3 rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
9 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
11 Access via remote shell:
13 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
15 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
17 Access via rsync daemon:
19 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
22 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
23 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26 Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
31 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
32 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
33 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
34 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
35 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
36 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
37 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
38 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
41 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
42 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
43 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
44 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
45 the file's data does not need to be updated.
47 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
49 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
50 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
51 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
52 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
53 - does not require super-user privileges
54 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
55 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
59 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
60 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
62 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
63 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
64 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
65 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
66 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
67 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
68 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the "USING
69 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for an exception
72 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
73 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
75 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
76 the copy occurs locally (see also the `--list-only` option).
78 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
79 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
80 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
84 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
86 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
87 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
88 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
89 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
90 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
92 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the `-e`
93 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
95 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
99 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
100 destination, one of which may be remote.
102 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
104 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
106 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
107 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
108 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
109 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
110 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
111 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
112 same as all other Posix-style programs).
114 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
116 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
117 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
118 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
119 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
120 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
123 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
125 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
126 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
127 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
128 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
129 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
130 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
131 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
133 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
134 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
136 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
137 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
138 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
140 > rsync -av host: /dest
141 > rsync -av host::module /dest
143 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
144 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
145 improved copy command.
147 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
148 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
150 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
152 See the following section for more details.
156 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
157 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
158 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
160 > rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
161 > rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/
162 > rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4} /dest/
164 **Older versions of rsync** required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
167 > rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest
168 > rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest
170 This word-splitting only works in a modern rsync by using `--old-args` (or its
171 environment variable) and making sure that `--protect-args` is not enabled.
173 # CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
175 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
176 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
177 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
178 system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS section
179 below for information on that.)
181 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
184 - you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
185 hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
186 - the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
187 - the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
188 - if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
189 paths on the daemon will be shown.
190 - if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
191 the remote daemon is provided.
192 - you must not specify the `--rsh` (`-e`) option (since that overrides the
193 daemon connection to use ssh -- see USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
194 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION below).
196 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
198 > rsync -av host::src /dest
200 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
201 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
202 by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to the password you want to
203 use or using the `--password-file` option. This may be useful when scripting
206 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
207 those systems using `--password-file` is recommended.
209 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
210 variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy. Note
211 that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port 873.
213 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
214 setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you wish to
215 run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may contain the
216 escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync command (so use
217 "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
219 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
220 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
221 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
223 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
224 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
226 Note also that if the RSYNC_SHELL environment variable is set, that program
227 will be used to run the RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG command instead of using the default
228 shell of the **system()** call.
230 # USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
232 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
233 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
234 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
235 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
236 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
237 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
238 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
239 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
240 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
241 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
242 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
244 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
245 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
246 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
247 program on the command-line with the `--rsh=COMMAND` option. (Setting the
248 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
250 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
252 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
253 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
254 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
255 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
256 example that uses the short version of the `--rsh` option:
258 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
260 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
261 log-in to the "module".
263 # STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
265 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
266 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
267 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
268 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
269 connections, see the **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page -- that is the config file for
270 the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the daemon
271 (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
273 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
274 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
276 # SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
278 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
279 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
280 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse
281 someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what was given
284 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
285 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
286 `--delay-updates` (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but does
287 make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
291 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
293 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and
294 mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
296 > rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup
298 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
301 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile targets:
304 > rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
306 > rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
309 This allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the connection.
310 I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot of time as
311 the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
313 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the command:
315 > rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge"
317 This is launched from cron every few hours.
321 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer to the
322 detailed description below for a complete description.
324 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
325 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
328 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
329 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
330 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
331 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
332 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
333 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
334 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
335 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
336 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
337 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
338 --relative, -R use relative path names
339 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
340 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
341 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
342 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
343 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
344 --inplace update destination files in-place
345 --append append data onto shorter files
346 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
347 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
348 --old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
349 --mkpath create the destination's path component
350 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
351 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
352 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
353 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
354 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
355 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
356 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
357 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
358 --perms, -p preserve permissions
359 --executability, -E preserve executability
360 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
361 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
362 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
363 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
364 --group, -g preserve group
365 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
366 --specials preserve special files
367 -D same as --devices --specials
368 --times, -t preserve modification times
369 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
370 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
371 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
372 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
373 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
374 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
375 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
376 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
377 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
378 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
379 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
380 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
381 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
382 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
383 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
384 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
385 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
386 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
387 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
388 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
389 --del an alias for --delete-during
390 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
391 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
392 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
393 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
394 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
395 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
396 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
397 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
398 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
399 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
400 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
401 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
402 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
403 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
404 --partial keep partially transferred files
405 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
406 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
407 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
408 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
409 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
410 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
411 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
412 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
413 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
414 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
415 --size-only skip files that match in size
416 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
417 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
418 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
419 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
420 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
421 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
422 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
423 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
424 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
425 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
426 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
427 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
428 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
429 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
430 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
431 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
432 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
433 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
434 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
435 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
436 --old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
437 --protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
438 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
439 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
440 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
441 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
442 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
443 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
444 --stats give some file-transfer stats
445 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
446 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
447 --progress show progress during transfer
448 -P same as --partial --progress
449 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
450 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
451 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
452 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
453 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
454 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
455 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
456 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
457 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
458 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
459 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
460 --fsync fsync every written file
461 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
462 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
463 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
464 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
465 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
466 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
467 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
468 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
469 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
470 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
473 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
476 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
479 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
480 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
481 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
482 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
483 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
484 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
485 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
486 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
487 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
488 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
489 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
490 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
491 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
492 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
497 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
498 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
499 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
500 Some options only have a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a
501 parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though it
502 must also be specified for the short. When specifying a parameter, you can
503 either use the form `--option=param` or replace the '=' with whitespace. The
504 parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the shell's
505 command-line parsing. Keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in a filename is
506 substituted by your shell, so `--option=~/foo` will not change the tilde into
507 your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
509 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
511 0. `--help`, `-h` `(*)`
513 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
514 (*) The `-h` short option will only invoke `--help` when used without other
515 options since it normally means `--human-readable`.
519 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
521 The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
522 list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
523 to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
527 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
528 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
529 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
530 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
531 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
532 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
534 The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
535 rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
536 received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
537 transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
538 second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
539 file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
540 value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
541 sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
542 number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
543 human-readable by using the `--human-readable` (or `--no-human-readable`)
546 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
547 of `--info` and `--debug` options. You can choose to use these newer
548 options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as any
549 fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both `--info`
550 and `--debug` have a way to ask for help that tells you exactly what flags
551 are set for each increase in verbosity.
553 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
554 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
555 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
556 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
557 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
561 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
562 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
563 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
564 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
565 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
566 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
567 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
569 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
570 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
572 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the `--out-format` and
573 `--itemize-changes` (`-i`) options. See those options for more information
574 on what is output and when.
576 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
577 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
578 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
579 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
583 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
584 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
585 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
586 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
587 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
588 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
589 the verbose level. Some examples:
591 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
592 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
594 Note that some debug messages will only be output when `--stderr=all` is
595 specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
597 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
598 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
599 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
600 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
601 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
602 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
604 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
606 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
608 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
609 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
610 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
612 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
613 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
614 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
615 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
616 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
619 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
620 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
621 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
622 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
623 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
624 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
625 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows `--debug` to enable
626 some extra I/O related messages.
628 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
629 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
630 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
631 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
632 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
633 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
634 been around for several releases.
636 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
637 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
638 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
639 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
640 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
644 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
645 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
646 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
650 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
651 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
652 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
653 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
654 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
657 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
659 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
660 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
661 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
663 This option can be a little confusing compared to `--ignore-existing` and
664 `--ignore-non-existing` in that that they cause rsync to transfer fewer
665 files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
669 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
670 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
671 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
672 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
673 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
676 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
678 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
679 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
680 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
681 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
682 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
683 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
684 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
686 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
687 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
689 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
690 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
692 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
693 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
694 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
696 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
698 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
699 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
700 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
701 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
702 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
703 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
704 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
705 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
706 transfer changed files)
708 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
709 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
710 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
711 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
712 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
714 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
715 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
716 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
717 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
718 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
720 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
721 can be overridden using either the `--checksum-choice` (`--cc`) option or an
722 environment variable that is discussed in that option's section.
726 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
727 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
728 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
729 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
731 The only exception to the above equivalence is when
732 `--files-from` is specified, in which case `-r` is not implied.
736 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
737 with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-": only options that
738 are implied by other options (e.g. `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have
739 different defaults in various circumstances (e.g. `--no-whole-file`,
740 `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). You may specify either the short or the
741 long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as
744 For example: if you want to use `-a` (`--archive`) but don't want `-o`
745 (`--owner`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you could specify
746 `-a --no-o` (or `-a --no-owner`).
748 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the
749 `-r` option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`.
750 Note also that the side-effects of the `--files-from` option are NOT
751 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
752 changes the meaning of `-a` (see the `--files-from` option for more
755 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
757 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also `--dirs` (`-d`).
759 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
760 incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
761 transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
762 completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
763 does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
764 both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
766 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
767 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: `--delete-before`,
768 `--delete-after`, `--prune-empty-dirs`, and `--delay-updates`. Because of
769 this, the default delete mode when you specify `--delete` is now
770 `--delete-during` when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0 (use
771 `--del` or `--delete-during` to request this improved deletion mode
772 explicitly). See also the `--delete-delay` option that is a better choice
773 than using `--delete-after`.
775 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the `--no-inc-recursive` option
776 or its shorter `--no-i-r` alias.
778 0. `--relative`, `-R`
780 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
781 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
782 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
783 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
786 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
788 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
791 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
793 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
794 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
795 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
798 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
799 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
800 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
801 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
802 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
803 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
804 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
805 the `--no-implied-dirs` option.
807 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
808 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
809 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
810 the source path, like this:
812 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
814 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
815 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
816 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
817 path. For example, when pushing files:
819 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
821 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
822 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
823 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
824 non-daemon transfer):
826 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
827 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
829 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
831 This option affects the default behavior of the `--relative` option. When
832 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
833 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
834 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
835 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
836 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
837 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
839 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
840 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
841 are implied when `--relative` is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
842 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
843 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
844 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
845 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
846 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
847 preservation is to use the `--keep-dirlinks` option (which will also affect
848 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
850 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
851 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
852 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
856 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
857 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
858 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the `--backup-dir` and `--suffix`
861 Note that if you don't specify `--backup-dir`, (1) the `--omit-dir-times`
862 option will be forced on, and (2) if `--delete` is also in effect (without
863 `--delete-excluded`), rsync will add a "protect" filter-rule for the backup
864 suffix to the end of all your existing excludes (e.g. `-f "P *~"`). This
865 will prevent previously backed-up files from being deleted. Note that if
866 you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert
867 your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that it
868 has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify a
869 trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule would never be
872 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
874 This implies the `--backup` option, and tells rsync to store all
875 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
876 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
877 using the `--suffix` option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified
878 directory will keep their original filenames).
880 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
881 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
882 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
883 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
884 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
888 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
889 `--backup` (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no `--backup-dir`
890 was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
894 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
895 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
896 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
897 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
899 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
900 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
901 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
902 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
903 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
904 regardless of the timestamps.
906 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
907 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
908 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
910 A caution for those that choose to combine `--inplace` with `--update`: an
911 interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the receiving side
912 that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the transfer will
913 probably **not** continue the interrutped file. As such, it is usually
914 best to avoid combining this with `--inplace` unless you have implemented
915 manual steps to handle any interrutped in-progress files.
919 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
920 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
921 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
922 updated data directly to the destination file.
924 This has several effects:
926 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
927 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
928 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
929 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
931 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
932 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
934 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
935 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
937 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
938 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
939 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
940 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
941 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
942 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use `--backup`,
943 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
946 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
947 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
949 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
950 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
951 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
952 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
954 The option implies `--partial` (since an interrupted transfer does not
955 delete the file), but conflicts with `--partial-dir` and `--delay-updates`.
956 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also incompatible with
957 `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
961 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
962 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
963 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
964 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
965 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
966 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
968 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
969 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
970 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
971 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
972 that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
973 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
974 "diminished" file when this happens).
976 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
977 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
978 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
983 This special copy mode works like `--append` except that all the data in
984 the file is included in the checksum verification (making it much less
985 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
986 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
987 files. See the `--append` option for more details.
989 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the `--append` option worked like
990 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
991 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
992 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
996 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
997 Unlike `--recursive`, a directory's contents are not copied unless the
998 directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".",
999 "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the `--recursive` option,
1000 rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and output a message to that
1001 effect for each one). If you specify both `--dirs` and `--recursive`,
1002 `--recursive` takes precedence.
1004 The `--dirs` option is implied by the `--files-from` option or the
1005 `--list-only` option (including an implied `--list-only` usage) if
1006 `--recursive` wasn't specified (so that directories are seen in the
1007 listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to turn this off.
1009 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs` (or
1010 `--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
1011 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1015 Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1016 to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1017 in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1018 supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1019 treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1020 same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1023 For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1024 directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1026 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1028 If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1029 sub/dir/bar directory:
1031 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1035 When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination.
1037 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink
1038 encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning by
1039 specifying ``--info=nonreg0``.
1041 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1043 The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
1044 referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
1045 references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
1046 is dropped from the transfer. On the receiving side, any existing symlinks
1047 in the destination directories are replaced with the non-symlinks that the
1048 sender specifies (though any destination filenames that do not match a name
1049 in the transfer can remain as symlinks if rsync is not deleting files).
1051 In versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3, this option also had the side-effect
1052 of telling the receiving side to follow symlinks, such as a symlink to a
1053 directory. A modern rsync does not do this, though you can choose to
1054 specify `--keep-dirlinks` (`-K`) if you want rsync to treat a symlink to a
1055 directory on the receiving side as if it were a real directory. Remember
1056 that it's the version of rsync on the receiving side that determines how it
1057 reacts to existing destination symlinks when this option is in effect.
1059 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1061 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1062 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1063 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when `--relative` is
1064 used. This option has no additional effect if `--copy-links` was also
1067 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1068 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1069 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1070 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1071 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1072 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1073 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1078 This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point outside the
1079 copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also ignored. Using this option in
1080 conjunction with `--relative` may give unexpected results.
1084 This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on the receiving side in
1085 a way that makes them unusable but recoverable (see below), or (2) to
1086 unmunge symlinks on the sending side that had been stored in a munged
1087 state. This is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data to
1088 not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
1090 The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with the
1091 string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used as long
1092 as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will
1093 refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a directory.
1095 The option only affects the client side of the transfer, so if you need it
1096 to affect the server, specify it via `--remote-option`. (Note that in a
1097 local transfer, the client side is the sender.)
1099 This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon configures whether
1100 it wants munged symlinks via its "`munge symlinks`" parameter. See also the
1101 "munge-symlinks" perl script in the support directory of the source code.
1103 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1105 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1106 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1107 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using `--copy-links`.
1109 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1110 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1111 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1112 `--force` or `--delete` is in effect).
1114 See also `--keep-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the receiving side.
1116 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1117 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1118 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1119 `--relative` to make the paths match up right. For example:
1121 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1123 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1124 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1125 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1128 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1130 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1131 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1132 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1133 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1135 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1136 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1137 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1138 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1139 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1142 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1143 symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create
1144 their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1145 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1146 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1147 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1148 your receiving hierarchy.
1150 See also `--copy-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the sending side.
1152 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1154 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1155 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1156 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1159 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1160 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1161 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1163 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1164 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1165 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1166 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1167 (unless you are using the `--inplace` option).
1168 - If you specify a `--link-dest` directory that contains hard links, the
1169 linking of the destination files against the `--link-dest` files can
1170 cause some paths in the destination to become linked together due to the
1171 `--link-dest` associations.
1173 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1174 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1175 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1176 you are tempted to use the `--inplace` option to avoid this breakage, be
1177 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1178 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1179 see the `--inplace` option for more caveats).
1181 If incremental recursion is active (see `--recursive`), rsync may transfer
1182 a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that
1183 contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the
1184 accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together), just
1185 its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1186 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1187 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1188 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1189 `--no-inc-recursive` option.
1193 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1194 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the `--chmod` option
1195 for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source permissions.)
1197 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1199 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1200 permissions, though the `--executability` option might change just the
1201 execute permission for the file.
1202 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1203 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1204 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1205 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1206 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1207 bit from its parent directory.
1209 Thus, when `--perms` and `--executability` are both disabled, rsync's
1210 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1213 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1214 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1215 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1216 `--perms` option is off and use `--chmod=ugo=rwX` (which ensures that all
1217 non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter behavior
1218 easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as putting this
1219 line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z` option, and
1220 includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination dir):
1222 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1224 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1226 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1228 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1229 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1231 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1232 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1233 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1234 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1235 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1236 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1237 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1238 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1241 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1243 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1244 non-executability) of regular files when `--perms` is not enabled. A
1245 regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1246 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1247 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1248 destination file's permissions as follows:
1250 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1251 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1252 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1254 If `--perms` is enabled, this option is ignored.
1258 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1259 the source ACLs. The option also implies `--perms`.
1261 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1262 this option to work properly. See the `--fake-super` option for a way to
1263 backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1267 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1268 be the same as the source ones.
1270 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1271 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1272 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1273 namespaces as a normal user, see the `--fake-super` option.
1275 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1276 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1277 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1278 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1279 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1280 namespace, you could specify:
1282 > --filter='-x system.*'
1284 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1287 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1289 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1290 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1294 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1295 those used by `--fake-super`) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1296 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with `--fake-super`.
1300 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1301 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1302 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1303 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1304 existing files if `--perms` is not enabled.
1306 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1307 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1308 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1309 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1310 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1311 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1312 consistent executability across all bits:
1314 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1316 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1318 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1320 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1321 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1323 See the `--perms` and `--executability` options for how the resulting
1324 permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1328 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1329 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1330 the super-user (see also the `--super` and `--fake-super` options). Without
1331 this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to the
1332 invoking user on the receiving side.
1334 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1335 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1336 `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
1340 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1341 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1342 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1343 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1344 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1345 user on the receiving side.
1347 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1348 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1349 (see also the `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
1353 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1354 the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
1355 being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
1356 (see also the `--super` and `--fake-super` options).
1358 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
1359 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1360 by specifying ``--info=nonreg0``.
1364 This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
1365 and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
1366 rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the `--super` and
1367 `--fake-super` options).
1369 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
1370 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1371 by specifying ``--info=nonreg0``.
1375 The `-D` option is equivalent to `--devices --specials`.
1377 0. `--write-devices`
1379 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1380 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1382 This option implies the `--inplace` option.
1384 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1385 receiving side of the transfer, especially if running rsync as root.
1387 This option is refused by an rsync daemon.
1391 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1392 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1393 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1394 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` or `-a` will cause the next
1395 transfer to behave as if it used `-I`, causing all files to be updated
1396 (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly
1397 efficient if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off
1402 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1403 the same value as the source files.
1405 If repeated, it also sets the `--open-noatime` option, which can help you
1406 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1407 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1410 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1411 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply `--open-noatime`
1412 when this option is repeated.
1416 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1417 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1418 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1419 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1420 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1421 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1423 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1425 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1426 files to the same value as the source files.
1428 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1430 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
1431 access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1432 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1433 `--backup` without `--backup-dir`.
1435 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of
1436 directories in incremental recursion copies. The default `--inc-recursive`
1437 copying normally does an early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a
1438 parent directory in order for it to be able to then set the modify time of
1439 the parent directory right away (without having to delay that until a bunch
1440 of recursive copying has finished). This early-create idiom is not
1441 necessary if directory modify times are not being preserved, so it is
1442 skipped. Since early-create directories don't have accurate mode, mtime,
1443 or ownership, the use of this option can help when someone wants to avoid
1444 these partially-finished directories.
1446 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1448 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
1449 access, and create times.
1453 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1454 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1455 preserving users via the `--owner` option, preserving all groups (not just
1456 the current user's groups) via the `--group` option, and copying devices
1457 via the `--devices` option. This is useful for systems that allow such
1458 activities without being the super-user, and also for ensuring that you
1459 will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run as the super-user.
1460 To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can use `--no-super`.
1464 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1465 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1466 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1467 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1468 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1469 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1470 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1471 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1472 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1473 ACLs (if `--acls` was specified) and non-user extended attributes (if
1474 `--xattrs` was specified).
1476 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1477 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1479 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1480 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1481 `--remote-option` (`-M`) option:
1483 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1485 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1486 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1487 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1488 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1490 This option is overridden by both `--super` and `--no-super`.
1492 See also the "`fake super`" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1496 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1497 destination. If combined with `--inplace` the file created might not end
1498 up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version and/or
1499 filesystem type. If `--whole-file` is in effect (e.g. for a local copy)
1500 then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior to writing
1501 out the updated version.
1503 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1504 `--sparse` and `--inplace`.
1508 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1509 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1510 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1511 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1512 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1514 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1515 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1516 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1517 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1519 If combined with `--sparse`, the file will only have sparse blocks (as
1520 opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1521 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1523 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1525 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1526 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1527 in combination with the `--verbose`, `-v` and/or `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
1528 options to see what an rsync command is going to do before one actually
1531 The output of `--itemize-changes` is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1532 dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1533 call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
1534 unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not send
1535 the actual data for file transfers, so `--progress` has no effect, the
1536 "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1537 statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1538 where no file transfers were needed.
1540 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1542 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1543 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1544 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1545 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1546 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1547 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1548 batch-writing option is in effect.
1550 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1552 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1553 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1554 `--checksum` is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1555 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1556 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1558 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1560 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1563 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1568 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1569 version (which may differ from the list above).
1571 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the `--whole-file`
1572 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1573 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1574 the `--checksum` option cannot be used.
1576 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1577 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1579 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1580 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1581 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1582 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1583 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1584 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1586 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1587 RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum names.
1588 If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the "client
1589 string & server string", otherwise the same string
1590 applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
1591 non-whitespace characters, the default checksum list is used. This method
1592 does not allow you to specify the transfer checksum separately from the
1593 pre-transfer checksum, and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum
1594 names. A list with only invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1596 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1598 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1600 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1601 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1602 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1603 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1604 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1605 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1607 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1608 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1609 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1610 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1612 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via `--copy-links` or
1613 `--copy-unsafe-links`), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1614 treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected by
1617 0. `--existing`, `--ignore-non-existing`
1619 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1620 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1621 `--ignore-existing` option, no files will be updated (which can be useful
1622 if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1624 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1625 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1626 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1628 0. `--ignore-existing`
1630 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1631 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1632 get done). See also `--existing`.
1634 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1635 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1636 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1638 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the `--link-dest`
1639 option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1640 a `--link-dest` run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1641 used properly), using `--ignore-existing` will ensure that the
1642 already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1643 permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option is
1644 only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1646 When `--info=skip2` is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists (INFO)"
1647 messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum change"
1648 (requires `-c`), "file change" (based on the quick check), "attr change",
1649 or "uptodate". Using `--info=skip1` (which is also implied by `-vv`)
1650 outputs the exists message without the INFO suffix.
1652 0. `--remove-source-files`
1654 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1655 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1656 duplicated on the receiving side.
1658 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1659 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1660 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1661 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1662 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1663 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1664 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1665 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1666 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option `--exclude='*.new'` for the
1669 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1670 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1674 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1675 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1676 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1677 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1678 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1679 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1680 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1681 excluded from being deleted unless you use the `--delete-excluded` option
1682 or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1683 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1685 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless `--recursive`
1686 was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when `--dirs`
1687 (`-d`) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being
1690 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1691 first try a run using the `--dry-run` option (`-n`) to see what files are
1692 going to be deleted.
1694 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1695 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1696 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1697 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1698 this with the `--ignore-errors` option.
1700 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1701 without conflict, as well as `--delete-excluded`. However, if none of the
1702 `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1703 `--delete-during` algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and the
1704 `--delete-before` algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1705 `--delete-delay` and `--delete-after`.
1707 0. `--delete-before`
1709 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1710 transfer starts. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
1713 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1714 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1715 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1716 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1717 `--timeout` was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1718 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1719 files in the transfer into memory at once (see `--recursive`).
1721 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1723 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1724 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1725 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1726 efficient `--delete-before`, including doing the deletions prior to any
1727 per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added in
1728 rsync version 2.6.4. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
1733 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1734 the transfer (like `--delete-during`), and then removed after the transfer
1735 completes. This is useful when combined with `--delay-updates` and/or
1736 `--fuzzy`, and is more efficient than using `--delete-after` (but can
1737 behave differently, since `--delete-after` computes the deletions in a
1738 separate pass after all updates are done). If the number of removed files
1739 overflows an internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the
1740 receiving side to hold the names (it is removed while open, so you
1741 shouldn't see it during the transfer). If the creation of the temporary
1742 file fails, rsync will try to fall back to using `--delete-after` (which it
1743 cannot do if `--recursive` is doing an incremental scan). See `--delete`
1744 (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1748 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1749 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1750 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1751 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1752 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1753 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1754 (see `--recursive`). See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
1757 0. `--delete-excluded`
1759 In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side that are not on the
1760 sending side, this tells rsync to also delete any files on the receiving
1761 side that are excluded (see `--exclude`). See the FILTER RULES section for
1762 a way to make individual exclusions behave this way on the receiver, and
1763 for a way to protect files from `--delete-excluded`. See `--delete` (which
1764 is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1766 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
1768 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1769 command-line arguments or `--files-from` entries), it is normally an error
1770 if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error, and does
1771 not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1772 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1775 0. `--delete-missing-args`
1777 This option takes the behavior of (the implied) `--ignore-missing-args`
1778 option a step farther: each missing arg will become a deletion request of
1779 the corresponding destination file on the receiving side (should it exist).
1780 If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will only be
1781 successfully deleted if `--force` or `--delete` are in effect. Other than
1782 that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
1784 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1785 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the `--list-only` output.
1787 0. `--ignore-errors`
1789 Tells `--delete` to go ahead and delete files even when there are I/O
1794 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1795 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1796 active (see `--delete` for details).
1798 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
1799 using `--delete-after`, and it used to be non-functional unless the
1800 `--recursive` option was also enabled.
1802 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
1804 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
1805 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
1806 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
1807 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
1808 important error condition also occurred).
1810 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
1811 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1812 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1813 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
1814 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1815 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1817 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
1819 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
1820 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
1821 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
1822 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
1824 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1825 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1826 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1828 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
1829 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
1830 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
1831 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
1832 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
1833 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
1835 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
1836 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
1839 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
1842 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
1844 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
1846 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
1847 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
1848 the `--max-size` option for a description of SIZE and other information.
1850 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
1852 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
1854 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
1855 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
1856 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
1857 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
1858 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
1859 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
1860 consume more memory.
1862 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
1863 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
1865 See the `--max-size` option for a description of how SIZE can be specified.
1866 The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
1868 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
1870 You can set a default value using the environment variable RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC
1871 using the same SIZE values as supported by this option. If the remote
1872 rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option, you can override an
1873 environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`, which will make rsync
1874 avoid sending the option to the remote side (because "1G" is the default).
1876 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
1878 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
1879 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
1880 updated. See the technical report for details.
1882 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
1883 the `--max-size` option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
1885 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
1887 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
1888 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
1889 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
1892 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
1893 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
1894 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
1895 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
1896 remote host. See the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
1897 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1899 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the RSYNC_PORT environment variable will be set
1900 when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell connection. It
1901 is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or it is set to
1902 the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the `--port`
1903 option or a non-empty port value in an rsync:// URL. This allows the
1904 script to discern if a non-default port is being requested, allowing for
1905 things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a default or
1908 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1909 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
1910 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
1911 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
1912 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
1913 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
1914 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
1915 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1918 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
1920 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1921 options in their .ssh/config file.)
1923 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1924 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
1926 See also the `--blocking-io` option which is affected by this option.
1928 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
1930 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
1931 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
1932 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
1933 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
1934 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
1935 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
1937 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1938 machine for use with the `--relative` option. For instance:
1940 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
1942 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
1944 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
1945 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
1946 you want to pass `--log-file=FILE` and `--fake-super` to the remote system,
1947 specify it like this:
1949 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
1951 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
1952 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
1955 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
1957 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
1958 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
1959 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
1961 Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
1962 want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
1963 remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
1964 this requires the use of `--old-args` in a modern rsync.
1966 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
1967 "remote" side is the receiver.
1969 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
1970 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
1971 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
1972 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
1975 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
1977 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
1978 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
1979 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
1981 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1982 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1984 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
2023 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2024 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2025 delimited by whitespace).
2027 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2028 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2029 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2030 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
2032 If you're combining `-C` with your own `--filter` rules, you should note
2033 that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2034 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2035 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2036 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2037 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2038 `--filter=:C` and `--filter=-C` (either on your command-line or by putting
2039 the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules). The
2040 first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore file.
2041 The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes mentioned
2044 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2046 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2047 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2048 combination with a recursive transfer.
2050 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2051 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2052 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2053 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2054 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2056 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2060 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two `--filter` rules to your
2061 command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2063 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2065 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2066 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2067 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2070 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2072 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2074 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
2077 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2079 This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
2080 an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
2083 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2085 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2087 This option is related to the `--exclude` option, but it specifies a FILE
2088 that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file are
2089 ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2090 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2092 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2094 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2096 This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
2097 an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
2100 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2102 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2104 This option is related to the `--include` option, but it specifies a FILE
2105 that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file are
2106 ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2107 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2109 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2111 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2113 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2114 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2115 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2116 specified files and directories easier:
2118 - The `--relative` (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the path
2119 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2120 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2121 - The `--dirs` (`-d`) option is implied, which will create directories
2122 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
2123 them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2124 - The `--archive` (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply `--recursive`
2125 (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2126 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2127 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2128 options are parsed (e.g. `-a` works the same before or after
2129 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2131 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2132 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2133 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2135 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2137 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2138 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2139 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2140 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2141 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the `-r`
2142 option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be transferred
2143 (keep in mind that `-r` needs to be specified explicitly with
2144 `--files-from`, since it is not implied by `-a`). Also note that the
2145 effect of the (enabled by default) `--relative` option is to duplicate only
2146 the path info that is read from the file -- it does not force the
2147 duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2149 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2150 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2151 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2152 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2155 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2157 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2158 was located on the remote "src" host.
2160 If the `--iconv` and `--protect-args` options are specified and the
2161 `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
2162 filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2163 receiving host's charset.
2165 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2166 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2167 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2168 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2169 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2174 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2175 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2176 affects `--exclude-from`, `--include-from`, `--files-from`, and any merged
2177 files specified in a `--filter` rule. It does not affect `--cvs-exclude`
2178 (since all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2182 This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values from
2183 unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation by using its new
2184 backslash-escape idiom. The newest default is for remote filenames to only
2185 allow wildcards characters to be interpretated by the shell while
2186 protecting other shell-interpreted characters (and the args of options get
2187 even wildcards escaped). The only active wildcard characters on the remote
2188 side are: `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]`.
2190 If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in the
2191 filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
2192 with any backslash escapes, specify the option twice.
2194 You may also control this setting via the RSYNC_OLD_ARGS environment
2195 variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
2196 setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
2197 repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
2198 behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
2199 positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
2201 0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
2203 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
2204 without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. Wildcards are
2205 expanded on the remote host by rsync instead of the shell doing it.
2207 This is similar to the new-style backslash-escaping of args that was added
2208 in 3.2.4, but supports some extra features and doesn't rely on backslash
2209 escaping in the remote shell.
2211 If you use this option with `--iconv`, the args related to the remote side
2212 will also be translated from the local to the remote character-set. The
2213 translation happens before wild-cards are expanded. See also the
2214 `--files-from` option.
2216 You may also control this setting via the RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment
2217 variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
2218 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2219 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2220 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
2223 You may need to disable this option when interacting with an older rsync
2224 (one prior to 3.0.0).
2226 Note that this option is incompatible with the use of the restricted rsync
2227 script (`rrsync`) since it hides options from the script's inspection.
2229 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2231 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2232 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2233 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2234 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2236 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2237 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2238 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2239 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2240 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2241 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2242 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2244 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2245 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the `--remote-option` to
2246 affect the remote side, such as `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer,
2247 the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file provides a local-shell helper script that
2248 can be used to allow a "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified
2249 without needing to setup any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote
2250 options that affect the side of the transfer that is using the host-spec
2251 (and using hostname "lh" avoids the overriding of the remote directory to
2252 the user's home dir).
2254 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2256 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2258 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2259 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2260 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2261 has no permissions to change.
2263 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2264 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2266 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2268 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2270 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2271 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2272 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2273 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2274 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2275 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2277 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2278 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2279 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2280 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2281 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2282 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2283 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2284 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2285 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2286 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2287 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2288 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2289 new version on the disk at the same time.
2291 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2292 space, you may wish to combine it with the `--delay-updates` option, which
2293 will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
2294 destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't have
2295 enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
2296 partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about
2297 disk space is to use the `--partial-dir` option with a relative path;
2298 because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a single file
2299 in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the partial-dir as
2300 a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then rename it into place
2301 from there. (Specifying a `--partial-dir` with an absolute path does not
2302 have this side-effect.)
2306 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2307 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2308 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2309 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2310 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2312 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2313 alternate destination directories that are specified via `--compare-dest`,
2314 `--copy-dest`, or `--link-dest`.
2316 Note that the use of the `--delete` option might get rid of any potential
2317 fuzzy-match files, so either use `--delete-after` or specify some filename
2318 exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2320 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2322 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2323 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2324 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2325 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2326 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2327 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2328 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2331 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2332 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2333 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2334 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2335 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2338 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2339 See also `--copy-dest` and `--link-dest`.
2341 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2342 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2343 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2346 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2348 This option behaves like `--compare-dest`, but rsync will also copy
2349 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2350 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2351 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2352 files have been successfully transferred.
2354 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2355 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2356 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2357 try to speed up the transfer.
2359 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2360 See also `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
2362 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2364 This option behaves like `--copy-dest`, but unchanged files are hard linked
2365 from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be identical in
2366 all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order
2367 for the files to be linked together. An example:
2369 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2371 If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2372 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2373 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2374 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2377 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2378 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2379 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2380 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2381 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2382 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2384 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2385 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2386 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2387 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2388 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2389 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2391 Note that if you combine this option with `--ignore-times`, rsync will not
2392 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2393 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2394 the file is updated.
2396 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2397 See also `--compare-dest` and `--copy-dest`.
2399 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2400 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when `-o` was
2401 specified (or implied by `-a`). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
2402 the `-o` option when sending to an old rsync.
2404 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2406 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2407 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2408 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2410 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2411 unless you force the choice using the `--compress-choice` (`--zc`) option.
2413 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2416 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2417 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2418 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2419 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2420 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2422 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2423 RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable compression
2424 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
2425 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
2426 If the string (or string portion) contains no
2427 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2428 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2429 names results in a failed negotiation.
2431 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2432 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2433 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2434 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2437 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2439 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2440 compression algorithm that occurs when `--compress` is used. The option
2441 implies `--compress` unless "none" was specified, which instead implies
2444 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2452 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2453 version (which may differ from the list above).
2455 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2456 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2457 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2458 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2459 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2461 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2462 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2463 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2465 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2467 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see `--compress`, `-z`)
2468 instead of letting it default. The `--compress` option is implied as long
2469 as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the compression
2470 algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level 0 as
2473 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2474 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2475 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a `--compress-choice`
2476 (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the choice in effect. For example:
2478 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2480 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2481 the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
2482 `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
2484 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2485 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2487 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2489 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2490 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2491 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2492 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2494 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2495 `--debug=nstr` to see the "negotiated string" results. This will report
2496 something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the checksum
2499 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2501 **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
2502 changes, so this option has no effect.
2504 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2505 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2506 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
2507 no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
2508 changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
2509 reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
2511 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2512 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2515 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2516 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2517 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2519 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2521 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2522 matches 2 suffixes):
2524 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2526 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2529 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2628 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2629 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2630 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2635 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2636 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2638 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2639 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2640 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2643 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2644 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2645 instead. See also the comments on the "`use chroot`" setting in the
2646 rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how the chroot setting affects
2647 rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and what you
2650 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2652 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2653 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2654 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2655 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2656 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2657 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2658 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2659 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2660 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2663 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2665 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2666 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2667 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2669 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2670 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2671 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2672 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2673 match those in use on the receiving side.
2675 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2676 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2677 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2679 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2681 When the `--numeric-ids` option is used, the sender does not send any
2682 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2683 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
2684 nameless IDs to different values.
2686 For the `--usermap` option to have any effect, the `-o` (`--owner`) option
2687 must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running as a
2688 super-user (see also the `--fake-super` option). For the `--groupmap`
2689 option to have any effect, the `-g` (`--group`) option must be used (or
2690 implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that group.
2692 The `--usermap` option implies the `--owner` option while the `--groupmap`
2693 option implies the `--group` option.
2695 An older rsync client may need to use `--protect-args` (`-s`) to avoid a
2696 complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles this
2699 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
2701 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2702 a simpler interface than using `--usermap` and `--groupmap` directly, but
2703 it is implemented using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
2704 If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the omitted user/group
2705 will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may be omitted, but if
2706 USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2708 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
2709 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (with the same implied
2710 `--owner` and/or `--group` option).
2712 An older rsync client may need to use `--protect-args` (`-s`) to avoid a
2713 complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles this
2716 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
2718 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2719 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2720 0, which means no timeout.
2722 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
2724 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
2725 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
2726 rsync exits with an error.
2728 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
2730 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
2731 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
2732 address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this option in the `--daemon`
2737 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
2738 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
2739 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
2740 the port as a part of the URL). See also this option in the `--daemon`
2743 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
2745 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
2746 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
2747 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the man page for the
2748 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
2749 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
2750 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
2752 This option also exists in the `--daemon` mode section.
2756 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
2757 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
2758 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
2759 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2763 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
2764 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
2765 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2767 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2768 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2770 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
2772 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
2773 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
2774 `--out-format='%i %n%L'`. If you repeat the option, unchanged files will
2775 also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7
2776 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the
2777 output of other verbose messages).
2779 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
2780 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
2781 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
2782 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
2784 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
2786 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
2787 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
2789 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
2790 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
2791 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
2793 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
2794 attributes that are being modified).
2795 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
2798 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
2799 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
2800 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
2802 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
2803 have changed, as follows:
2805 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
2806 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
2807 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
2808 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
2809 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
2811 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
2813 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
2814 `--checksum`) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a changed
2815 value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1,
2816 this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular
2818 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
2819 by the file transfer.
2820 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
2821 the sender's value (requires `--times`). An alternate value of `T` means
2822 that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which
2823 happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without `--times` and when
2824 a symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time. (Note: when
2825 using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the `s` flag combined with `t`
2826 instead of the proper `T` flag for this time-setting failure.)
2827 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
2828 sender's value (requires `--perms`).
2829 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
2830 value (requires `--owner` and super-user privileges).
2831 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
2832 value (requires `--group` and the authority to set the group).
2833 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information: `u` means the access
2834 (use) time is different and is being updated to the sender's value
2835 (requires `--atimes`); `n` means the create time (newness) is different
2836 and is being updated to the sender's value (requires `--crtimes`); `b`
2837 means that both the access and create times are being updated.
2838 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
2839 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
2841 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
2842 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
2843 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
2844 outputting them as a verbose message).
2846 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
2848 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
2849 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
2850 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
2851 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either `--info=name`
2852 or `-v` is specified (this tells you just the name of the file and, if the
2853 item is a link, where it points). For a full list of the possible escape
2854 characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2856 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the `--info=name` option,
2857 which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
2858 way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
2859 directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
2860 the string (e.g. if the `--itemize-changes` option was used), the logging
2861 of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
2862 as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the `--itemize-changes`
2863 option for a description of the output of "%i".
2865 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
2866 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
2867 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
2868 is in effect and `--progress` is also specified, rsync will also output the
2869 name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
2870 (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
2872 0. `--log-file=FILE`
2874 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
2875 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
2876 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
2877 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
2878 of "%i %n%L". See the `--log-file-format` option if you wish to override
2881 Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
2884 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
2886 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
2889 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
2891 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
2892 file specified by the `--log-file` option (which must also be specified for
2893 this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty string, updated
2894 files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the possible
2895 escape characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2897 The default FORMAT used if `--log-file` is specified and this option is not
2902 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
2903 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
2904 your data. This option is equivalent to `--info=stats2` if combined with 0
2905 or 1 `-v` options, or `--info=stats3` if combined with 2 or more `-v`
2908 The current statistics are as follows:
2910 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
2911 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
2912 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
2913 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
2914 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
2915 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
2916 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
2917 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
2918 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2919 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
2920 sense) were deleted. The total count will be
2921 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2922 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
2923 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
2924 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
2925 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
2926 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
2928 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
2929 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
2930 include the size of symlinks.
2931 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
2932 just the transferred files.
2933 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
2934 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
2935 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
2937 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
2938 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
2939 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
2941 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
2942 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
2943 sending side for this to be present.
2944 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
2945 sending the file list to the receiver.
2946 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
2947 client side to the server side.
2948 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
2949 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
2950 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
2951 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
2953 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
2955 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
2956 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
2957 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
2958 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
2960 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
2961 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
2962 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
2963 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
2965 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
2967 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible
2968 levels: (1) output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits
2969 (either a comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is
2970 represented by a period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
2971 (with a character suffix for larger units -- see below); (3) output
2972 numbers in units of 1024.
2974 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
2975 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
2976 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
2978 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
2979 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
2980 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
2983 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
2984 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
2985 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
2986 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
2987 to one or more `-h` options. See the `--list-only` option for one
2992 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
2993 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
2994 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
2995 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
2996 rest of the file much faster.
2998 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
3000 A better way to keep partial files than the `--partial` option is to
3001 specify a _DIR_ that will be used to hold the partial data (instead of
3002 writing it out to the destination file). On the next transfer, rsync will
3003 use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3004 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3006 Note that if `--whole-file` is specified (or implied), any partial-dir file
3007 that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
3008 (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer
3011 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
3012 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3013 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
3014 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
3015 remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that the directory
3016 is only removed if it is a relative pathname, as it is expected that an
3017 absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir work.
3019 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3020 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3021 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3022 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3023 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
3024 equivalent of "`-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`" at the end of any other filter
3027 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3028 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
3029 rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
3030 to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
3031 rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
3032 should specify `--delete-after` and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
3033 `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. (Avoid using `--delete-before` or
3034 `--delete-during` unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over
3035 partial-dir data during the current run.)
3037 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
3038 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
3040 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
3041 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force `--partial` to be
3042 enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when `--partial` is
3043 specified. For instance, instead of using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along
3044 with `--progress`, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
3045 environment and then just use the `-P` option to turn on the use of the
3046 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the `--partial`
3047 option does not look for this environment value are (1) when `--inplace`
3048 was specified (since `--inplace` conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and (2)
3049 when `--delay-updates` was specified (see below).
3051 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3052 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3053 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3054 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3057 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
3058 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply `--partial`. This is so that a refusal of
3059 the `--partial` option can be used to disallow the overwriting of
3060 destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the safer
3061 idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3063 0. `--delay-updates`
3065 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3066 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3067 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3068 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3069 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3070 you've specified the `--partial-dir` option, that directory will be used
3071 instead. See the comments in the `--partial-dir` section for a discussion
3072 of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you
3073 can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that might be lying
3074 around. Conflicts with `--inplace` and `--append`.
3076 This option implies `--no-inc-recursive` since it needs the full file list
3077 in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3079 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3080 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3081 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3082 should not use an absolute path to `--partial-dir` unless (1) there is no
3083 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
3084 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
3085 absolute) and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
3086 delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3088 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
3089 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses `--link-dest` and a
3090 parallel hierarchy of files).
3092 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3094 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3095 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3096 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3097 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3098 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3100 Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the `--min-size` option, does
3101 not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave
3102 directories empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the
3105 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3106 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3107 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3108 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3109 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3112 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3113 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3114 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3116 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3118 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3119 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3120 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3121 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3123 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3125 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3126 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3127 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3131 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3132 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3133 this is the same as specifying `--info=flist2,name,progress`, but any
3134 user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3135 "`--info=flist0 --progress`").
3137 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3140 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3142 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3143 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3144 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3145 is maintained until the end.
3147 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3148 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3149 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3150 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3151 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3152 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3154 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3155 summary line that looks like this:
3157 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3159 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3160 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3161 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3162 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3163 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3164 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3166 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3167 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3168 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3169 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3170 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3171 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3172 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3173 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3174 of the files added to the list).
3178 The `-P` option is equivalent to `--partial --progress`. Its purpose is
3179 to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer
3180 that may be interrupted.
3182 There is also a `--info=progress2` option that outputs statistics based on
3183 the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without
3184 outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify `--info=name0`) if you
3185 want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a
3186 lot of names. (You don't need to specify the `--progress` option in order
3187 to use `--info=progress2`.)
3189 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3190 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3191 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3192 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3193 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3194 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3195 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3196 followed by the `--info=progress2` format of progress info. If you don't
3197 know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3198 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3200 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3202 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3204 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3205 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3206 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3207 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3208 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3210 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3211 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3212 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3213 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3214 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3217 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3219 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3220 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3221 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3222 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3224 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3228 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3229 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3230 no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command
3231 that includes a destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be
3232 able to specify more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the
3233 destination). Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is
3234 expanded by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to
3235 list such an arg without using this option. For example:
3237 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3239 Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
3240 by the `--human-readable` option. By default they will contain digit
3241 separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes with
3242 unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output has
3243 increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
3244 `--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
3247 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3248 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3249 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the `--dirs`
3250 option w/o `--recursive`, and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
3251 avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs` option (if you don't
3252 need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude the
3253 content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3257 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3258 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3259 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3260 fractional value (e.g. "`--bwlimit=1.5m`"). If no suffix is specified, the
3261 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3262 been appended). See the `--max-size` option for a description of all the
3263 available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3265 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3266 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3269 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3270 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3271 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3272 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3275 Due to the internal buffering of data, the `--progress` option may not be
3276 an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because
3277 some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly
3278 buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the
3279 output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3281 0. `--stop-after=MINS`
3283 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3284 minutes has elapsed.
3286 Rsync also accepts an earlier version of this option: `--time-limit=MINS`.
3288 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3289 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3290 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3291 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3292 limit using `--remote-option` (`-M`), should the need arise.
3294 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
3296 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3297 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3298 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3299 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3302 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3303 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3304 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3305 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3306 time, rsync exits with an error.
3308 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3309 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3310 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3311 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3313 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3314 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3315 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3316 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3317 limit using `--remote-option` (`-M`), should the need arise. Do keep in
3318 mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone than your
3323 Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
3324 the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
3327 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3329 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3330 with `--read-batch`. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and also
3331 the `--only-write-batch` option.
3333 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3334 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3335 a more modern choice, use the `--checksum-choice` (`--cc`) and/or
3336 `--compress-choice` (`--zc`) options.
3338 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3340 Works like `--write-batch`, except that no updates are made on the
3341 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3342 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3343 changes via `--read-batch`.
3345 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3346 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3347 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3348 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3349 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3352 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3353 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3354 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3355 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3357 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3359 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3360 `--write-batch`. If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read from
3361 standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3365 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3366 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3367 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the `--write-batch` option, but
3368 rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the `--read-batch` option, you
3369 should use "--protocol=28" when creating the batch file to force the older
3370 protocol version to be used in the batch file (assuming you can't upgrade
3371 the rsync on the reading system).
3373 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3375 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3376 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3377 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3378 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3379 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3380 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3381 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3382 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3383 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the RSYNC_ICONV
3384 environment variable.
3386 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3387 run "`iconv --list`".
3389 If you specify the `--protect-args` option (`-s`), rsync will translate the
3390 filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the remote
3391 host. See also the `--files-from` option.
3393 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3394 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3395 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3396 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3397 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3399 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3400 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3401 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3402 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3405 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3407 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3408 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3409 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3410 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3411 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3412 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever ipv4/ipv6 hint options
3415 These options also exist in the `--daemon` mode section.
3417 If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3418 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3421 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3423 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3424 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3425 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3426 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3427 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3428 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3429 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3430 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3434 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3438 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3439 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3440 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3442 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3443 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3444 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3445 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly. See the
3446 **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page for more details.
3448 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3450 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3451 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3452 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3453 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option. See also the "address"
3454 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3458 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3459 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3460 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed. See the client
3461 version of this option (above) for some extra details.
3465 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3466 relevant when `--daemon` is specified. The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf
3467 unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program and the remote
3468 user is not the super-user; in that case the default is rsyncd.conf in the
3469 current directory (typically $HOME).
3471 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3473 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3474 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3475 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3476 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3479 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3483 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3484 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3485 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3486 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3487 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3488 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3492 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3493 rather than the default of 873. See also the "port" global option in the
3494 rsyncd.conf manpage.
3496 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3498 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3499 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3501 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3503 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3504 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3505 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3506 logging is turned off.
3510 This overrides the `socket options` setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has
3513 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3515 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3516 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3517 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3518 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3520 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3522 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3523 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3524 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3525 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3526 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3529 These options also exist in the regular rsync options section.
3531 If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3532 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3537 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3538 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3542 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
3543 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify
3544 include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude
3545 patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
3547 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name
3548 to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the
3549 first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file
3550 is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if
3551 no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.
3553 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line.
3554 Filter rules have the following syntax:
3556 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3557 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3559 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
3560 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
3561 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
3562 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Here are the
3563 available rule prefixes:
3565 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern.
3566 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern.
3567 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
3568 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file.
3569 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
3570 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden.
3571 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
3572 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected.
3573 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
3575 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
3576 whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules that contain a hash
3579 [comment]: # (Remember that markdown strips spaces from start/end of ` ... ` sequences!)
3580 [comment]: # (Thus, the `x ` sequences below use a literal non-breakable space!)
3582 Note that the `--include` & `--exclude` command-line options do not allow the
3583 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
3584 specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "`!`" token to clear the
3585 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a
3586 pattern does not begin with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
3587 the rule will be interpreted as if "`+Â `" (for an include option) or "`-Â `"
3588 (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A `--filter` option, on
3589 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
3592 Note also that the `--filter`, `--include`, and `--exclude` options take one
3593 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on the
3594 command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the `--filter` option, or the
3595 `--include-from` / `--exclude-from` options.
3597 # INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES
3599 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+", "-",
3600 etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The
3601 include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against the names
3602 of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several
3605 - if the pattern starts with a `/` then it is anchored to a particular spot in
3606 the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the
3607 pathname. This is similar to a leading `^` in regular expressions. Thus
3608 `/foo` would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for
3609 a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule).
3610 An unqualified `foo` would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because
3611 the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each
3612 path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the
3613 unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo"
3614 was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING
3615 INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern
3616 that matches at the root of the transfer.
3617 - if the pattern ends with a `/` then it will only match a directory, not a
3618 regular file, symlink, or device.
3619 - rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
3620 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters:
3621 '`*`', '`?`', and '`[`' .
3622 - a '`*`' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
3623 - use '`**`' to match anything, including slashes.
3624 - a '`?`' matches any character except a slash (`/`).
3625 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`.
3626 - in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
3627 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. This
3628 means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a pattern
3629 contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none. e.g. if
3630 you add a wildcard to "`foo\bar`" (which matches the backslash) you would
3631 need to use "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
3632 - if the pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing /) or a "`**`", then it
3633 is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If
3634 the pattern doesn't contain a `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched only against
3635 the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied
3636 recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the
3637 starting directory on down.)
3638 - a trailing "`dir_name/***`" will match both the directory (as if "dir_name/"
3639 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
3640 had been specified). This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.
3642 Note that, when using the `--recursive` (`-r`) option (which is implied by
3643 `-a`), every subdir component of every path is visited left to right, with each
3644 directory having a chance for exclusion before its content. In this way
3645 include/exclude patterns are applied recursively to the pathname of each node
3646 in the filesystem's tree (those inside the transfer). The exclude patterns
3647 short-circuit the directory traversal stage as rsync finds the files to send.
3649 For instance, to include "`/foo/bar/baz`", the directories "`/foo`" and "`/foo/bar`"
3650 must not be excluded. Excluding one of those parent directories prevents the
3651 examination of its content, cutting off rsync's recursion into those paths and
3652 rendering the include for "`/foo/bar/baz`" ineffectual (since rsync can't match
3653 something it never sees in the cut-off section of the directory hierarchy).
3655 The concept path exclusion is particularly important when using a trailing '`*`'
3656 rule. For instance, this won't work:
3658 > + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
3659 > + /file-is-included
3662 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '`*`' rule, so
3663 rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" directories.
3664 One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by
3665 using a single rule: "`+ */`" (put it somewhere before the "`- *`" rule), and
3666 perhaps use the `--prune-empty-dirs` option. Another solution is to add
3667 specific include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
3668 instance, this set of rules works fine:
3672 > + /some/path/this-file-is-found
3673 > + /file-also-included
3676 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
3678 - "`- *.o`" would exclude all names matching `*.o`
3679 - "`- /foo`" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root
3681 - "`- foo/`" would exclude any directory named foo
3682 - "`- /foo/*/bar`" would exclude any file named bar which is at two levels
3683 below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3684 - "`- /foo/**/bar`" would exclude any file named bar two or more levels below a
3685 directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3686 - The combination of "`+ */`", "`+ *.c`", and "`- *`" would include all
3687 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
3688 `--prune-empty-dirs` option)
3689 - The combination of "`+ foo/`", "`+ foo/bar.c`", and "`- *`" would include
3690 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly
3691 included or it would be excluded by the "`*`")
3693 The following modifiers are accepted after a "`+`" or "`-`":
3695 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
3696 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, "`-/ /etc/passwd`" would
3697 exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from the
3698 "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is
3699 in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
3701 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
3702 fails to match. For instance, "`-! */`" would exclude all non-directories.
3703 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
3704 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
3705 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
3706 rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from being transferred. The
3707 default is for a rule to affect both sides unless `--delete-excluded` was
3708 specified, in which case default rules become sender-side only. See also the
3709 hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify
3710 sending-side includes/excludes.
3711 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
3712 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
3713 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
3714 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
3715 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
3716 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the `-C` option's default
3717 rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable,
3718 and will not prevent a directory that was removed on the source from being
3719 deleted on the destination.
3720 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
3721 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
3722 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
3723 (see the `--xattrs` option).
3725 # MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
3727 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
3728 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
3731 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
3732 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
3733 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
3734 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
3735 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
3736 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
3737 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
3738 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
3739 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
3740 (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE below).
3744 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
3745 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
3746 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
3747 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
3748 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
3750 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
3752 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
3753 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
3754 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
3755 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
3756 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
3757 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
3758 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
3760 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
3761 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
3762 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
3763 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
3764 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
3765 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
3766 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
3767 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
3768 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
3769 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
3770 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
3771 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
3772 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
3773 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
3774 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
3777 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
3778 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
3779 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
3780 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
3781 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
3782 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
3783 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
3784 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
3785 the current merge file.
3787 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
3788 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
3789 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
3790 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
3793 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
3795 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
3802 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
3803 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
3804 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
3805 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
3808 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
3809 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
3810 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
3811 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see `-F`):
3813 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
3815 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
3816 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
3817 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
3818 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
3819 same as the module's "path".)
3821 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
3823 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
3824 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
3825 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
3827 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
3828 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
3829 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
3830 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
3832 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
3833 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
3834 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
3835 `--cvs-exclude` (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory .cvsignore file
3836 gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you like in your
3837 filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule for the
3838 .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower priority
3839 than your command-line rules). For example:
3842 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
3847 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
3850 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
3851 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
3852 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
3853 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
3854 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
3855 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
3856 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
3859 # LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
3861 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
3862 introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current" list is either
3863 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
3864 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
3865 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
3867 # ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
3869 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
3870 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
3871 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
3872 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
3873 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
3874 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
3876 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
3877 slash on a source path or changing your use of the `--relative` option affects
3878 the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of
3879 the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following examples
3882 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
3883 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
3884 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
3887 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
3888 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
3889 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
3890 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
3891 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
3895 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
3896 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
3897 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
3898 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
3899 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
3903 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
3904 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
3905 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
3906 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
3907 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
3911 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
3912 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
3913 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
3914 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
3915 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
3918 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
3919 look at the output when using `--verbose` and put a / in front of the name
3920 (use the `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
3922 # PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
3924 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
3925 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
3926 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
3927 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
3929 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
3930 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
3932 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
3933 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
3934 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
3935 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use `--delete-after`, because
3936 this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as the
3937 sending side before it tries to delete anything:
3939 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
3941 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
3942 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
3943 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
3944 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
3945 exclude themselves):
3947 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
3948 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
3950 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
3951 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
3952 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
3953 per-directory merge rule.
3955 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
3956 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
3957 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
3958 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
3959 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
3960 one of these commands:
3963 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
3964 > host:src/dir /dest
3965 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
3970 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
3971 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
3972 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
3973 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
3974 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
3975 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
3976 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
3977 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
3979 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
3980 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
3981 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
3982 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
3983 same data to every host individually.
3985 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
3986 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
3987 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
3988 stored in the batch file.
3990 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
3991 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
3992 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
3993 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
3994 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
3995 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
3996 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
3997 used to create the batch file.
4001 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4002 > $ scp foo* remote:
4003 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4005 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4006 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4008 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4009 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4010 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4011 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4012 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4014 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
4015 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4016 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4017 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4018 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4019 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4020 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4021 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified `--read-batch`
4022 option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to make use of it
4023 (just be sure that no other option is trying to use standard input, such as
4024 the "`--exclude-from=-`" option).
4028 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4029 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4030 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4031 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4032 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4033 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4034 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4035 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4036 size and date, use the `-I` option (when reading the batch). If an error
4037 occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated state. In
4038 that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to
4039 fix up the destination tree.
4041 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4042 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4043 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4044 See also the `--protocol` option for a way to have the creating rsync generate
4045 a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch files
4046 changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with newer
4047 versions will not work.)
4049 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4050 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4051 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4052 instance `--write-batch` changes to `--read-batch`, `--files-from` is dropped,
4053 and the `--filter` / `--include` / `--exclude` options are not needed unless
4054 one of the `--delete` options is specified.
4056 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4057 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4058 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4059 change in what gets deleted by `--delete` is desired. A normal user can ignore
4060 this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the appropriate
4061 `--read-batch` command for the batched data.
4063 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4064 version uses a new implementation.
4068 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4069 link in the source directory.
4071 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4072 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4074 If `--links` is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same target on
4075 the destination. Note that `--archive` implies `--links`.
4077 If `--copy-links` is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4078 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4080 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4081 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4082 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4083 the public section of the site. Using `--copy-unsafe-links` will cause any
4084 links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4085 `--safe-links` will cause unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you
4086 must specify `--links` for `--safe-links` to have any effect.)
4088 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
4089 (start with `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
4090 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
4092 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4093 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4094 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4096 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no symlinks for
4097 any other options to affect).
4098 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and
4099 duplicate all safe symlinks.
4100 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily skip all
4102 0. `--links --safe-links` Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.
4103 0. `--links` Duplicate all symlinks.
4107 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4108 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4111 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4112 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4113 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4115 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4117 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4118 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4119 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4120 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4121 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4122 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4124 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4125 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4126 file is included or excluded.
4131 0. **1** Syntax or usage error
4132 0. **2** Protocol incompatibility
4133 0. **3** Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4134 0. **4** Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipulate
4135 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an option was
4136 specified that is supported by the client and not by the server.
4137 0. **5** Error starting client-server protocol
4138 0. **6** Daemon unable to append to log-file
4139 0. **10** Error in socket I/O
4140 0. **11** Error in file I/O
4141 0. **12** Error in rsync protocol data stream
4142 0. **13** Errors with program diagnostics
4143 0. **14** Error in IPC code
4144 0. **20** Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4145 0. **21** Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4146 0. **22** Error allocating core memory buffers
4147 0. **23** Partial transfer due to error
4148 0. **24** Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4149 0. **25** The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4150 0. **30** Timeout in data send/receive
4151 0. **35** Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4153 # ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4157 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4158 .cvsignore files. See the `--cvs-exclude` option for more details.
4162 Specify a default `--iconv` setting using this environment variable. (First
4163 supported in 3.0.0.)
4167 Specify a "1" if you want the `--old-args` option to be enabled by default,
4168 a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the option-repeated state,
4169 or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by default. (First supported in
4172 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4174 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the `--protect-args` option to
4175 be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is disabled by
4176 default. (First supported in 3.1.0.)
4180 The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to override the default shell
4181 used as the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after
4182 the command name, just as in the `-e` option.
4186 The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4187 client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync daemon. You should
4188 set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
4192 Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password allows you to run
4193 authenticated rsync connections to an rsync daemon without user
4194 intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to a remote shell
4195 transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's
4198 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4200 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4201 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4206 The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4211 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4215 **rsync-ssl**(1), **rsyncd.conf**(5)
4219 times are transferred as \*nix time_t values
4221 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
4223 See the comments on the `--modify-window` option.
4225 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
4228 see also the comments on the `--delete` option
4230 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4234 This man page is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4238 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4239 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4240 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4241 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4242 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4243 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4247 rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4248 COPYING for details.
4250 A web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site includes an
4251 FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual page.
4253 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4254 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4256 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4257 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4261 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4262 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4263 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4265 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4266 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4270 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4271 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4274 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4275 <https://lists.samba.org/>.