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
29 The online version of this manpage (that includes cross-linking of topics)
30 is available at <https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1>.
34 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
35 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
36 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
37 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
38 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
39 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
40 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
41 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
44 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
45 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
46 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
47 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
48 the file's data does not need to be updated.
50 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
52 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
53 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
54 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
55 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
56 - does not require super-user privileges
57 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
58 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
62 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
63 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
65 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
66 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
67 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
68 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
69 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
70 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
71 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the [USING
72 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) section for an
73 exception to this latter rule).
75 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
76 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
78 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
79 the copy occurs locally (see also the [`--list-only`](#opt) option).
81 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
82 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
83 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
87 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
89 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
90 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
91 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
92 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
93 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
95 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the [`-e`](#opt)
96 command line option, or by setting the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#) environment variable.
98 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
102 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
103 destination, one of which may be remote.
105 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
107 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
109 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
110 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
111 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
112 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
113 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
114 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
115 same as all other Posix-style programs).
117 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
119 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
121 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
122 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
123 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
126 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
128 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
130 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
131 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
134 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
136 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
137 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
139 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
140 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
141 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
143 > rsync -av host: /dest
144 > rsync -av host::module /dest
146 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
147 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
148 improved copy command.
150 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
151 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
153 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
155 See the following section for more details.
157 ## SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
159 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
160 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
161 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames. It can, however,
162 confuse someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what
163 was given on the command-line.
165 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
166 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
167 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
168 does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
170 ## MULTI-HOST SECURITY
172 Rsync takes steps to ensure that the file requests that are shared in a
173 transfer are protected against various security issues. Most of the potential
174 problems arise on the receiving side where rsync takes steps to ensure that the
175 list of files being transferred remains within the bounds of what was
178 Toward this end, rsync 3.1.2 and later have aborted when a file list contains
179 an absolute or relative path that tries to escape out of the top of the
180 transfer. Also, beginning with version 3.2.5, rsync does two more safety
181 checks of the file list to (1) ensure that no extra source arguments were added
182 into the transfer other than those that the client requested and (2) ensure
183 that the file list obeys the exclude rules that were sent to the sender.
185 For those that don't yet have a 3.2.5 client rsync (or those that want to be
186 extra careful), it is safest to do a copy into a dedicated destination
187 directory for the remote files when you don't trust the remote host. For
188 example, instead of doing an rsync copy into your home directory:
190 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~
192 Dedicate a "host1-files" dir to the remote content:
194 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~/host1-files
196 See the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option for additional details.
200 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
201 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
202 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
204 > rsync -aiv host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
205 > rsync -aiv host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/extra /dest/
206 > rsync -aiv host::modname/first ::modname/extra{1,2} /dest/
208 Really old versions of rsync (2.6.9 and before) only allowed specifying one
209 remote-source arg, so some people have instead relied on the remote-shell
210 performing space splitting to break up an arg into multiple paths. Such
211 unintuitive behavior is no longer supported by default (though you can request
212 it, as described below).
214 Starting in 3.2.4, filenames are passed to a remote shell in such a way as to
215 preserve the characters you give it. Thus, if you ask for a file with spaces
216 in the name, that's what the remote rsync looks for:
218 > rsync -aiv host:'a simple file.pdf' /dest/
220 If you use scripts that have been written to manually apply extra quoting to
221 the remote rsync args (or to require remote arg splitting), you can ask rsync
222 to let your script handle the extra escaping. This is done by either adding
223 the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to the rsync runs in the script (which requires
224 a new rsync) or exporting [RSYNC_OLD_ARGS](#)=1 and [RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS](#)=0
225 (which works with old or new rsync versions).
227 ## CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
229 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
230 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
231 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
232 system, so refer to the [STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS](#)
233 section below for information on that.)
235 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
238 - you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
239 hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
240 - the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
241 - the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
242 - if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
243 paths on the daemon will be shown.
244 - if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
245 the remote daemon is provided.
246 - you must not specify the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option (since that overrides
247 the daemon connection to use ssh -- see [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
248 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) below).
250 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
252 > rsync -av host::src /dest
254 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
255 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
256 by setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_PASSWORD`](#) to the password you
257 want to use or using the [`--password-file`](#opt) option. This may be useful
258 when scripting rsync.
260 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
261 those systems using [`--password-file`](#opt) is recommended.
263 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
264 variable [`RSYNC_PROXY`](#) to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy.
265 Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port
268 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
269 setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#) to the commands you
270 wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
271 contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
272 command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
274 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
275 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
276 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
278 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
279 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
281 Note also that if the [`RSYNC_SHELL`](#) environment variable is set, that
282 program will be used to run the `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG` command instead of using
283 the default shell of the **system()** call.
285 ## USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
287 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
288 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
289 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
290 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
291 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
292 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
293 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
294 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
295 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
296 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
297 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
299 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
300 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
301 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
302 program on the command-line with the [`--rsh=COMMAND`](#opt) option. (Setting the
303 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
305 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
307 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
308 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
309 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
310 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
311 example that uses the short version of the [`--rsh`](#opt) option:
313 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
315 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
316 log-in to the "module".
318 In this setup, the daemon is started by the ssh command that is accessing the
319 system (which can be forced via the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file, if desired).
320 However, when accessing a daemon directly, it needs to be started beforehand.
322 ## STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
324 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
325 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
326 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
327 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
328 connections, see the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage -- that is
329 the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run
330 the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
332 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
333 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
337 Here are some examples of how rsync can be used.
339 To backup a home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail
340 folders, a per-user cron job can be used that runs this each day:
342 > rsync -aiz . bkhost:backup/joe/
344 To move some files from a remote host to the local host, you could run:
346 > rsync -aiv --remove-source-files rhost:/tmp/{file1,file2}.c ~/src/
350 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Each option also
351 has its own detailed description later in this manpage.
353 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
354 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
357 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
358 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
359 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
360 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
361 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
362 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
363 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
364 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
365 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
366 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
367 --relative, -R use relative path names
368 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
369 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
370 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
371 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
372 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
373 --inplace update destination files in-place
374 --append append data onto shorter files
375 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
376 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
377 --old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
378 --mkpath create the destination's path component
379 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
380 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
381 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
382 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
383 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
384 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
385 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
386 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
387 --perms, -p preserve permissions
388 --executability, -E preserve executability
389 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
390 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
391 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
392 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
393 --group, -g preserve group
394 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
395 --copy-devices copy device contents as a regular file
396 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
397 --specials preserve special files
398 -D same as --devices --specials
399 --times, -t preserve modification times
400 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
401 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
402 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
403 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
404 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
405 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
406 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
407 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
408 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
409 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
410 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
411 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
412 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
413 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
414 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
415 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
416 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
417 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
418 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
419 --del an alias for --delete-during
420 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
421 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
422 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
423 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
424 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
425 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
426 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
427 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
428 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
429 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
430 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
431 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
432 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
433 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
434 --partial keep partially transferred files
435 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
436 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
437 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
438 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
439 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
440 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
441 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
442 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
443 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
444 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
445 --size-only skip files that match in size
446 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
447 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
448 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
449 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
450 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
451 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
452 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
453 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
454 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
455 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
456 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
457 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
458 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
459 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
460 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
461 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
462 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
463 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
464 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
465 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
466 --old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
467 --protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
468 --trust-sender trust the remote sender's file list
469 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
470 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
471 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
472 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
473 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
474 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
475 --stats give some file-transfer stats
476 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
477 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
478 --progress show progress during transfer
479 -P same as --partial --progress
480 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
481 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
482 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
483 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
484 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
485 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
486 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
487 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
488 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
489 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
490 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
491 --fsync fsync every written file
492 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
493 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
494 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
495 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
496 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
497 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
498 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
499 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
500 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
501 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
504 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
507 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
510 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
511 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
512 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
513 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
514 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
515 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
516 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
517 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
518 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
519 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
520 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
521 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
522 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
523 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
528 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
529 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
530 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
531 Some options only have a long variant, not a short.
533 If the option takes a parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long
534 variant, even though it must also be specified for the short. When specifying
535 a parameter, you can either use the form `--option=param`, `--option param`,
536 `-o=param`, `-o param`, or `-oparam` (the latter choices assume that your
537 option has a short variant).
539 The parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the
540 shell's command-line parsing. Also keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in
541 a pathname is substituted by your shell, so make sure that you separate the
542 option name from the pathname using a space if you want the local shell to
545 [comment]: # (Some markup below uses a literal non-breakable space when a backtick string)
546 [comment]: # (needs to contain a space since markdown strips spaces from the start/end)
548 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
552 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
553 You can also use `-h` for `--help` when it is used without any other
554 options (since it normally means [`--human-readable`](#opt)).
558 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
560 The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
561 list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
562 to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
566 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
567 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
568 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
569 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
570 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
571 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
573 The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
574 rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
575 received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
576 transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
577 second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
578 file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
579 value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
580 sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
581 number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
582 human-readable by using the [`--human-readable`](#opt) (or
583 `--no-human-readable`) options.
585 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
586 of [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) options. You can choose to use
587 these newer options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as
588 any fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both
589 [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) have a way to ask for help that
590 tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
592 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
593 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
594 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
595 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
596 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
600 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
601 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
602 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
603 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
604 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
605 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
606 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
608 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
609 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
611 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the [`--out-format`](#opt)
612 and [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options. See those options for more
613 information on what is output and when.
615 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
616 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
617 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
618 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
622 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
623 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
624 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
625 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
626 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
627 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
628 the verbose level. Some examples:
630 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
631 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
633 Note that some debug messages will only be output when the [`--stderr=all`](#opt)
634 option is specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
636 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
637 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
638 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
639 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
640 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
641 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
643 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
645 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
647 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
648 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
649 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
651 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
652 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
653 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
654 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
655 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
658 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
659 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
660 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
661 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
662 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
663 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
664 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows [`--debug`](#opt) to
665 enable some extra I/O related messages.
667 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
668 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
669 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
670 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
671 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
672 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
673 been around for several releases.
675 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
676 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
677 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
678 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
679 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
683 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
684 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
685 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
689 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
690 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
691 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
692 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
693 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
696 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
698 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
699 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
700 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
702 This option can be confusing compared to [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) and
703 [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) in that that they cause rsync to transfer
704 fewer files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
708 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
709 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
710 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
711 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
712 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
715 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
717 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
718 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
719 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
720 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
721 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
722 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
723 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
725 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
726 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
728 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
729 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
731 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
732 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
733 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
735 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
737 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
738 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
739 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
740 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
741 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
742 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
743 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
744 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
745 transfer changed files)
747 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
748 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
749 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
750 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
751 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
753 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
754 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
755 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
756 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
757 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
759 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
760 can be overridden using either the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`)
761 option or an environment variable that is discussed in that option's
766 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
767 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
768 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
769 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
771 The only exception to the above equivalence is when [`--files-from`](#opt)
772 is specified, in which case [`-r`](#opt) is not implied.
776 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
777 with "no-". Not all positive options have a negated opposite, but a lot
778 do, including those that can be used to disable an implied option (e.g.
779 `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have different defaults in various circumstances
780 (e.g. [`--no-whole-file`](#opt), `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). Every
781 valid negated option accepts both the short and the long option name after
782 the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as `--no-relative`).
784 As an example, if you want to use [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) but don't want
785 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you
786 can specify `-a --no-o` (aka `--archive --no-owner`).
788 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the `-r`
789 option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`. Note
790 also that the side-effects of the [`--files-from`](#opt) option are NOT
791 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
792 changes the meaning of [`-a`](#opt) (see the [`--files-from`](#opt) option
795 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
797 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also
798 [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) for an option that allows the scanning of a single
801 See the [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) option for a discussion of the
802 incremental recursion for creating the list of files to transfer.
804 0. `--inc-recursive`, `--i-r`
806 This option explicitly enables on incremental recursion when scanning for
807 files, which is enabled by default when using the [`--recursive`](#opt)
808 option and both sides of the transfer are running rsync 3.0.0 or newer.
810 Incremental recursion uses much less memory than non-incremental, while
811 also beginning the transfer more quickly (since it doesn't need to scan the
812 entire transfer hierarchy before it starts transferring files). If no
813 recursion is enabled in the source files, this option has no effect.
815 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
816 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include:
817 - [`--delete-before`](#opt) (the old default of [`--delete`](#opt))
818 - [`--delete-after`](#opt)
819 - [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt)
820 - [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
822 In order to make [`--delete`](#opt) compatible with incremental recursion,
823 rsync 3.0.0 made [`--delete-during`](#opt) the default delete mode (which
824 was first added in 2.6.4).
826 One side-effect of incremental recursion is that any missing
827 sub-directories inside a recursively-scanned directory are (by default)
828 created prior to recursing into the sub-dirs. This earlier creation point
829 (compared to a non-incremental recursion) allows rsync to then set the
830 modify time of the finished directory right away (without having to delay
831 that until a bunch of recursive copying has finished). However, these
832 early directories don't yet have their completed mode, mtime, or ownership
833 set -- they have more restrictive rights until the subdirectory's copying
834 actually begins. This early-creation idiom can be avoiding by using the
835 [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option.
837 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the
838 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) (`--no-i-r`) option.
840 0. `--no-inc-recursive`, `--no-i-r`
842 Disables the new incremental recursion algorithm of the
843 [`--recursive`](#opt) option. This makes rsync scan the full file list
844 before it begins to transfer files. See [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) for more
847 0. `--relative`, `-R`
849 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
850 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
851 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
852 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
855 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
857 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
860 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
862 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
863 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
864 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
867 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
868 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
869 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
870 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
871 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
872 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
873 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
874 the [`--no-implied-dirs`](#opt) option.
876 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
877 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
878 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
879 the source path, like this:
881 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
883 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
884 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
885 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
886 path. For example, when pushing files:
888 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
890 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
891 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
892 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
893 non-daemon transfer):
895 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
896 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
898 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
900 This option affects the default behavior of the [`--relative`](#opt) option. When
901 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
902 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
903 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
904 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
905 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
906 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
908 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
909 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
910 are implied when [`--relative`](#opt) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
911 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
912 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
913 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
914 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
915 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
916 preservation is to use the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option (which will also affect
917 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
919 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
920 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
921 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
925 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
926 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
927 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the [`--backup-dir`](#opt) and
928 [`--suffix`](#opt) options.
930 If you don't specify [`--backup-dir`](#opt):
932 1. the [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option will be forced on
933 2. the use of [`--delete`](#opt) (without [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)),
934 causes rsync to add a "protect" [filter-rule](#FILTER_RULES) for the
935 backup suffix to the end of all your existing filters that looks like
936 this: `-f "P *~"`. This rule prevents previously backed-up files from
939 Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to
940 manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the
941 list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g. if your
942 rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule
943 would never be reached).
945 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
947 This implies the [`--backup`](#opt) option, and tells rsync to store all
948 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
949 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
950 using the [`--suffix`](#opt) option (otherwise the files backed up in the
951 specified directory will keep their original filenames).
953 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
954 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
955 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
956 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
957 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
961 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
962 [`--backup`](#opt) (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no
963 [`--backup-dir`](#opt) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
967 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
968 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
969 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
970 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
972 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
973 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
974 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
975 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
976 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
977 regardless of the timestamps.
979 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
980 exclude side effects.
982 A caution for those that choose to combine [`--inplace`](#opt) with
983 `--update`: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the
984 receiving side that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the
985 transfer will probably **not** continue the interrupted file. As such, it
986 is usually best to avoid combining this with[ `--inplace`](#opt) unless you
987 have implemented manual steps to handle any interrupted in-progress files.
991 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
992 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
993 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
994 updated data directly to the destination file.
996 This has several effects:
998 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
999 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
1000 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
1001 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
1003 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
1004 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
1006 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
1007 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
1009 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
1010 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
1011 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
1012 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
1013 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
1014 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use [`--backup`](#opt),
1015 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
1018 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
1019 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
1021 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
1022 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
1023 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
1024 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
1026 The option implies [`--partial`](#opt) (since an interrupted transfer does
1027 not delete the file), but conflicts with [`--partial-dir`](#opt) and
1028 [`--delay-updates`](#opt). Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also
1029 incompatible with [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
1033 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
1034 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
1035 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
1036 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
1037 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
1038 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
1040 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
1041 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
1042 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
1043 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
1044 that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
1045 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
1046 "diminished" file when this happens).
1048 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
1049 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
1050 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
1053 0. `--append-verify`
1055 This special copy mode works like [`--append`](#opt) except that all the
1056 data in the file is included in the checksum verification (making it less
1057 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
1058 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
1059 files. See the [`--append`](#opt) option for more details.
1061 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the [`--append`](#opt) option worked like
1062 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
1063 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
1064 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
1068 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
1069 Unlike [`--recursive`](#opt), a directory's contents are not copied unless
1070 the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g.
1071 ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
1072 [`--recursive`](#opt) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters
1073 (and output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
1074 `--dirs` and [`--recursive`](#opt), `--recursive` takes precedence.
1076 The `--dirs` option is implied by the [`--files-from`](#opt) option or the
1077 [`--list-only`](#opt) option (including an implied [`--list-only`](#opt)
1078 usage) if [`--recursive`](#opt) wasn't specified (so that directories are
1079 seen in the listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to
1082 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs`
1083 (`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
1084 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1088 Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1089 to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1090 in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1091 supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1092 treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1093 same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1096 For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1097 directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1099 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1101 If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1102 sub/dir/bar directory:
1104 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1108 Add symlinks to the transferred files instead of noisily ignoring them with
1109 a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink encountered. You can
1110 alternately silence the warning by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1112 The default handling of symlinks is to recreate each symlink's unchanged
1113 value on the receiving side.
1115 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1117 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1119 The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
1120 referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
1121 references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
1122 is dropped from the transfer.
1124 This option supersedes any other options that affect symlinks in the
1125 transfer, since there are no symlinks left in the transfer.
1127 This option does not change the handling of existing symlinks on the
1128 receiving side, unlike versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3 which had the
1129 side-effect of telling the receiving side to also follow symlinks. A
1130 modern rsync won't forward this option to a remote receiver (since only the
1131 sender needs to know about it), so this caveat should only affect someone
1132 using an rsync client older than 2.6.7 (which is when `-L` stopped being
1133 forwarded to the receiver).
1135 See the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) (`-K`) if you need a symlink to a
1136 directory to be treated as a real directory on the receiving side.
1138 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1140 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1142 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1143 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1144 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when [`--relative`](#opt)
1147 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1148 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1149 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1150 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1151 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1152 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1153 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1156 Note that safe symlinks are only copied if [`--links`](#opt) was also
1157 specified or implied. The `--copy-unsafe-links` option has no extra effect
1158 when combined with [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1160 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1164 This tells the receiving rsync to ignore any symbolic links in the transfer
1165 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
1168 Since this ignoring is happening on the receiving side, it will still be
1169 effective even when the sending side has munged symlinks (when it is using
1170 [`--munge-links`](#opt)). It also affects deletions, since the file being
1171 present in the transfer prevents any matching file on the receiver from
1172 being deleted when the symlink is deemed to be unsafe and is skipped.
1174 This option must be combined with [`--links`](#opt) (or
1175 [`--archive`](#opt)) to have any symlinks in the transfer to conditionally
1176 ignore. Its effect is superseded by [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt).
1178 Using this option in conjunction with [`--relative`](#opt) may give
1181 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1185 This option affects just one side of the transfer and tells rsync to munge
1186 symlink values when it is receiving files or unmunge symlink values when it
1187 is sending files. The munged values make the symlinks unusable on disk but
1188 allows the original contents of the symlinks to be recovered.
1190 The server-side rsync often enables this option without the client's
1191 knowledge, such as in an rsync daemon's configuration file or by an option
1192 given to the rrsync (restricted rsync) script. When specified on the
1193 client side, specify the option normally if it is the client side that
1194 has/needs the munged symlinks, or use `-M--munge-links` to give the option
1195 to the server when it has/needs the munged symlinks. Note that on a local
1196 transfer, the client is the sender, so specifying the option directly
1197 unmunges symlinks while specifying it as a remote option munges symlinks.
1199 This option has no effect when sent to a daemon via [`--remote-option`](#opt)
1200 because the daemon configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
1201 "`munge symlinks`" parameter.
1203 The symlink value is munged/unmunged once it is in the transfer, so any
1204 option that transforms symlinks into non-symlinks occurs prior to the
1205 munging/unmunging **except** for [`--safe-links`](#opt), which is a choice
1206 that the receiver makes, so it bases its decision on the munged/unmunged
1207 value. This does mean that if a receiver has munging enabled, that using
1208 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause all symlinks to be ignored (since they
1211 The method that rsync uses to munge the symlinks is to prefix each one's
1212 value with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from
1213 being used as long as the directory does not exist. When this option is
1214 enabled, rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink
1215 to a directory (though it only checks at startup). See also the
1216 "munge-symlinks" python script in the support directory of the source code
1217 for a way to munge/unmunge one or more symlinks in-place.
1219 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1221 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1222 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1223 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using
1224 [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1226 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1227 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1228 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1229 [`--force`](#opt) or [`--delete`](#opt) is in effect).
1231 See also [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the
1234 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1235 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1236 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1237 [`--relative`](#opt) to make the paths match up right. For example:
1239 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1241 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1242 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1243 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1246 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1248 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1250 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1251 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1252 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1253 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1255 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1256 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1257 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1258 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1259 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1262 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1263 symlinks in the copy or enable the [`--munge-links`](#opt) option on the
1264 receiving side! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create their
1265 own symlink to any real directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1266 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1267 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1268 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1269 your receiving hierarchy.
1271 See also [`--copy-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the sending
1274 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1276 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1278 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1279 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1280 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1283 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1284 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1285 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1287 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1288 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1289 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1290 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1291 (unless you are using the [`--inplace`](#opt) option).
1292 - If you specify a [`--link-dest`](#opt) directory that contains hard
1293 links, the linking of the destination files against the
1294 [`--link-dest`](#opt) files can cause some paths in the destination to
1295 become linked together due to the [`--link-dest`](#opt) associations.
1297 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1298 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1299 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1300 you are tempted to use the [`--inplace`](#opt) option to avoid this breakage, be
1301 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1302 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1303 see the [`--inplace`](#opt) option for more caveats).
1305 If incremental recursion is active (see [`--inc-recursive`](#opt)), rsync
1306 may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link
1307 for that contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect
1308 the accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
1309 just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1310 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1311 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1312 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1313 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) option.
1317 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1318 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the [`--chmod`](#opt)
1319 option for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source
1322 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1324 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1325 permissions, though the [`--executability`](#opt) option might change
1326 just the execute permission for the file.
1327 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1328 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1329 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1330 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1331 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1332 bit from its parent directory.
1334 Thus, when `--perms` and [`--executability`](#opt) are both disabled, rsync's
1335 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1338 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1339 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1340 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1341 `--perms` option is off and use [`--chmod=ugo=rwX`](#opt) (which ensures
1342 that all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
1343 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
1344 putting this line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z`
1345 option, and includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination
1348 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1350 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1352 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1354 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1355 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1357 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1358 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1359 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1360 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1361 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1362 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1363 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1364 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1367 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1369 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1370 non-executability) of regular files when [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1371 A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1372 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1373 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1374 destination file's permissions as follows:
1376 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1377 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1378 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1380 If [`--perms`](#opt) is enabled, this option is ignored.
1384 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1385 the source ACLs. The option also implies [`--perms`](#opt).
1387 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1388 this option to work properly. See the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option for a
1389 way to backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1393 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1394 be the same as the source ones.
1396 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1397 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1398 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1399 namespaces as a normal user, see the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option.
1401 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1402 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1403 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1404 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1405 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1406 namespace, you could specify:
1408 > --filter='-x system.*'
1410 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1413 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1415 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1416 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1420 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1421 those used by [`--fake-super`](#opt)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1422 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with [`--fake-super`](#opt).
1426 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1427 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1428 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1429 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1430 existing files if [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1432 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1433 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1434 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1435 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1436 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1437 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1438 consistent executability across all bits:
1440 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1442 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1444 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1446 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1447 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1449 See the [`--perms`](#opt) and [`--executability`](#opt) options for how the
1450 resulting permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1454 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1455 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1456 the super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
1457 options). Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files
1458 are set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
1460 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1461 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1462 [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1466 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1467 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1468 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1469 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1470 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1471 user on the receiving side.
1473 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1474 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1475 (see also the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1479 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1480 the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
1481 being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
1482 (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1484 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
1485 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1486 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1490 This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
1491 and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
1492 rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the
1493 [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1495 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
1496 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1497 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1501 The `-D` option is equivalent to "[`--devices`](#opt)
1502 [`--specials`](#opt)".
1506 This tells rsync to treat a device on the sending side as a regular file,
1507 allowing it to be copied to a normal destination file (or another device
1508 if `--write-devices` was also specified).
1510 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1512 0. `--write-devices`
1514 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1515 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1517 This option implies the [`--inplace`](#opt) option.
1519 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1520 receiving side of the transfer, especially when running rsync as root.
1522 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1526 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1527 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1528 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1529 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` (or [`-a`](#opt)) will cause the
1530 next transfer to behave as if it used [`--ignore-times`](#opt) (`-I`),
1531 causing all files to be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1532 will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't actually
1533 changed, you're much better off using `-t`).
1537 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1538 the same value as the source files.
1540 If repeated, it also sets the [`--open-noatime`](#opt) option, which can help you
1541 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1542 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1545 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1546 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply
1547 [`--open-noatime`](#opt) when this option is repeated.
1551 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1552 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1553 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1554 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1555 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1556 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1558 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1560 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1561 files to the same value as the source files.
1563 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1565 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
1566 access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1567 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1568 [`--backup`](#opt) without [`--backup-dir`](#opt).
1570 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of missing
1571 sub-directories when incremental recursion is enabled, as discussed in the
1572 [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) section.
1574 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1576 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
1577 access, and create times.
1581 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1582 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1583 preserving users via the [`--owner`](#opt) option, preserving all groups
1584 (not just the current user's groups) via the [`--group`](#opt) option, and
1585 copying devices via the [`--devices`](#opt) option. This is useful for
1586 systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and also
1587 for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run
1588 as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can
1593 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1594 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1595 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1596 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1597 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1598 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1599 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1600 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1601 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1602 ACLs (if [`--acls`](#opt) was specified) and non-user extended attributes
1603 (if [`--xattrs`](#opt) was specified).
1605 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1606 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1608 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1609 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1610 [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`) option:
1612 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1614 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1615 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1616 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1617 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1619 This option is overridden by both [`--super`](#opt) and `--no-super`.
1621 See also the [`fake super`](rsyncd.conf.5#fake_super) setting in the
1622 daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1626 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1627 destination. If combined with [`--inplace`](#opt) the file created might
1628 not end up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version
1629 and/or filesystem type. If [`--whole-file`](#opt) is in effect (e.g. for a
1630 local copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior
1631 to writing out the updated version.
1633 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1634 `--sparse` and [`--inplace`](#opt).
1638 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1639 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1640 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1641 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1642 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1644 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1645 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1646 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1647 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1649 If combined with [`--sparse`](#opt), the file will only have sparse blocks
1650 (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1651 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1653 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1655 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1656 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1657 in combination with the [`--verbose`](#opt) (`-v`) and/or
1658 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options to see what an rsync command is
1659 going to do before one actually runs it.
1661 The output of [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) is supposed to be exactly the
1662 same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery
1663 and system call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should
1664 be mostly unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does
1665 not send the actual data for file transfers, so [`--progress`](#opt) has no
1666 effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched
1667 data" statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
1668 run where no file transfers were needed.
1670 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1672 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1673 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1674 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1675 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1676 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1677 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1678 batch-writing option is in effect.
1680 0. `--no-whole-file`, `--no-W`
1682 Disable whole-file updating when it is enabled by default for a local
1683 transfer. This usually slows rsync down, but it can be useful if you are
1684 trying to minimize the writes to the destination file (if combined with
1685 [`--inplace`](#opt)) or for testing the checksum-based update algorithm.
1687 See also the [`--whole-file`](#opt) option.
1689 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1691 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1692 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1693 [`--checksum`](#opt) is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1694 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1695 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1697 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1699 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1702 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1707 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1708 version (which may differ from the list above).
1710 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the [`--whole-file`](#opt)
1711 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1712 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1713 the [`--checksum`](#opt) option cannot be used.
1715 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1716 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1718 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1719 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1720 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1721 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1722 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1723 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1725 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1726 [`RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum
1727 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
1728 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
1729 If the string (or string portion) contains no non-whitespace characters,
1730 the default checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
1731 specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum,
1732 and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum names. A list with only
1733 invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1735 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1737 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1739 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1740 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1741 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1742 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1743 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1744 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1746 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1747 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1748 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1749 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1751 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via [`--copy-links`](#opt) or
1752 [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt)), a symlink to a directory on another device
1753 is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1756 0. `--ignore-non-existing`, `--existing`
1758 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1759 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1760 [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) option, no files will be updated (which can be
1761 useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1763 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1764 exclude side effects.
1766 0. `--ignore-existing`
1768 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1769 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1770 get done). See also [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt).
1772 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1773 exclude side effects.
1775 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the
1776 [`--link-dest`](#opt) option when they need to continue a backup run that
1777 got interrupted. Since a [`--link-dest`](#opt) run is copied into a new
1778 directory hierarchy (when it is used properly), using [`--ignore-existing`
1779 will ensure that the already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids
1780 a change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that
1781 this option is only looking at the existing files in the destination
1784 When [`--info=skip2`](#opt) is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists
1785 (INFO)" messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum
1786 change" (requires [`-c`](#opt)), "file change" (based on the quick check),
1787 "attr change", or "uptodate". Using [`--info=skip1`](#opt) (which is also
1788 implied by 2 [`-v`](#opt) options) outputs the exists message without the
1791 0. `--remove-source-files`
1793 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1794 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1795 duplicated on the receiving side.
1797 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1798 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1799 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1800 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1801 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1802 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1803 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1804 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1805 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option [`--exclude='*.new'`](#opt)
1806 for the rsync transfer).
1808 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1809 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1813 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1814 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1815 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1816 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1817 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1818 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1819 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1820 excluded from being deleted unless you use the [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
1821 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1822 include/exclude modifiers in the [FILTER RULES](#) section).
1824 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless
1825 [`--recursive`](#opt) was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will
1826 also occur when [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) is enabled, but only for
1827 directories whose contents are being copied.
1829 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1830 first try a run using the [`--dry-run`](#opt) (`-n`) option to see what
1831 files are going to be deleted.
1833 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1834 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1835 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1836 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1837 this with the [`--ignore-errors`](#opt) option.
1839 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1840 without conflict, as well as [`--delete-excluded`](#opt). However, if none
1841 of the `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1842 [`--delete-during`](#opt) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer,
1843 or the [`--delete-before`](#opt) algorithm when talking to an older rsync.
1844 See also [`--delete-delay`](#opt) and [`--delete-after`](#opt).
1846 0. `--delete-before`
1848 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1849 transfer starts. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1850 details on file-deletion.
1852 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1853 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1854 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1855 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1856 [`--timeout`](#opt) was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1857 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1858 files in the transfer into memory at once (see [`--recursive`](#opt)).
1860 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1862 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1863 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1864 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1865 efficient [`--delete-before`](#opt), including doing the deletions prior to
1866 any per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added
1867 in rsync version 2.6.4. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1868 details on file-deletion.
1872 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1873 the transfer (like [`--delete-during`](#opt)), and then removed after the
1874 transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1875 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) and/or [`--fuzzy`](#opt), and is more efficient
1876 than using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (but can behave differently, since
1877 [`--delete-after`](#opt) computes the deletions in a separate pass after
1878 all updates are done). If the number of removed files overflows an
1879 internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
1880 hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during
1881 the transfer). If the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try
1882 to fall back to using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (which it cannot do if
1883 [`--recursive`](#opt) is doing an incremental scan). See
1884 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1888 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1889 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1890 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1891 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1892 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1893 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1894 (see [`--recursive`](#opt)). See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for
1895 more details on file-deletion.
1897 See also the [`--delete-delay`](#opt) option that might be a faster choice
1898 for those that just want the deletions to occur at the end of the transfer.
1900 0. `--delete-excluded`
1902 This option turns any unqualified exclude/include rules into server-side
1903 rules that do not affect the receiver's deletions.
1905 By default, an exclude or include has both a server-side effect (to "hide"
1906 and "show" files when building the server's file list) and a receiver-side
1907 effect (to "protect" and "risk" files when deletions are occurring). Any
1908 rule that has no modifier to specify what sides it is executed on will be
1909 instead treated as if it were a server-side rule only, avoiding any
1910 "protect" effects of the rules.
1912 A rule can still apply to both sides even with this option specified if the
1913 rule is given both the sender & receiver modifier letters (e.g., `-f'-sr
1914 foo'`). Receiver-side protect/risk rules can also be explicitly specified
1915 to limit the deletions. This saves you from having to edit a bunch of
1916 `-f'- foo'` rules into `-f'-s foo'` (aka `-f'H foo'`) rules (not to mention
1917 the corresponding includes).
1919 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for more information. See
1920 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on deletion.
1922 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
1924 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1925 command-line arguments or [`--files-from`](#opt) entries), it is normally
1926 an error if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error,
1927 and does not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1928 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1931 0. `--delete-missing-args`
1933 This option takes the behavior of the (implied)
1934 [`--ignore-missing-args`](#opt) option a step farther: each missing arg
1935 will become a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the
1936 receiving side (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty
1937 directory, it will only be successfully deleted if [`--force`](#opt) or
1938 [`--delete`](#opt) are in effect. Other than that, this option is
1939 independent of any other type of delete processing.
1941 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1942 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the [`--list-only`](#opt) output.
1944 0. `--ignore-errors`
1946 Tells [`--delete`](#opt) to go ahead and delete files even when there are
1951 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1952 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1953 active (see [`--delete`](#opt) for details).
1955 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
1956 using [`--delete-after`](#opt), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1957 [`--recursive`](#opt) option was also enabled.
1959 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
1961 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
1962 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
1963 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
1964 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
1965 important error condition also occurred).
1967 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
1968 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1969 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1970 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
1971 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1972 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1974 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
1976 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
1977 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
1978 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
1979 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
1981 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1982 exclude side effects.
1984 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
1985 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
1986 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
1987 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
1988 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
1989 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
1991 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
1992 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
1995 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
1998 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
2000 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
2002 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
2003 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
2004 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of SIZE and other info.
2006 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
2008 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
2010 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
2011 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
2012 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
2013 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
2014 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
2015 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
2016 consume more memory.
2018 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
2019 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
2021 See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of how SIZE can be
2022 specified. The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
2024 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
2026 You can set a default value using the environment variable
2027 [`RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`](#) using the same SIZE values as supported by this
2028 option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option,
2029 you can override an environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`,
2030 which will make rsync avoid sending the option to the remote side (because
2031 "1G" is the default).
2033 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
2035 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
2036 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
2037 updated. See the technical report for details.
2039 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
2040 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
2042 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
2044 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
2045 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
2046 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
2049 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
2050 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
2051 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
2052 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
2053 remote host. See the [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL
2054 CONNECTION](#) section above.
2056 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the [`RSYNC_PORT`](#) environment variable will
2057 be set when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell
2058 connection. It is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or
2059 it is set to the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
2060 [`--port`](#opt) option or a non-empty port value in an `rsync://` URL.
2061 This allows the script to discern if a non-default port is being requested,
2062 allowing for things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a
2063 default or alternate port.
2065 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
2066 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
2067 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
2068 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
2069 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
2070 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
2071 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
2072 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
2075 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
2077 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
2078 options in their .ssh/config file.)
2080 You can also choose the remote shell program using the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#)
2081 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
2083 See also the [`--blocking-io`](#opt) option which is affected by this
2086 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
2088 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
2089 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
2090 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
2091 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
2092 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
2093 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
2095 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
2096 machine for use with the [`--relative`](#opt) option. For instance:
2098 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
2100 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
2102 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
2103 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
2104 you want to pass [`--log-file=FILE`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) to
2105 the remote system, specify it like this:
2107 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
2109 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
2110 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
2113 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
2115 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
2116 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
2117 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
2119 Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
2120 want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
2121 remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
2122 this requires the use of [`--old-args`](#opt) in a modern rsync.
2124 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
2125 "remote" side is the receiver.
2127 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
2128 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
2129 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
2130 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
2133 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
2135 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
2136 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
2137 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
2139 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
2140 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the [FILTER RULES](#)
2143 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
2182 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2183 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2184 delimited by whitespace).
2186 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2187 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2188 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2189 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
2191 If you're combining `-C` with your own [`--filter`](#opt) rules, you should
2192 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2193 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2194 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2195 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2196 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2197 [`--filter=:C`](#opt) and [`--filter=-C`](#opt) (either on your
2198 command-line or by putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with
2199 your other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scanning
2200 for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time import of the
2201 CVS excludes mentioned above.
2203 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2205 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2206 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2207 combination with a recursive transfer.
2209 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2210 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2211 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2212 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2213 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2215 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2219 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two [`--filter`](#opt) rules to
2220 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2222 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2224 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2225 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2226 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2229 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2231 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2233 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on how these
2236 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2238 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2239 specifies an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2240 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'- PATTERN'`.
2242 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2244 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2246 This option is related to the [`--exclude`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2247 a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2248 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2249 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2251 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2252 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2253 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an exclude.
2255 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2256 before adding any further rules.
2258 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2260 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2262 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2263 specifies an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2264 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'+ PATTERN'`.
2266 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2268 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2270 This option is related to the [`--include`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2271 a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2272 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2273 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2275 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2276 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2277 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an include.
2279 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2280 before adding any further rules.
2282 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2284 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2286 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2287 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2288 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2289 specified files and directories easier:
2291 - The [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the
2292 path information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2293 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2294 - The [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) option is implied, which will create
2295 directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily
2296 skipping them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2297 - The [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply
2298 [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2299 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2300 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2301 options are parsed (e.g. [`-a`](#opt) works the same before or after
2302 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2304 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2305 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2306 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2308 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2310 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2311 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2312 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2313 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2314 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the
2315 [`-r`](#opt) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be
2316 transferred (keep in mind that [`-r`](#opt) needs to be specified
2317 explicitly with `--files-from`, since it is not implied by [`-a`](#opt).
2318 Also note that the effect of the (enabled by default) [`-r`](#opt) option
2319 is to duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does
2320 not force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2322 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2323 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2324 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2325 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2328 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2330 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2331 was located on the remote "src" host.
2333 If the [`--iconv`](#opt) and [`--protect-args`](#opt) options are specified
2334 and the `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another,
2335 the filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2336 receiving host's charset.
2338 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2339 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2340 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2341 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2342 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2347 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2348 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2349 affects [`--exclude-from`](#opt), [`--include-from`](#opt),
2350 [`--files-from`](#opt), and any merged files specified in a
2351 [`--filter`](#opt) rule. It does not affect [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (since
2352 all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2356 This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values on the
2357 remote side from unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation.
2359 The default in a modern rsync is for "shell-active" characters (including
2360 spaces) to be backslash-escaped in the args that are sent to the remote
2361 shell. The wildcard characters `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]` are not escaped in
2362 filename args (allowing them to expand into multiple filenames) while being
2363 protected in option args, such as [`--usermap`](#opt).
2365 If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in its
2366 filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
2367 with any backslash escapes at all, specify this option twice.
2369 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) environment
2370 variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
2371 setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
2372 repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
2373 behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
2374 positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
2376 Note that this option also disables the extra safety check added in 3.2.5
2377 that ensures that a remote sender isn't including extra top-level items in
2378 the file-list that you didn't request. This side-effect is necessary
2379 because we can't know for sure what names to expect when the remote shell
2380 is interpreting the args.
2382 This option conflicts with the [`--protect-args`](#opt) option.
2384 0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
2386 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
2387 without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. Wildcards are
2388 expanded on the remote host by rsync instead of the shell doing it.
2390 This is similar to the new-style backslash-escaping of args that was added
2391 in 3.2.4, but supports some extra features and doesn't rely on backslash
2392 escaping in the remote shell.
2394 If you use this option with [`--iconv`](#opt), the args related to the
2395 remote side will also be translated from the local to the remote
2396 character-set. The translation happens before wild-cards are expanded.
2397 See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
2399 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#)
2400 environment variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
2401 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2402 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2403 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
2404 versions). This environment variable is also superseded by a non-zero
2405 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) export.
2407 You may need to disable this option when interacting with an older rsync
2408 (one prior to 3.0.0).
2410 This option conflicts with the [`--old-args`](#opt) option.
2412 Note that this option is incompatible with the use of the restricted rsync
2413 script (`rrsync`) since it hides options from the script's inspection.
2417 This option disables two extra validation checks that a local client
2418 performs on the file list generated by a remote sender. This option should
2419 only be used if you trust the sender to not put something malicious in the
2420 file list (something that could possibly be done via a modified rsync, a
2421 modified shell, or some other similar manipulation).
2423 Normally, the rsync client (as of version 3.2.5) runs two extra validation
2424 checks when pulling files from a remote rsync:
2426 - It verifies that additional arg items didn't get added at the top of the
2428 - It verifies that none of the items in the file list are names that should
2429 have been excluded (if filter rules were specified).
2431 Note that various options can turn off one or both of these checks if the
2432 option interferes with the validation. For instance:
2434 - Using a per-directory filter file reads filter rules that only the server
2435 knows about, so the filter checking is disabled.
2436 - Using the [`--old-args`](#opt) option allows the sender to manipulate the
2437 requested args, so the arg checking is disabled.
2438 - Reading the files-from list from the server side means that the client
2439 doesn't know the arg list, so the arg checking is disabled.
2440 - Using [`--read-batch`](#opt) disables both checks since the batch file's
2441 contents will have been verified when it was created.
2443 This option may help an under-powered client server if the extra pattern
2444 matching is slowing things down on a huge transfer. It can also be used to
2445 work around a currently-unknown bug in the verification logic for a transfer
2446 from a trusted sender.
2448 When using this option it is a good idea to specify a dedicated destination
2449 directory, as discussed in the [MULTI-HOST SECURITY](#) section.
2451 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2453 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2454 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2455 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2456 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2458 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2459 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2460 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2461 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2462 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2463 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2464 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2466 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2467 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the
2468 [`--remote-option`](#opt) to affect the remote side, such as
2469 `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer, the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file
2470 provides a local-shell helper script that can be used to allow a
2471 "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified without needing to setup
2472 any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that affect the
2473 side of the transfer that is using the host-spec (and using hostname "lh"
2474 avoids the overriding of the remote directory to the user's home dir).
2476 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2478 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2480 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2481 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2482 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2483 has no permissions to change.
2485 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2486 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2488 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2490 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2492 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2493 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2494 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2495 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2496 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2497 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2499 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2500 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2501 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2502 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2503 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2504 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2505 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2506 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2507 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2508 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2509 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2510 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2511 new version on the disk at the same time.
2513 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2514 space, you may wish to combine it with the [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
2515 option, which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories
2516 in the destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you
2517 don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the
2518 destination partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly
2519 concerned about disk space is to use the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option
2520 with a relative path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a
2521 copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will
2522 use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and
2523 then rename it into place from there. (Specifying a [`--partial-dir`](#opt)
2524 with an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
2528 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2529 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2530 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2531 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2532 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2534 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2535 alternate destination directories that are specified via
2536 [`--compare-dest`](#opt), [`--copy-dest`](#opt), or [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2538 Note that the use of the [`--delete`](#opt) option might get rid of any
2539 potential fuzzy-match files, so either use [`--delete-after`](#opt) or
2540 specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2542 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2544 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2545 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2546 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2547 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2548 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2549 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2550 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2553 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2554 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2555 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2556 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2557 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2560 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2561 See also [`--copy-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2563 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2564 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2565 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2568 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2570 This option behaves like [`--compare-dest`](#opt), but rsync will also copy
2571 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2572 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2573 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2574 files have been successfully transferred.
2576 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2577 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2578 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2579 try to speed up the transfer.
2581 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2582 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2584 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2586 This option behaves like [`--copy-dest`](#opt), but unchanged files are
2587 hard linked from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be
2588 identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly
2589 ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:
2591 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2593 If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2594 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2595 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2596 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2599 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2600 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2601 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2602 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2603 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2604 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2606 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2607 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2608 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2609 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2610 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2611 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2613 Note that if you combine this option with [`--ignore-times`](#opt), rsync will not
2614 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2615 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2616 the file is updated.
2618 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2619 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--copy-dest`](#opt).
2621 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2622 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when
2623 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) was specified (or implied). You can work-around
2624 this bug by avoiding the `-o` option (or using `--no-o`) when sending to an
2627 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2629 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2630 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2631 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2633 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2634 unless you force the choice using the [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`)
2637 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2640 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2641 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2642 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2643 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2644 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2646 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2647 [`RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable
2648 compression names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is
2649 separated into the "client string & server string", otherwise the same
2650 string applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
2651 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2652 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2653 names results in a failed negotiation.
2655 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2656 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2657 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2658 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2661 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2663 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2664 compression algorithm that occurs when [`--compress`](#opt) is used. The
2665 option implies [`--compress`](#opt) unless "none" was specified, which
2666 instead implies `--no-compress`.
2668 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2676 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2677 version (which may differ from the list above).
2679 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2680 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2681 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2682 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2683 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2685 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2686 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2687 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2689 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2691 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see [`--compress`](#opt),
2692 `-z`) instead of letting it default. The [`--compress`](#opt) option is
2693 implied as long as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the
2694 compression algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level
2697 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2698 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2699 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a
2700 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the
2701 choice in effect. For example:
2703 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2705 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2706 the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
2707 `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
2709 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2710 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2712 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2714 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2715 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2716 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2717 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2719 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2720 [`--debug=nstr`](#opt) to see the "negotiated string" results. This will
2721 report something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the
2722 checksum choice in effect).
2724 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2726 **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
2727 changes, so this option has no effect.
2729 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2730 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2731 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
2732 no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
2733 changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
2734 reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
2736 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2737 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2740 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2741 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2742 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2744 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2746 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2747 matches 2 suffixes):
2749 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2751 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2754 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2853 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2854 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2855 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2860 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2861 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2863 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2864 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2865 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2868 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2869 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2870 instead. See also the [`use chroot`](rsyncd.conf.5#use_chroot) setting
2871 in the rsyncd.conf manpage for some comments on how the chroot setting
2872 affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and
2873 what you can do about it.
2875 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2877 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2878 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2879 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2880 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2881 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2882 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2883 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2884 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2885 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2888 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2890 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2891 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2892 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2894 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2895 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2896 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2897 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2898 match those in use on the receiving side.
2900 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2901 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2902 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2904 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2906 When the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option is used, the sender does not send any
2907 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2908 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
2909 nameless IDs to different values.
2911 For the `--usermap` option to work, the receiver will need to be running as
2912 a super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
2913 options). For the `--groupmap` option to work, the receiver will need to
2914 have permissions to set that group.
2916 Starting with rsync 3.2.4, the `--usermap` option implies the
2917 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) option while the `--groupmap` option implies the
2918 [`--group`](#opt) (`-g`) option (since rsync needs to have those options
2919 enabled for the mapping options to work).
2921 An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
2922 avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
2925 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
2927 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2928 a simpler interface than using [`--usermap`](#opt) & [`--groupmap`](#opt)
2929 directly, but it is implemented using those options internally so they
2930 cannot be mixed. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
2931 omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
2932 be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2934 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
2935 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (and with the same
2936 implied [`--owner`](#opt) and/or [`--group`](#opt) options).
2938 An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
2939 avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
2942 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
2944 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2945 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2946 0, which means no timeout.
2948 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
2950 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
2951 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
2952 rsync exits with an error.
2954 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
2956 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
2957 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
2958 address (or hostname) to bind to.
2960 See also [the daemon version of the `--address` option](#dopt--address).
2964 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
2965 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
2966 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
2967 the port as a part of the URL).
2969 See also [the daemon version of the `--port` option](#dopt--port).
2971 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
2973 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
2974 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
2975 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the manpage for the
2976 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
2977 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
2978 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
2980 See also [the daemon version of the `--sockopts` option](#dopt--sockopts).
2984 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
2985 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
2986 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
2987 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2991 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
2992 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
2993 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2995 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2996 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2998 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
3000 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
3001 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
3002 [`--out-format='%i %n%L'`](#opt). If you repeat the option, unchanged
3003 files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least
3004 version 2.6.7 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that
3005 also turns on the output of other verbose messages).
3007 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
3008 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
3009 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
3010 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
3012 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
3014 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
3015 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
3017 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
3018 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
3019 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
3020 [`--hard-links`](#opt)).
3021 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
3022 attributes that are being modified).
3023 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
3026 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
3027 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
3028 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
3030 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
3031 have changed, as follows:
3033 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
3034 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
3035 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
3036 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
3037 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
3039 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
3041 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
3042 [`--checksum`](#opt)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a
3043 changed value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to
3044 3.0.1, this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing
3046 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
3047 by the file transfer.
3048 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
3049 the sender's value (requires [`--times`](#opt)). An alternate value of
3050 `T` means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time,
3051 which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without
3052 [`--times`](#opt) and when a symlink is changed and the receiver can't
3053 set its time. (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the
3054 `s` flag combined with `t` instead of the proper `T` flag for this
3055 time-setting failure.)
3056 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
3057 sender's value (requires [`--perms`](#opt)).
3058 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
3059 value (requires [`--owner`](#opt) and super-user privileges).
3060 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
3061 value (requires [`--group`](#opt) and the authority to set the group).
3062 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information:
3063 - `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
3064 the sender's value (requires [`--atimes`](#opt))
3065 - `n` means the create time (newness) is different and is being updated
3066 to the sender's value (requires [`--crtimes`](#opt))
3067 - `b` means that both the access and create times are being updated
3068 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
3069 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
3071 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
3072 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
3073 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
3074 outputting them as a verbose message).
3076 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
3078 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
3079 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
3080 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
3081 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either
3082 [`--info=name`](#opt) or [`-v`](#opt) is specified (this tells you just the
3083 name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full
3084 list of the possible escape characters, see the [`log
3085 format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format) setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3087 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the [`--info=name`](#opt)
3088 option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a
3089 significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
3090 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
3091 included in the string (e.g. if the [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option was
3092 used), the logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed
3093 in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the
3094 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option for a description of the output of "%i".
3096 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
3097 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
3098 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
3099 is in effect and [`--progress`](#opt) is also specified, rsync will also
3100 output the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress
3101 information (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
3103 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3105 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
3106 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
3107 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
3108 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
3109 of "%i %n%L". See the [`--log-file-format`](#opt) option if you wish to
3112 Here's an example command that requests the remote side to log what is
3115 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
3117 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
3120 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file` option](#dopt--log-file).
3122 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3124 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
3125 file specified by the [`--log-file`](#opt) option (which must also be
3126 specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty
3127 string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of
3128 the possible escape characters, see the [`log format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format)
3129 setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3131 The default FORMAT used if [`--log-file`](#opt) is specified and this
3132 option is not is '%i %n%L'.
3134 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file-format`
3135 option](#dopt--log-file-format).
3139 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
3140 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
3141 your data. This option is equivalent to [`--info=stats2`](#opt) if
3142 combined with 0 or 1 [`-v`](#opt) options, or [`--info=stats3`](#opt) if
3143 combined with 2 or more [`-v`](#opt) options.
3145 The current statistics are as follows:
3147 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
3148 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
3149 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
3150 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
3151 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
3152 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
3153 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3154 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3155 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3156 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3157 sense) were deleted. The total count will be
3158 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3159 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
3160 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
3161 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
3162 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
3163 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
3165 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
3166 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
3167 include the size of symlinks.
3168 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
3169 just the transferred files.
3170 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
3171 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
3172 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
3174 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
3175 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
3176 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
3178 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
3179 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
3180 sending side for this to be present.
3181 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
3182 sending the file list to the receiver.
3183 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
3184 client side to the server side.
3185 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
3186 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
3187 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
3188 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
3190 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
3192 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
3193 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
3194 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
3195 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
3197 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
3198 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
3199 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
3200 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
3202 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
3204 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible levels:
3206 1. output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits (either a
3207 comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
3209 2. output numbers in units of 1000 (with a character suffix for larger
3210 units -- see below).
3211 3. output numbers in units of 1024.
3213 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
3214 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
3215 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
3217 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
3218 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
3219 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
3222 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
3223 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
3224 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
3225 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
3226 to one or more `-h` options. See the [`--list-only`](#opt) option for one
3231 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
3232 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
3233 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
3234 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
3235 rest of the file much faster.
3237 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
3239 This option modifies the behavior of the [`--partial`](#opt) option while
3240 also implying that it be enabled. This enhanced partial-file method puts
3241 any partially transferred files into the specified _DIR_ instead of writing
3242 the partial file out to the destination file. On the next transfer, rsync
3243 will use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3244 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3246 Note that if [`--whole-file`](#opt) is specified (or implied), any
3247 partial-dir files that are found for a file that is being updated will
3248 simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's
3249 delta-transfer algorithm).
3251 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing, but just the last dir -- not
3252 the whole path. This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3253 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
3254 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when it is needed,
3255 and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that this
3256 directory removal is only done for a relative pathname, as it is expected
3257 that an absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir
3260 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3261 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3262 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3263 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3264 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
3265 equivalent of this "perishable" exclude at the end of any other filter
3266 rules: `-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`
3268 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3269 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because:
3271 1. the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or
3272 2. you may wish to override rsync's exclude choice.
3274 For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
3275 that may be lying around, you should specify [`--delete-after`](#opt) and
3276 add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. Avoid using
3277 [`--delete-before`](#opt) or [`--delete-during`](#opt) unless you don't
3278 need rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data during the current
3281 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
3282 is a security risk! E.g. AVOID "/tmp"!
3284 You can also set the partial-dir value the [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`](#)
3285 environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not force
3286 [`--partial`](#opt) to be enabled, but rather it affects where partial
3287 files go when [`--partial`](#opt) is specified. For instance, instead of
3288 using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along with [`--progress`](#opt), you could
3289 set [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp`](#) in your environment and then use
3290 the [`-P`](#opt) option to turn on the use of the .rsync-tmp dir for
3291 partial transfers. The only times that the [`--partial`](#opt) option does
3292 not look for this environment value are:
3294 1. when [`--inplace`](#opt) was specified (since [`--inplace`](#opt)
3295 conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and
3296 2. when [`--delay-updates`](#opt) was specified (see below).
3298 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3299 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3300 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3301 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3304 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
3305 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply [`--partial`](#opt). This is so that a
3306 refusal of the [`--partial`](#opt) option can be used to disallow the
3307 overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while still
3308 allowing the safer idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3310 0. `--delay-updates`
3312 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3313 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3314 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3315 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3316 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3317 you've specified the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option, that directory will be
3318 used instead. See the comments in the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) section for
3319 a discussion of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer,
3320 and what you can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that
3321 might be lying around. Conflicts with [`--inplace`](#opt) and
3324 This option implies [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) since it needs the full
3325 file list in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3327 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3328 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3329 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3330 should not use an absolute path to [`--partial-dir`](#opt) unless:
3332 1. there is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same
3333 name (since all the updated files will be put into a single directory if
3334 the path is absolute), and
3335 2. there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates
3336 will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3338 See also the "atomic-rsync" python script in the "support" subdir for an
3339 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses [`--link-dest`](#opt)
3340 and a parallel hierarchy of files).
3342 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3344 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3345 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3346 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3347 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3348 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3350 This option can still leave empty directories on the receiving side if you
3351 make use of [TRANSFER_RULES](#).
3353 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3354 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3355 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3356 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3357 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3360 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3361 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3362 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3364 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3366 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3367 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3368 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3369 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3371 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3373 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3374 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3375 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3379 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3380 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3381 this is the same as specifying [`--info=flist2,name,progress`](#opt), but
3382 any user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3383 [`--info=flist0 --progress`](#opt)).
3385 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3388 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3390 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3391 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3392 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3393 is maintained until the end.
3395 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3396 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3397 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3398 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3399 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3400 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3402 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3403 summary line that looks like this:
3405 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3407 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3408 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3409 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3410 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3411 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3412 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3414 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3415 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3416 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3417 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3418 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3419 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3420 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3421 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3422 of the files added to the list).
3426 The `-P` option is equivalent to "[`--partial`](#opt)
3427 [`--progress`](#opt)". Its purpose is to make it much easier to specify
3428 these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
3430 There is also a [`--info=progress2`](#opt) option that outputs statistics
3431 based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag
3432 without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify
3433 [`--info=name0`](#opt)) if you want to see how the transfer is doing
3434 without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to
3435 specify the [`--progress`](#opt) option in order to use
3436 [`--info=progress2`](#opt).)
3438 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3439 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3440 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3441 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3442 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3443 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3444 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3445 followed by the [`--info=progress2`](#opt) format of progress info. If you
3446 don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3447 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3449 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3451 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3453 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3454 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3455 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3456 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3457 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3459 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3460 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3461 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3462 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3463 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3466 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3468 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3469 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3470 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3471 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3473 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3477 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3478 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3479 no destination specified, so its main uses are:
3481 1. to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into a
3482 file-listing command, or
3483 2. to be able to specify more than one source arg. Note: be sure to
3484 include the destination.
3486 CAUTION: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
3487 shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to specify a single
3488 wild-card arg to try to infer this option. A safe example is:
3490 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3492 Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
3493 by the [`--human-readable`](#opt) option. By default they will contain
3494 digit separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes
3495 with unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output
3496 has increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
3497 `--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
3500 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3501 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3502 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the
3503 [`--dirs`](#opt) option w/o [`--recursive`](#opt), and older rsyncs don't
3504 have that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs`
3505 option (if you don't need to expand a directory's content), or turn on
3506 recursion and exclude the content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3510 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3511 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3512 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3513 fractional value (e.g. `--bwlimit=1.5m`). If no suffix is specified, the
3514 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3515 been appended). See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of
3516 all the available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3518 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3519 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3522 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3523 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3524 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3525 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3528 Due to the internal buffering of data, the [`--progress`](#opt) option may
3529 not be an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is
3530 because some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is
3531 quickly buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of
3532 the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3534 See also [the daemon version of the `--bwlimit` option](#dopt--bwlimit).
3536 0. `--stop-after=MINS`, (`--time-limit=MINS`)
3538 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3539 minutes has elapsed.
3541 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3542 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3543 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3544 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3545 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise.
3547 The `--time-limit` version of this option is deprecated.
3549 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
3551 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3552 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3553 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3554 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3557 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3558 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3559 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3560 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3561 time, rsync exits with an error.
3563 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3564 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3565 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3566 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3568 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3569 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3570 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3571 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3572 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise. Do
3573 keep in mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone
3574 than your local host.
3578 Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
3579 the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
3582 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3584 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3585 with [`--read-batch`](#opt). See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and
3586 also the [`--only-write-batch`](#opt) option.
3588 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3589 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3590 a more modern choice, use the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`) and/or
3591 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) options.
3593 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3595 Works like [`--write-batch`](#opt), except that no updates are made on the
3596 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3597 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3598 changes via [`--read-batch`](#opt).
3600 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3601 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3602 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3603 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3604 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3607 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3608 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3609 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3610 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3612 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3614 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3615 [`--write-batch`](#opt). If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read
3616 from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3620 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3621 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3622 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the [`--write-batch`](#opt)
3623 option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
3624 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating
3625 the batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
3626 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
3628 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3630 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3631 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3632 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3633 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3634 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3635 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3636 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3637 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3638 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the
3639 [`RSYNC_ICONV`](#) environment variable.
3641 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3642 run "`iconv --list`".
3644 If you specify the [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) option, rsync will
3645 translate the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent
3646 to the remote host. See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
3648 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3649 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3650 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3651 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3652 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3654 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3655 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3656 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3657 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3660 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3662 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3663 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3664 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3665 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3666 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3667 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever IPv4/IPv6 hint options
3670 See also [the daemon version of these options](#dopt--ipv4).
3672 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3673 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3676 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3678 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3679 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3680 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3681 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3682 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3683 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3684 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3685 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3689 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3693 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3694 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3695 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3697 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3698 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3699 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3700 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly.
3702 See the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage for more details.
3704 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3706 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3707 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3708 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3709 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option.
3711 See also the [address](rsyncd.conf.5#address) global option in the
3712 rsyncd.conf manpage and the [client version of the `--address`
3713 option](#opt--address).
3717 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3718 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3719 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed.
3721 See the [client version of the `--bwlimit` option](#opt--bwlimit) for some
3726 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3727 relevant when [`--daemon`](#dopt) is specified. The default is
3728 /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program
3729 and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case the default is
3730 rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
3732 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3734 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3735 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3736 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3737 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3740 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3744 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3745 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3746 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3747 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3748 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3749 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3753 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3754 rather than the default of 873.
3756 See also [the client version of the `--port` option](#opt--port) and the
3757 [port](rsyncd.conf.5#port) global setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3759 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3761 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3762 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3764 See also [the client version of the `--log-file` option](#opt--log-file).
3766 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3768 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3769 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3770 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3771 logging is turned off.
3773 See also [the client version of the `--log-file-format`
3774 option](#opt--log-file-format).
3778 This overrides the [`socket options`](rsyncd.conf.5#socket_options)
3779 setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
3781 See also [the client version of the `--sockopts` option](#opt--sockopts).
3783 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3785 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3786 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3787 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3788 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3790 See also [the client version of the `--verbose` option](#opt--verbose).
3792 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3794 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3795 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3796 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3797 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3798 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3801 See also [the client version of these options](#opt--ipv4).
3803 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3804 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3809 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3810 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3814 The filter rules allow for custom control of several aspects of how files are
3817 - Control which files the sending side puts into the file list that describes
3818 the transfer hierarchy
3819 - Control which files the receiving side protects from deletion when the file
3820 is not in the sender's file list
3821 - Control which extended attribute names are skipped when copying xattrs
3823 The rules are either directly specified via option arguments or they can be
3824 read in from one or more files. The filter-rule files can even be a part of
3825 the hierarchy of files being copied, affecting different parts of the tree in
3828 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE RULES
3830 We will first cover the basics of how include & exclude rules affect what files
3831 are transferred, ignoring any deletion side-effects. Filter rules mainly
3832 affect the contents of directories that rsync is "recursing" into, but they can
3833 also affect a top-level item in the transfer that was specified as a argument.
3835 The default for any unmatched file/dir is for it to be included in the
3836 transfer, which puts the file/dir into the sender's file list. The use of an
3837 exclude rule causes one or more matching files/dirs to be left out of the
3838 sender's file list. An include rule can be used to limit the effect of an
3839 exclude rule that is matching too many files.
3841 The order of the rules is important because the first rule that matches is the
3842 one that takes effect. Thus, if an early rule excludes a file, no include rule
3843 that comes after it can have any effect. This means that you must place any
3844 include overrides somewhere prior to the exclude that it is intended to limit.
3846 When a directory is excluded, all its contents and sub-contents are also
3847 excluded. The sender doesn't scan through any of it at all, which can save a
3848 lot of time when skipping large unneeded sub-trees.
3850 It is also important to understand that the include/exclude rules are applied
3851 to every file and directory that the sender is recursing into. Thus, if you
3852 want a particular deep file to be included, you have to make sure that none of
3853 the directories that must be traversed on the way down to that file are
3854 excluded or else the file will never be discovered to be included. As an
3855 example, if the directory "`a/path`" was given as a transfer argument and you
3856 want to ensure that the file "`a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt`" is a part of the
3857 transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories "`a/path`",
3858 "`a/path/down`", or "`a/path/down/deep`" as it makes it way scanning through
3861 When you are working on the rules, it can be helpful to ask rsync to tell you
3862 what is being excluded/included and why. Specifying `--debug=FILTER` or (when
3863 pulling files) `-M--debug=FILTER` turns on level 1 of the FILTER debug
3864 information that will output a message any time that a file or directory is
3865 included or excluded and which rule it matched. Beginning in 3.2.4 it will
3866 also warn if a filter rule has trailing whitespace, since an exclude of "foo "
3867 (with a trailing space) will not exclude a file named "foo".
3869 Exclude and include rules can specify wildcard [PATTERN MATCHING RULES](#)
3870 (similar to shell wildcards) that allow you to match things like a file suffix
3871 or a portion of a filename.
3873 A rule can be limited to only affecting a directory by putting a trailing slash
3876 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE EXAMPLE
3878 With the following file tree created on the sending side:
3883 > touch x/y/file.txt
3886 > touch x/z/file.txt
3888 Then the following rsync command will transfer the file "`x/y/file.txt`" and
3889 the directories needed to hold it, resulting in the path "`/tmp/x/y/file.txt`"
3890 existing on the remote host:
3892 > rsync -ai -f'+ x/' -f'+ x/y/' -f'+ x/y/file.txt' -f'- *' x host:/tmp/
3894 Aside: this copy could also have been accomplished using the [`-R`](#opt)
3895 option (though the 2 commands behave differently if deletions are enabled):
3897 > rsync -aiR x/y/file.txt host:/tmp/
3899 The following command does not need an include of the "x" directory because it
3900 is not a part of the transfer (note the traililng slash). Running this command
3901 would copy just "`/tmp/x/file.txt`" because the "y" and "z" dirs get excluded:
3903 > rsync -ai -f'+ file.txt' -f'- *' x/ host:/tmp/x/
3905 This command would omit the zzz.txt file while copying "x" and everything else
3908 > rsync -ai -f'- zzz.txt' x host:/tmp/
3910 ### FILTER RULES WHEN DELETING
3912 By default the include & exclude filter rules affect both the sender
3913 (as it creates its file list)
3914 and the receiver (as it creates its file lists for calculating deletions). If
3915 no delete option is in effect, the receiver skips creating the delete-related
3916 file lists. This two-sided default can be manually overridden so that you are
3917 only specifying sender rules or receiver rules, as described in the [FILTER
3918 RULES IN DEPTH](#) section.
3920 When deleting, an exclude protects a file from being removed on the receiving
3921 side while an include overrides that protection (putting the file at risk of
3922 deletion). The default is for a file to be at risk -- its safety depends on it
3923 matching a corresponding file from the sender.
3925 An example of the two-sided exclude effect can be illustrated by the copying of
3926 a C development directory between 2 systems. When doing a touch-up copy, you
3927 might want to skip copying the built executable and the `.o` files (sender
3928 hide) so that the receiving side can build their own and not lose any object
3929 files that are already correct (receiver protect). For instance:
3931 > rsync -ai --del -f'- *.o' -f'- cmd' src host:/dest/
3933 Note that using `-f'-p *.o'` is even better than `-f'- *.o'` if there is a
3934 chance that the directory structure may have changed. The "p" modifier is
3935 discussed in [FILTER RULE MODIFIERS](#).
3937 One final note, if your shell doesn't mind unexpanded wildcards, you could
3938 simplify the typing of the filter options by using an underscore in place of
3939 the space and leaving off the quotes. For instance, `-f -_*.o -f -_cmd` (and
3940 similar) could be used instead of the filter options above.
3942 ### FILTER RULES IN DEPTH
3944 Rsync supports old-style include/exclude rules and new-style filter rules. The
3945 older rules are specified using [`--include`](#opt) and [`--exclude`](#opt) as
3946 well as the [`--include-from`](#opt) and [`--exclude-from`](#opt). These are
3947 limited in behavior but they don't require a "-" or "+" prefix. An old-style
3948 exclude rule is turned into a "`- name`" filter rule (with no modifiers) and an
3949 old-style include rule is turned into a "`+ name`" filter rule (with no
3952 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line
3953 and/or read-in from files. New style filter rules have the following syntax:
3955 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3956 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3958 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
3959 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
3960 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
3961 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Any additional
3962 spaces and/or underscores are considered to be a part of the pattern name.
3963 Here are the available rule prefixes:
3965 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern that (by default) is both a
3966 `hide` and a `protect`.
3967 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern that (by default) is both a
3968 `show` and a `risk`.
3969 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file on the client side to read for more
3971 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file. Using this kind of
3972 filter rule requires that you trust the sending side's filter checking, so
3973 it has the side-effect mentioned under the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option.
3974 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
3975 Equivalent to a sender-only exclude, so `-f'H foo'` could also be specified
3977 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden. Equivalent to a
3978 sender-only include, so `-f'S foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+s
3980 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
3981 Equivalent to a receiver-only exclude, so `-f'P foo'` could also be
3982 specified as `-f'-r foo'`.
3983 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected. Equivalent to a
3984 receiver-only include, so `-f'R foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+r
3986 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
3988 When rules are being read from a file (using merge or dir-merge), empty lines
3989 are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules
3990 that contain a hash character are unaffected).
3992 Note also that the [`--filter`](#opt), [`--include`](#opt), and
3993 [`--exclude`](#opt) options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
3994 you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of
3995 the [`--filter`](#opt) option, or the [`--include-from`](#opt) /
3996 [`--exclude-from`](#opt) options.
3998 ### PATTERN MATCHING RULES
4000 Most of the rules mentioned above take an argument that specifies what the rule
4001 should match. If rsync is recursing through a directory hierarchy, keep in
4002 mind that each pattern is matched against the name of every directory in the
4003 descent path as rsync finds the filenames to send.
4005 The matching rules for the pattern argument take several forms:
4007 - If a pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing slash) or a "`**`"
4008 (which can match a slash), then the pattern is matched against the full
4009 pathname, including any leading directories within the transfer. If the
4010 pattern doesn't contain a (non-trailing) `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched
4011 only against the final component of the filename or pathname. For example,
4012 `foo` means that the final path component must be "foo" while `foo/bar` would
4013 match the last 2 elements of the path (as long as both elements are within
4015 - A pattern that ends with a `/` only matches a directory, not a regular file,
4017 - A pattern that starts with a `/` is anchored to the start of the transfer
4018 path instead of the end. For example, `/foo/**` or `/foo/bar/**` match only
4019 leading elements in the path. If the rule is read from a per-directory
4020 filter file, the transfer path being matched will begin at the level of the
4021 filter file instead of the top of the transfer. See the section on
4022 [ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS](#) for a full discussion of how to
4023 specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.
4025 Rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
4026 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters: '`*`',
4029 - a '`?`' matches any single character except a slash (`/`).
4030 - a '`*`' matches zero or more non-slash characters.
4031 - a '`**`' matches zero or more characters, including slashes.
4032 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`, that
4033 must match one character.
4034 - a trailing `***` in the pattern is a shorthand that allows you to match a
4035 directory and all its contents using a single rule. For example, specifying
4036 "`dir_name/***`" will match both the "dir_name" directory (as if "`dir_name/`"
4037 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
4038 had been specified).
4039 - a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard character, but it is only
4040 interpreted as an escape character if at least one wildcard character is
4041 present in the match pattern. For instance, the pattern "`foo\bar`" matches
4042 that single backslash literally, while the pattern "`foo\bar*`" would need to
4043 be changed to "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
4045 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
4047 - Option `-f'- *.o'` would exclude all filenames ending with `.o`
4048 - Option `-f'- /foo'` would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
4049 transfer-root directory
4050 - Option `-f'- foo/'` would exclude any directory named foo
4051 - Option `-f'- foo/*/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar which is at two
4052 levels below a directory named foo (if foo is in the transfer)
4053 - Option `-f'- /foo/**/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar that was two
4054 or more levels below a top-level directory named foo (note that /foo/bar is
4055 **not** excluded by this)
4056 - Options `-f'+ */' -f'+ *.c' -f'- *'` would include all directories and .c
4057 source files but nothing else
4058 - Options `-f'+ foo/' -f'+ foo/bar.c' -f'- *'` would include only the foo
4059 directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it
4060 would be excluded by the "`- *`")
4062 ### FILTER RULE MODIFIERS
4064 The following modifiers are accepted after an include (+) or exclude (-) rule:
4066 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
4067 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, `-f'-/ /etc/passwd'`
4068 would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from
4069 the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it
4070 is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
4072 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
4073 fails to match. For instance, `-f'-! */'` would exclude all non-directories.
4074 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
4075 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
4076 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
4077 rule affects the sending side, it affects what files are put into the
4078 sender's file list. The default is for a rule to affect both sides unless
4079 [`--delete-excluded`](#opt) was specified, in which case default rules become
4080 sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an
4081 alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
4082 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
4083 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
4084 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
4085 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
4086 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
4087 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the
4088 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's default rules that exclude things
4089 like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable, and will not prevent a
4090 directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the
4092 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
4093 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
4094 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
4095 (see the [`--xattrs`](#opt) option).
4097 ### MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
4099 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
4100 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#)
4103 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
4104 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
4105 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
4106 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
4107 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
4108 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
4109 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
4110 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
4111 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
4112 (see [PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE](#) below).
4116 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
4117 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
4118 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
4119 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4120 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4122 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
4124 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
4125 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4126 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
4127 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4128 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
4129 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
4130 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
4132 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
4133 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
4134 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
4135 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
4136 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
4137 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
4138 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
4139 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
4140 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
4141 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
4142 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
4143 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
4144 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
4145 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
4146 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
4149 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
4150 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
4151 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
4152 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
4153 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
4154 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
4155 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
4156 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
4157 the current merge file.
4159 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
4160 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
4161 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
4162 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
4165 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
4167 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
4174 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
4175 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
4176 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
4177 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
4180 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
4181 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
4182 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
4183 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see [`-F`](#opt)):
4185 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
4187 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
4188 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
4189 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
4190 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
4191 same as the module's "path".)
4193 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
4195 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
4196 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4197 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4199 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
4200 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
4201 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
4202 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
4204 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
4205 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
4206 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
4207 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory
4208 .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you
4209 like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule
4210 for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower
4211 priority than your command-line rules). For example:
4214 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
4219 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
4222 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
4223 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
4224 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
4225 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
4226 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
4227 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
4228 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
4231 ### LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
4233 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
4234 introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The "current" list is either
4235 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
4236 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
4237 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
4239 ### ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
4241 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
4242 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
4243 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
4244 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
4245 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
4246 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
4248 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
4249 slash on a source path or changing your use of the [`--relative`](#opt) option
4250 affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how
4251 much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following
4252 examples demonstrate this.
4254 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
4255 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
4256 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
4259 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
4260 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
4261 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
4262 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4263 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4267 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
4268 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
4269 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
4270 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
4271 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
4275 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
4276 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
4277 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
4278 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
4279 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
4283 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
4284 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
4285 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
4286 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4287 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4290 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at the
4291 output when using [`--verbose`](#opt) and put a / in front of the name (use the
4292 `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
4294 ### PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
4296 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
4297 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
4298 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
4299 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
4301 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
4302 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
4304 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
4305 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
4306 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
4307 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use [`--delete-after`](#opt),
4308 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as
4309 the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
4311 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
4313 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
4314 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
4315 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
4316 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
4317 exclude themselves):
4319 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
4320 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
4322 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
4323 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
4324 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
4325 per-directory merge rule.
4327 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
4328 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
4329 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
4330 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
4331 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
4332 one of these commands:
4335 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
4336 > host:src/dir /dest
4337 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
4342 In addition to the [FILTER RULES](#) that affect the recursive file scans that
4343 generate the file list on the sending and (when deleting) receiving sides,
4344 there are transfer rules. These rules affect which files the generator decides
4345 need to be transferred without the side effects of an exclude filter rule.
4346 Transfer rules affect only files and never directories.
4348 Because a transfer rule does not affect what goes into the sender's (and
4349 receiver's) file list, it cannot have any effect on which files get deleted on
4350 the receiving side. For example, if the file "foo" is present in the sender's
4351 list but its size is such that it is omitted due to a transfer rule, the
4352 receiving side does not request the file. However, its presence in the file
4353 list means that a delete pass will not remove a matching file named "foo" on
4354 the receiving side. On the other hand, a server-side exclude (hide) of the
4355 file "foo" leaves the file out of the server's file list, and absent a
4356 receiver-side exclude (protect) the receiver will remove a matching file named
4357 "foo" if deletions are requested.
4359 Given that the files are still in the sender's file list, the
4360 [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option will not judge a directory as being empty
4361 even if it contains only files that the transfer rules omitted.
4363 Similarly, a transfer rule does not have any extra effect on which files are
4364 deleted on the receiving side, so setting a maximum file size for the transfer
4365 does not prevent big files from being deleted.
4367 Examples of transfer rules include the default "quick check" algorithm (which
4368 compares size & modify time), the [`--update`](#opt) option, the
4369 [`--max-size`](#opt) option, the [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) option, and a
4374 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
4375 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
4376 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
4377 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
4378 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
4379 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
4380 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
4381 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
4383 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
4384 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
4385 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
4386 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
4387 same data to every host individually.
4389 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
4390 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
4391 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
4392 stored in the batch file.
4394 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
4395 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
4396 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
4397 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
4398 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
4399 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
4400 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
4401 used to create the batch file.
4405 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4406 > $ scp foo* remote:
4407 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4409 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4410 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4412 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4413 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4414 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4415 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4416 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4418 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
4419 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4420 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4421 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4422 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4423 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4424 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4425 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
4426 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, but you could edit the script file if you
4427 wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
4428 standard input, such as the [`--exclude-from=-`](#opt) option).
4432 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4433 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4434 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4435 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4436 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4437 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4438 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4439 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4440 size and date, use the [`-I`](#opt) option (when reading the batch). If an
4441 error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
4442 state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of
4443 operation to fix up the destination tree.
4445 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4446 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4447 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4448 See also the [`--protocol`](#opt) option for a way to have the creating rsync
4449 generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch
4450 files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with
4451 newer versions will not work.)
4453 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4454 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4455 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4456 instance [`--write-batch`](#opt) changes to [`--read-batch`](#opt),
4457 [`--files-from`](#opt) is dropped, and the [`--filter`](#opt) /
4458 [`--include`](#opt) / [`--exclude`](#opt) options are not needed unless one of
4459 the [`--delete`](#opt) options is specified.
4461 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4462 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4463 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4464 change in what gets deleted by [`--delete`](#opt) is desired. A normal user
4465 can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the
4466 appropriate [`--read-batch`](#opt) command for the batched data.
4468 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4469 version uses a new implementation.
4473 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4474 link in the source directory.
4476 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4477 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4479 If [`--links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are added to the transfer
4480 (instead of being noisily ignored), and the default handling is to recreate
4481 them with the same target on the destination. Note that [`--archive`](#opt)
4482 implies [`--links`](#opt).
4484 If [`--copy-links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4485 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4487 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4488 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4489 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4490 the public section of the site. Using [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt) will cause
4491 any links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4492 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause unsafe links to be omitted by the receiver.
4493 (Note that you must specify or imply [`--links`](#opt) for
4494 [`--safe-links`](#opt) to have any effect.)
4496 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with
4497 `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".." components to ascend from the top
4500 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4501 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4502 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4504 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files and directories
4505 (leaving no symlinks in the transfer for any other options to affect).
4506 0. `--copy-dirlinks` Turn just symlinks to directories into real
4507 directories, leaving all other symlinks to be handled as described below.
4508 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks
4509 into files and create all safe symlinks.
4510 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
4511 skip all safe symlinks.
4512 0. `--links --safe-links` The receiver skips creating
4513 unsafe symlinks found in the transfer and creates the safe ones.
4514 0. `--links` Create all symlinks.
4516 For the effect of [`--munge-links`](#opt), see the discussion in that option's
4519 Note that the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option does not effect symlinks in the
4520 transfer but instead affects how rsync treats a symlink to a directory that
4521 already exists on the receiving side. See that option's section for a warning.
4525 Rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4526 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4529 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4530 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4531 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4533 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4535 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4536 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4537 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4538 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4539 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4540 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4542 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4543 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4544 file is included or excluded.
4549 - **1** - Syntax or usage error
4550 - **2** - Protocol incompatibility
4551 - **3** - Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4552 - **4** - Requested action not supported. Either:
4553 - an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them
4554 - an option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server
4555 - **5** - Error starting client-server protocol
4556 - **6** - Daemon unable to append to log-file
4557 - **10** - Error in socket I/O
4558 - **11** - Error in file I/O
4559 - **12** - Error in rsync protocol data stream
4560 - **13** - Errors with program diagnostics
4561 - **14** - Error in IPC code
4562 - **20** - Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4563 - **21** - Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4564 - **22** - Error allocating core memory buffers
4565 - **23** - Partial transfer due to error
4566 - **24** - Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4567 - **25** - The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4568 - **30** - Timeout in data send/receive
4569 - **35** - Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4571 ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4575 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4576 .cvsignore files. See the [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) option for more details.
4580 Specify a default [`--iconv`](#opt) setting using this environment
4581 variable. First supported in 3.0.0.
4585 Specify a "1" if you want the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to be enabled by
4586 default, a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the
4587 repeated-option state, or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by
4588 default. When this environment variable is set to a non-zero value, it
4589 supersedes the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#) variable.
4591 This variable is ignored if [`--old-args`](#opt), `--no-old-args`, or
4592 [`--protect-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4594 First supported in 3.2.4.
4596 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4598 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the [`--protect-args`](#opt)
4599 option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is
4600 disabled by default.
4602 This variable is ignored if [`--protect-args`](#opt), `--no-protect-args`,
4603 or [`--old-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4605 First supported in 3.1.0. Starting in 3.2.4, this variable is ignored if
4606 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) is set to a non-zero value.
4610 This environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as
4611 the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after the
4612 command name, just as in the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option.
4616 This environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4617 client to use a web proxy when connecting to an rsync daemon. You should
4618 set `RSYNC_PROXY` to a hostname:port pair.
4622 This environment variable allows you to set the password for an rsync
4623 **daemon** connection, which avoids the password prompt. Note that this
4624 does **not** supply a password to a remote shell transport such as ssh
4625 (consult its documentation for how to do that).
4627 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4629 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4630 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4631 to "nobody". If both are set, `USER` takes precedence.
4633 0. `RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`
4635 This environment variable specifies the directory to use for a
4636 [`--partial`](#opt) transfer without implying that partial transfers be
4637 enabled. See the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option for full details.
4639 0. `RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`
4641 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4642 compression algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4643 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available compression
4644 names. See the [`--compress`](#opt) option for full details.
4646 0. `RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`
4648 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4649 checksum algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4650 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available checksum
4651 names. See the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) option for full details.
4653 0. `RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`
4655 This environment variable sets an allocation maximum as if you had used the
4656 [`--max-alloc`](#opt) option.
4660 This environment variable is not read by rsync, but is instead set in
4661 its sub-environment when rsync is running the remote shell in combination
4662 with a daemon connection. This allows a script such as
4663 [`rsync-ssl`](rsync-ssl.1) to be able to know the port number that the user
4664 specified on the command line.
4668 This environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4671 0. `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`
4673 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4674 to use when making a daemon connection. See [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC
4675 DAEMON](#) for full details.
4679 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4680 to use to run the program specified by [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#). See
4681 [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON](#) for full details.
4685 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4689 [**rsync-ssl**(1)](rsync-ssl.1), [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5), [**rrsync**(1)](rrsync.1)
4693 - Times are transferred as \*nix time_t values.
4694 - When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified files. See
4695 the comments on the [`--modify-window`](#opt) option.
4696 - File permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values.
4697 - See also the comments on the [`--delete`](#opt) option.
4699 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4703 This manpage is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4707 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4708 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4709 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4710 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4711 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4712 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4716 Rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4717 [COPYING](COPYING) for details.
4719 An rsync web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site
4720 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
4723 The rsync github project is <https://github.com/WayneD/rsync>.
4725 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4726 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4728 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4729 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4733 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4734 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4735 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4737 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4738 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4742 Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4743 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4746 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4747 <https://lists.samba.org/>.