
2875 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
2876 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
2877 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
2879 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
2880 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
2881 sending side for this to be present.
2882 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
2883 sending the file list to the receiver.
2884 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
2885 client side to the server side.
2886 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
2887 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
2888 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
2889 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
2891 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
2893 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
2894 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
2895 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
2896 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
2898 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
2899 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
2900 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
2901 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
2903 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
2905 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible
2906 levels: (1) output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits
2907 (either a comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is
2908 represented by a period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
2909 (with a character suffix for larger units -- see below); (3) output
2910 numbers in units of 1024.
2912 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
2913 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
2914 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
2916 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
2917 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
2918 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
2921 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
2922 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
2923 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
2924 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
2925 to one or more `-h` options. See the `--list-only` option for one
2930 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
2931 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
2932 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
2933 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
2934 rest of the file much faster.
2936 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
2938 A better way to keep partial files than the `--partial` option is to
2939 specify a _DIR_ that will be used to hold the partial data (instead of
2940 writing it out to the destination file). On the next transfer, rsync will
2941 use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
2942 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
2944 Note that if `--whole-file` is specified (or implied), any partial-dir file
2945 that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
2946 (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer
2949 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
2950 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
2951 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
2952 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
2953 remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that the directory
2954 is only removed if it is a relative pathname, as it is expected that an
2955 absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir work.
2957 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
2958 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
2959 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
2960 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
2961 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
2962 equivalent of "`-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`" at the end of any other filter
2965 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
2966 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
2967 rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
2968 to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
2969 rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
2970 should specify `--delete-after` and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
2971 `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. (Avoid using `--delete-before` or
2972 `--delete-during` unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over
2973 partial-dir data during the current run.)
2975 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
2976 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
2978 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
2979 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force `--partial` to be
2980 enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when `--partial` is
2981 specified. For instance, instead of using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along
2982 with `--progress`, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
2983 environment and then just use the `-P` option to turn on the use of the
2984 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the `--partial`
2985 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when `--inplace`
2986 was specified (since `--inplace` conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and (2)
2987 when `--delay-updates` was specified (see below).
2989 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
2990 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
2991 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
2992 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
2995 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
2996 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply `--partial`. This is so that a refusal of
2997 the `--partial` option can be used to disallow the overwriting of
2998 destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the safer
2999 idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3001 0. `--delay-updates`
3003 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3004 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3005 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3006 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3007 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3008 you've specified the `--partial-dir` option, that directory will be used
3009 instead. See the comments in the `--partial-dir` section for a discussion
3010 of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you
3011 can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that might be lying
3012 around. Conflicts with `--inplace` and `--append`.
3014 This option implies `--no-inc-recursive` since it needs the full file list
3015 in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3017 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3018 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3019 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3020 should not use an absolute path to `--partial-dir` unless (1) there is no
3021 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
3022 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
3023 absolute) and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
3024 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3026 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
3027 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses `--link-dest` and a
3028 parallel hierarchy of files).
3030 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3032 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3033 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3034 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3035 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3036 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3038 Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the `--min-size` option, does
3039 not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave
3040 directories empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the
3043 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3044 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3045 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3046 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3047 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3050 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3051 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3052 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3054 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3056 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3057 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3058 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3059 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3061 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3063 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3064 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3065 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3069 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3070 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3071 this is the same as specifying `--info=flist2,name,progress`, but any
3072 user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3073 "`--info=flist0 --progress`").
3075 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3078 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3080 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3081 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3082 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3083 is maintained until the end.
3085 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3086 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3087 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3088 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3089 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3090 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3092 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3093 summary line that looks like this:
3095 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3097 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3098 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3099 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3100 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3101 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3102 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3104 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3105 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3106 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3107 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3108 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3109 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3110 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3111 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3112 of the files added to the list).
3116 The `-P` option is equivalent to `--partial --progress`. Its purpose is
3117 to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer
3118 that may be interrupted.
3120 There is also a `--info=progress2` option that outputs statistics based on
3121 the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without
3122 outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify `--info=name0`) if you
3123 want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a
3124 lot of names. (You don't need to specify the `--progress` option in order
3125 to use `--info=progress2`.)
3127 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3128 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3129 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3130 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3131 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3132 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3133 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3134 followed by the `--info=progress2` format of progress info. If you don't
3135 know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3136 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3138 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3140 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3142 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3143 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3144 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3145 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3146 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3148 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3149 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3150 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3151 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3152 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3155 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3157 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3158 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3159 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3160 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3162 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3166 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3167 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3168 no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command
3169 that includes a destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be
3170 able to specify more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the
3171 destination). Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is
3172 expanded by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to
3173 list such an arg without using this option. For example:
3175 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3177 Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
3178 by the `--human-readable` option. By default they will contain digit
3179 separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes with
3180 unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output has
3181 increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
3182 `--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
3185 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3186 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3187 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the `--dirs`
3188 option w/o `--recursive`, and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
3189 avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs` option (if you don't
3190 need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude the
3191 content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3195 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3196 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3197 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3198 fractional value (e.g. "`--bwlimit=1.5m`"). If no suffix is specified, the
3199 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3200 been appended). See the `--max-size` option for a description of all the
3201 available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3203 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3204 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3207 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3208 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3209 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3210 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3213 Due to the internal buffering of data, the `--progress` option may not be
3214 an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because
3215 some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly
3216 buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the
3217 output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3219 0. `--stop-after=MINS
3221 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3222 minutes has elapsed.
3224 Rsync also accepts an earlier version of this option: `--time-limit=MINS`.
3226 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3227 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3228 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3229 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3230 limit using `--remote-option` (`-M`), should the need arise.
3232 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m
3234 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3235 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3236 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3237 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3240 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3241 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3242 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3243 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3244 time, rsync exits with an error.
3246 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3247 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3248 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3249 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3251 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3252 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3253 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3254 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3255 limit using `--remote-option` (`-M`), should the need arise. Do keep in
3256 mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone than your
3259 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3261 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3262 with `--read-batch`. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and also
3263 the `--only-write-batch` option.
3265 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3266 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3267 a more modern choice, use the `--checksum-choice` (`--cc`) and/or
3268 `--compress-choice` (`--zc`) options.
3270 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3272 Works like `--write-batch`, except that no updates are made on the
3273 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3274 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3275 changes via `--read-batch`.
3277 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3278 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3279 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3280 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3281 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3284 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3285 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3286 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3287 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3289 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3291 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3292 `--write-batch`. If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read from
3293 standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3297 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3298 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3299 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the `--write-batch` option, but
3300 rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the `--read-batch` option, you
3301 should use "--protocol=28" when creating the batch file to force the older
3302 protocol version to be used in the batch file (assuming you can't upgrade
3303 the rsync on the reading system).
3305 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3307 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3308 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3309 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3310 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3311 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3312 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3313 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3314 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3315 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the RSYNC_ICONV
3316 environment variable.
3318 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3319 run "`iconv --list`".
3321 If you specify the `--protect-args` option (`-s`), rsync will translate the
3322 filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the remote
3323 host. See also the `--files-from` option.
3325 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3326 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3327 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3328 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3329 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3331 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3332 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3333 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3334 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3337 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3339 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3340 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3341 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3342 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3343 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3344 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever ipv4/ipv6 hint options
3347 These options also exist in the `--daemon` mode section.
3349 If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3350 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3353 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3355 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3356 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3357 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3358 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3359 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3360 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3361 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3362 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3366 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3370 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3371 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3372 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3374 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3375 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3376 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3377 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly. See the
3378 **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page for more details.
3380 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3382 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3383 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3384 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3385 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option. See also the "address"
3386 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3390 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3391 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3392 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed. See the client
3393 version of this option (above) for some extra details.
3397 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3398 relevant when `--daemon` is specified. The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf
3399 unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program and the remote
3400 user is not the super-user; in that case the default is rsyncd.conf in the
3401 current directory (typically $HOME).
3403 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3405 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3406 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3407 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3408 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3411 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3415 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3416 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3417 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3418 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3419 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3420 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3424 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3425 rather than the default of 873. See also the "port" global option in the
3426 rsyncd.conf manpage.
3428 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3430 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3431 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3433 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3435 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3436 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3437 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3438 logging is turned off.
3442 This overrides the `socket options` setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has
3445 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3447 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3448 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3449 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3450 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3452 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3454 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3455 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3456 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3457 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3458 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3461 These options also exist in the regular rsync options section.
3463 If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3464 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3469 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3470 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3474 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
3475 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify
3476 include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude
3477 patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
3479 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name
3480 to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the
3481 first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file
3482 is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if
3483 no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.
3485 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line.
3486 Filter rules have the following syntax:
3488 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3489 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3491 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
3492 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
3493 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
3494 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Here are the
3495 available rule prefixes:
3497 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern.
3498 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern.
3499 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
3500 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file.
3501 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
3502 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden.
3503 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
3504 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected.
3505 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
3507 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are comment
3508 lines that start with a "#".
3510 [comment]: # (Remember that markdown strips spaces from start/end of ` ... ` sequences!)
3511 [comment]: # (Thus, the `x ` sequences below use a literal non-breakable space!)
3513 Note that the `--include` & `--exclude` command-line options do not allow the
3514 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
3515 specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "`!`" token to clear the
3516 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a
3517 pattern does not begin with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
3518 the rule will be interpreted as if "`+Â `" (for an include option) or "`-Â `"
3519 (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A `--filter` option, on
3520 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
3523 Note also that the `--filter`, `--include`, and `--exclude` options take one
3524 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on the
3525 command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the `--filter` option, or the
3526 `--include-from` / `--exclude-from` options.
3528 # INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES
3530 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+", "-",
3531 etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The
3532 include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against the names
3533 of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several
3536 - if the pattern starts with a `/` then it is anchored to a particular spot in
3537 the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the
3538 pathname. This is similar to a leading `^` in regular expressions. Thus
3539 `/foo` would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for
3540 a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule).
3541 An unqualified `foo` would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because
3542 the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each
3543 path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the
3544 unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo"
3545 was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING
3546 INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern
3547 that matches at the root of the transfer.
3548 - if the pattern ends with a `/` then it will only match a directory, not a
3549 regular file, symlink, or device.
3550 - rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
3551 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters:
3552 '`*`', '`?`', and '`[`' .
3553 - a '`*`' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
3554 - use '`**`' to match anything, including slashes.
3555 - a '`?`' matches any character except a slash (`/`).
3556 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`.
3557 - in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
3558 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. This
3559 means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a pattern
3560 contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none. e.g. if
3561 you add a wildcard to "`foo\bar`" (which matches the backslash) you would
3562 need to use "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
3563 - if the pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing /) or a "`**`", then it
3564 is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If
3565 the pattern doesn't contain a `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched only against
3566 the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied
3567 recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the
3568 starting directory on down.)
3569 - a trailing "`dir_name/***`" will match both the directory (as if "dir_name/"
3570 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
3571 had been specified). This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.
3573 Note that, when using the `--recursive` (`-r`) option (which is implied by
3574 `-a`), every subdir component of every path is visited left to right, with each
3575 directory having a chance for exclusion before its content. In this way
3576 include/exclude patterns are applied recursively to the pathname of each node
3577 in the filesystem's tree (those inside the transfer). The exclude patterns
3578 short-circuit the directory traversal stage as rsync finds the files to send.
3580 For instance, to include "`/foo/bar/baz`", the directories "`/foo`" and "`/foo/bar`"
3581 must not be excluded. Excluding one of those parent directories prevents the
3582 examination of its content, cutting off rsync's recursion into those paths and
3583 rendering the include for "`/foo/bar/baz`" ineffectual (since rsync can't match
3584 something it never sees in the cut-off section of the directory hierarchy).
3586 The concept path exclusion is particularly important when using a trailing '`*`'
3587 rule. For instance, this won't work:
3589 > + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
3590 > + /file-is-included
3593 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '`*`' rule, so
3594 rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" directories.
3595 One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by
3596 using a single rule: "`+ */`" (put it somewhere before the "`- *`" rule), and
3597 perhaps use the `--prune-empty-dirs` option. Another solution is to add
3598 specific include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
3599 instance, this set of rules works fine:
3603 > + /some/path/this-file-is-found
3604 > + /file-also-included
3607 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
3609 - "`- *.o`" would exclude all names matching `*.o`
3610 - "`- /foo`" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root
3612 - "`- foo/`" would exclude any directory named foo
3613 - "`- /foo/*/bar`" would exclude any file named bar which is at two levels
3614 below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3615 - "`- /foo/**/bar`" would exclude any file named bar two or more levels below a
3616 directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3617 - The combination of "`+ */`", "`+ *.c`", and "`- *`" would include all
3618 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
3619 `--prune-empty-dirs` option)
3620 - The combination of "`+ foo/`", "`+ foo/bar.c`", and "`- *`" would include
3621 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly
3622 included or it would be excluded by the "`*`")
3624 The following modifiers are accepted after a "`+`" or "`-`":
3626 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
3627 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, "`-/ /etc/passwd`" would
3628 exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from the
3629 "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is
3630 in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
3632 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
3633 fails to match. For instance, "`-! */`" would exclude all non-directories.
3634 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
3635 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
3636 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
3637 rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from being transferred. The
3638 default is for a rule to affect both sides unless `--delete-excluded` was
3639 specified, in which case default rules become sender-side only. See also the
3640 hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify
3641 sending-side includes/excludes.
3642 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
3643 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
3644 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
3645 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
3646 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
3647 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the `-C` option's default
3648 rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable,
3649 and will not prevent a directory that was removed on the source from being
3650 deleted on the destination.
3651 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
3652 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
3653 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
3654 (see the `--xattrs` option).
3656 # MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
3658 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
3659 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
3662 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
3663 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
3664 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
3665 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
3666 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
3667 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
3668 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
3669 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
3670 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
3671 (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE below).
3675 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
3676 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
3677 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
3678 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
3679 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
3681 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
3683 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
3684 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
3685 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
3686 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
3687 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
3688 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
3689 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
3691 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
3692 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
3693 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
3694 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
3695 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
3696 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
3697 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
3698 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
3699 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
3700 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
3701 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
3702 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
3703 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
3704 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
3705 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
3708 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
3709 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
3710 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
3711 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
3712 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
3713 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
3714 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
3715 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
3716 the current merge file.
3718 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
3719 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
3720 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
3721 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
3724 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
3726 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
3733 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
3734 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
3735 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
3736 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
3739 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
3740 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
3741 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
3742 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see `-F`):
3744 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
3746 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
3747 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
3748 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
3749 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
3750 same as the module's "path".)
3752 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
3754 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
3755 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
3756 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
3758 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
3759 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
3760 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
3761 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
3763 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
3764 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
3765 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
3766 `--cvs-exclude` (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory .cvsignore file
3767 gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you like in your
3768 filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule for the
3769 .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower priority
3770 than your command-line rules). For example:
3773 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
3778 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
3781 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
3782 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
3783 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
3784 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
3785 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
3786 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
3787 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
3790 # LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
3792 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
3793 introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current" list is either
3794 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
3795 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
3796 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
3798 # ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
3800 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
3801 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
3802 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
3803 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
3804 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
3805 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
3807 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
3808 slash on a source path or changing your use of the `--relative` option affects
3809 the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of
3810 the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following examples
3813 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
3814 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
3815 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
3818 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
3819 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
3820 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
3821 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
3822 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
3826 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
3827 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
3828 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
3829 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
3830 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
3834 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
3835 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
3836 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
3837 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
3838 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
3842 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
3843 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
3844 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
3845 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
3846 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
3849 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
3850 look at the output when using `--verbose` and put a / in front of the name
3851 (use the `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
3853 # PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
3855 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
3856 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
3857 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
3858 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
3860 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
3861 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
3863 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
3864 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
3865 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
3866 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use `--delete-after`, because
3867 this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as the
3868 sending side before it tries to delete anything:
3870 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
3872 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
3873 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
3874 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
3875 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
3876 exclude themselves):
3878 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
3879 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
3881 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
3882 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
3883 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
3884 per-directory merge rule.
3886 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
3887 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
3888 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
3889 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
3890 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
3891 one of these commands:
3894 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
3895 > host:src/dir /dest
3896 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
3901 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
3902 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
3903 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
3904 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
3905 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
3906 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
3907 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
3908 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
3910 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
3911 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
3912 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
3913 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
3914 same data to every host individually.
3916 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
3917 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
3918 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
3919 stored in the batch file.
3921 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
3922 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
3923 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
3924 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
3925 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
3926 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
3927 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
3928 used to create the batch file.
3932 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
3933 > $ scp foo* remote:
3934 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
3936 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
3937 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
3939 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
3940 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
3941 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
3942 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
3943 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
3945 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
3946 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
3947 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
3948 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
3949 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
3950 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
3951 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
3952 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified `--read-batch`
3953 option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to make use of it
3954 (just be sure that no other option is trying to use standard input, such as
3955 the "`--exclude-from=-`" option).
3959 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
3960 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
3961 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
3962 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
3963 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
3964 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
3965 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
3966 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
3967 size and date, use the `-I` option (when reading the batch). If an error
3968 occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated state. In
3969 that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to
3970 fix up the destination tree.
3972 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
3973 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
3974 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
3975 See also the `--protocol` option for a way to have the creating rsync generate
3976 a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch files
3977 changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with newer
3978 versions will not work.)
3980 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
3981 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
3982 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
3983 instance `--write-batch` changes to `--read-batch`, `--files-from` is dropped,
3984 and the `--filter` / `--include` / `--exclude` options are not needed unless
3985 one of the `--delete` options is specified.
3987 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
3988 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
3989 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
3990 change in what gets deleted by `--delete` is desired. A normal user can ignore
3991 this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the appropriate
3992 `--read-batch` command for the batched data.
3994 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
3995 version uses a new implementation.
3999 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4000 link in the source directory.
4002 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4003 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4005 If `--links` is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same target on
4006 the destination. Note that `--archive` implies `--links`.
4008 If `--copy-links` is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4009 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4011 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4012 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4013 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4014 the public section of the site. Using `--copy-unsafe-links` will cause any
4015 links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4016 `--safe-links` will cause unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you
4017 must specify `--links` for `--safe-links` to have any effect.)
4019 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
4020 (start with `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
4021 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
4023 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4024 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4025 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4027 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no symlinks for
4028 any other options to affect).
4029 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and
4030 duplicate all safe symlinks.
4031 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily skip all
4033 0. `--links --safe-links` Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.
4034 0. `--links` Duplicate all symlinks.
4038 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4039 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4042 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4043 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4044 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4046 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4048 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4049 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4050 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4051 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4052 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4053 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4055 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4056 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4057 file is included or excluded.
4062 0. **1** Syntax or usage error
4063 0. **2** Protocol incompatibility
4064 0. **3** Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4065 0. **4** Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipulate
4066 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an option was
4067 specified that is supported by the client and not by the server.
4068 0. **5** Error starting client-server protocol
4069 0. **6** Daemon unable to append to log-file
4070 0. **10** Error in socket I/O
4071 0. **11** Error in file I/O
4072 0. **12** Error in rsync protocol data stream
4073 0. **13** Errors with program diagnostics
4074 0. **14** Error in IPC code
4075 0. **20** Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4076 0. **21** Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4077 0. **22** Error allocating core memory buffers
4078 0. **23** Partial transfer due to error
4079 0. **24** Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4080 0. **25** The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4081 0. **30** Timeout in data send/receive
4082 0. **35** Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4084 # ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4088 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4089 .cvsignore files. See the `--cvs-exclude` option for more details.
4093 Specify a default `--iconv` setting using this environment variable. (First
4094 supported in 3.0.0.)
4096 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4098 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the `--protect-args` option to
4099 be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is disabled by
4100 default. (First supported in 3.1.0.)
4104 The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to override the default shell
4105 used as the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after
4106 the command name, just as in the `-e` option.
4110 The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4111 client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync daemon. You should
4112 set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
4116 Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password allows you to run
4117 authenticated rsync connections to an rsync daemon without user
4118 intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to a remote shell
4119 transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's
4122 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4124 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4125 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4130 The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4135 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4139 **rsync-ssl**(1), **rsyncd.conf**(5)
4143 times are transferred as \*nix time_t values
4145 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
4147 See the comments on the `--modify-window` option.
4149 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
4152 see also the comments on the `--delete` option
4154 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4158 This man page is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4162 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4163 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4164 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4165 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4166 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4167 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4171 rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4172 COPYING for details.
4174 A web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site includes an
4175 FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual page.
4177 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4178 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4180 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4181 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4185 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4186 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4187 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4189 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4190 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4194 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4195 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4198 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4199 <https://lists.samba.org/>.