3 rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
9 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
11 Access via remote shell:
13 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
15 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
17 Access via rsync daemon:
19 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
22 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
23 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26 Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
29 The online version of this manpage (that includes cross-linking of topics)
30 is available at <https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1>.
34 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
35 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
36 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
37 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
38 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
39 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
40 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
41 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
44 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
45 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
46 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
47 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
48 the file's data does not need to be updated.
50 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
52 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
53 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
54 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
55 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
56 - does not require super-user privileges
57 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
58 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
62 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
63 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
65 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
66 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
67 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
68 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
69 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
70 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
71 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the [USING
72 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) section for an
73 exception to this latter rule).
75 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
76 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
78 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
79 the copy occurs locally (see also the [`--list-only`](#opt) option).
81 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
82 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
83 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
87 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
89 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
90 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
91 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
92 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
93 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
95 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the [`-e`](#opt)
96 command line option, or by setting the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#) environment variable.
98 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
102 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
103 destination, one of which may be remote.
105 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
107 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
109 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
110 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
111 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
112 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
113 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
114 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
115 same as all other Posix-style programs).
117 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
119 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
121 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
122 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
123 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
126 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
128 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
130 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
131 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
134 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
136 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
137 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
139 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
140 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
141 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
143 > rsync -av host: /dest
144 > rsync -av host::module /dest
146 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
147 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
148 improved copy command.
150 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
151 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
153 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
155 See the following section for more details.
157 ## SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
159 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
160 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
161 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames. It can, however,
162 confuse someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what
163 was given on the command-line.
165 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
166 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
167 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
168 does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
172 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
173 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
174 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
176 > rsync -aiv host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
177 > rsync -aiv host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/extra /dest/
178 > rsync -aiv host::modname/first ::modname/extra{1,2} /dest/
180 Really old versions of rsync (2.6.9 and before) only allowed specifying one
181 remote-source arg, so some people have instead relied on the remote-shell
182 performing space splitting to break up an arg into multiple paths. Such
183 unintuitive behavior is no longer supported by default (though you can request
184 it, as described below).
186 Starting in 3.2.4, filenames are passed to a remote shell in such a way as to
187 preserve the characters you give it. Thus, if you ask for a file with spaces
188 in the name, that's what the remote rsync looks for:
190 > rsync -aiv host:'a simple file.pdf' /dest/
192 If you use scripts that have been written to manually apply extra quoting to
193 the remote rsync args (or to require remote arg splitting), you can ask rsync
194 to let your script handle the extra escaping. This is done by either adding
195 the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to the rsync runs in the script (which requires
196 a new rsync) or exporting [RSYNC_OLD_ARGS](#)=1 and [RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS](#)=0
197 (which works with old or new rsync versions).
199 ## CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
201 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
202 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
203 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
204 system, so refer to the [STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS](#)
205 section below for information on that.)
207 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
210 - you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
211 hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
212 - the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
213 - the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
214 - if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
215 paths on the daemon will be shown.
216 - if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
217 the remote daemon is provided.
218 - you must not specify the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option (since that overrides
219 the daemon connection to use ssh -- see [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
220 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) below).
222 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
224 > rsync -av host::src /dest
226 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
227 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
228 by setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_PASSWORD`](#) to the password you
229 want to use or using the [`--password-file`](#opt) option. This may be useful
230 when scripting rsync.
232 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
233 those systems using [`--password-file`](#opt) is recommended.
235 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
236 variable [`RSYNC_PROXY`](#) to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy.
237 Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port
240 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
241 setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#) to the commands you
242 wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
243 contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
244 command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
246 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
247 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
248 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
250 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
251 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
253 Note also that if the [`RSYNC_SHELL`](#) environment variable is set, that
254 program will be used to run the `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG` command instead of using
255 the default shell of the **system()** call.
257 ## USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
259 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
260 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
261 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
262 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
263 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
264 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
265 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
266 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
267 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
268 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
269 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
271 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
272 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
273 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
274 program on the command-line with the [`--rsh=COMMAND`](#opt) option. (Setting the
275 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
277 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
279 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
280 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
281 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
282 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
283 example that uses the short version of the [`--rsh`](#opt) option:
285 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
287 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
288 log-in to the "module".
290 In this setup, the daemon is started by the ssh command that is accessing the
291 system (which can be forced via the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file, if desired).
292 However, when accessing a daemon directly, it needs to be started beforehand.
294 ## STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
296 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
297 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
298 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
299 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
300 connections, see the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage -- that is
301 the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run
302 the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
304 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
305 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
309 Here are some examples of how rsync can be used.
311 To backup a home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail
312 folders, a per-user cron job can be used that runs this each day:
314 > rsync -aiz . bkhost:backup/joe/
316 To move some files from a remote host to the local host, you could run:
318 > rsync -aiv --remove-source-files rhost:/tmp/{file1,file2}.c ~/src/
322 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Each option also
323 has its own detailed description later in this manpage.
325 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
326 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
329 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
330 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
331 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
332 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
333 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
334 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
335 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
336 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
337 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
338 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
339 --relative, -R use relative path names
340 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
341 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
342 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
343 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
344 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
345 --inplace update destination files in-place
346 --append append data onto shorter files
347 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
348 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
349 --old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
350 --mkpath create the destination's path component
351 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
352 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
353 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
354 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
355 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
356 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
357 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
358 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
359 --perms, -p preserve permissions
360 --executability, -E preserve executability
361 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
362 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
363 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
364 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
365 --group, -g preserve group
366 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
367 --copy-devices copy device contents as a regular file
368 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
369 --specials preserve special files
370 -D same as --devices --specials
371 --times, -t preserve modification times
372 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
373 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
374 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
375 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
376 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
377 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
378 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
379 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
380 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
381 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
382 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
383 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
384 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
385 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
386 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
387 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
388 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
389 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
390 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
391 --del an alias for --delete-during
392 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
393 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
394 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
395 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
396 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
397 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
398 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
399 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
400 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
401 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
402 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
403 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
404 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
405 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
406 --partial keep partially transferred files
407 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
408 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
409 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
410 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
411 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
412 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
413 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
414 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
415 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
416 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
417 --size-only skip files that match in size
418 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
419 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
420 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
421 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
422 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
423 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
424 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
425 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
426 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
427 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
428 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
429 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
430 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
431 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
432 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
433 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
434 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
435 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
436 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
437 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
438 --old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
439 --protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
440 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
441 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
442 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
443 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
444 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
445 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
446 --stats give some file-transfer stats
447 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
448 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
449 --progress show progress during transfer
450 -P same as --partial --progress
451 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
452 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
453 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
454 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
455 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
456 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
457 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
458 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
459 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
460 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
461 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
462 --fsync fsync every written file
463 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
464 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
465 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
466 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
467 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
468 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
469 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
470 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
471 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
472 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
475 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
478 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
481 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
482 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
483 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
484 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
485 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
486 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
487 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
488 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
489 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
490 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
491 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
492 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
493 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
494 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
499 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
500 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
501 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
502 Some options only have a long variant, not a short.
504 If the option takes a parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long
505 variant, even though it must also be specified for the short. When specifying
506 a parameter, you can either use the form `--option=param`, `--option param`,
507 `-o=param`, `-o param`, or `-oparam` (the latter choices assume that your
508 option has a short variant).
510 The parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the
511 shell's command-line parsing. Also keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in
512 a pathname is substituted by your shell, so make sure that you separate the
513 option name from the pathname using a space if you want the shell to expand it.
515 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
519 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
520 You can also use `-h` for `--help` when it is used without any other
521 options (since it normally means [`--human-readable`](#opt)).
525 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
527 The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
528 list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
529 to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
533 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
534 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
535 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
536 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
537 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
538 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
540 The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
541 rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
542 received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
543 transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
544 second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
545 file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
546 value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
547 sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
548 number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
549 human-readable by using the [`--human-readable`](#opt) (or
550 `--no-human-readable`) options.
552 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
553 of [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) options. You can choose to use
554 these newer options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as
555 any fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both
556 [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) have a way to ask for help that
557 tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
559 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
560 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
561 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
562 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
563 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
567 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
568 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
569 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
570 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
571 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
572 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
573 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
575 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
576 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
578 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the [`--out-format`](#opt)
579 and [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options. See those options for more
580 information on what is output and when.
582 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
583 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
584 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
585 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
589 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
590 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
591 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
592 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
593 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
594 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
595 the verbose level. Some examples:
597 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
598 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
600 Note that some debug messages will only be output when the [`--stderr=all`](#opt)
601 option is specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
603 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
604 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
605 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
606 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
607 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
608 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
610 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
612 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
614 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
615 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
616 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
618 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
619 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
620 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
621 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
622 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
625 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
626 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
627 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
628 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
629 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
630 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
631 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows [`--debug`](#opt) to
632 enable some extra I/O related messages.
634 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
635 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
636 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
637 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
638 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
639 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
640 been around for several releases.
642 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
643 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
644 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
645 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
646 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
650 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
651 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
652 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
656 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
657 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
658 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
659 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
660 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
663 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
665 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
666 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
667 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
669 This option can be confusing compared to [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) and
670 [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) in that that they cause rsync to transfer
671 fewer files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
675 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
676 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
677 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
678 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
679 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
682 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
684 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
685 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
686 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
687 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
688 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
689 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
690 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
692 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
693 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
695 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
696 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
698 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
699 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
700 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
702 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
704 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
705 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
706 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
707 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
708 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
709 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
710 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
711 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
712 transfer changed files)
714 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
715 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
716 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
717 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
718 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
720 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
721 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
722 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
723 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
724 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
726 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
727 can be overridden using either the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`)
728 option or an environment variable that is discussed in that option's
733 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
734 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
735 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
736 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
738 The only exception to the above equivalence is when [`--files-from`](#opt)
739 is specified, in which case [`-r`](#opt) is not implied.
743 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
744 with "no-". Not all positive options have a negated opposite, but a lot
745 do, including those that can be used to disable an implied option (e.g.
746 `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have different defaults in various circumstances
747 (e.g. [`--no-whole-file`](#opt), `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). Every
748 valid negated option accepts both the short and the long option name after
749 the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as `--no-relative`).
751 As an example, if you want to use [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) but don't want
752 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you
753 can specify `-a --no-o` (aka `--archive --no-owner`).
755 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the `-r`
756 option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`. Note
757 also that the side-effects of the [`--files-from`](#opt) option are NOT
758 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
759 changes the meaning of [`-a`](#opt) (see the [`--files-from`](#opt) option
762 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
764 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also
765 [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) for an option that allows the scanning of a single
768 See the [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) option for a discussion of the
769 incremental recursion for creating the list of files to transfer.
771 0. `--inc-recursive`, `--i-r`
773 This option explicitly enables on incremental recursion when scanning for
774 files, which is enabled by default when using the [`--recursive`](#opt)
775 option and both sides of the transfer are running rsync 3.0.0 or newer.
777 Incremental recursion uses much less memory than non-incremental, while
778 also beginning the transfer more quickly (since it doesn't need to scan the
779 entire transfer hierarchy before it starts transferring files). If no
780 recursion is enabled in the source files, this option has no effect.
782 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
783 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include:
784 - [`--delete-before`](#opt) (the old default of [`--delete`](#opt))
785 - [`--delete-after`](#opt)
786 - [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt)
787 - [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
789 In order to make [`--delete`](#opt) compatible with incremental recursion,
790 rsync 3.0.0 made [`--delete-during`](#opt) the default delete mode (which
791 was first added in 2.6.4).
793 One side-effect of incremental recursion is that any missing
794 sub-directories inside a recursively-scanned directory are (by default)
795 created prior to recursing into the sub-dirs. This earlier creation point
796 (compared to a non-incremental recursion) allows rsync to then set the
797 modify time of the finished directory right away (without having to delay
798 that until a bunch of recursive copying has finished). However, these
799 early directories don't yet have their completed mode, mtime, or ownership
800 set -- they have more restrictive rights until the subdirectory's copying
801 actually begins. This early-creation idiom can be avoiding by using the
802 [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option.
804 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the
805 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) (`--no-i-r`) option.
807 0. `--no-inc-recursive`, `--no-i-r`
809 Disables the new incremental recursion algorithm of the
810 [`--recursive`](#opt) option. This makes rsync scan the full file list
811 before it begins to transfer files. See [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) for more
814 0. `--relative`, `-R`
816 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
817 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
818 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
819 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
822 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
824 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
827 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
829 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
830 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
831 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
834 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
835 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
836 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
837 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
838 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
839 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
840 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
841 the [`--no-implied-dirs`](#opt) option.
843 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
844 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
845 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
846 the source path, like this:
848 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
850 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
851 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
852 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
853 path. For example, when pushing files:
855 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
857 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
858 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
859 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
860 non-daemon transfer):
862 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
863 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
865 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
867 This option affects the default behavior of the [`--relative`](#opt) option. When
868 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
869 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
870 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
871 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
872 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
873 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
875 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
876 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
877 are implied when [`--relative`](#opt) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
878 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
879 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
880 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
881 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
882 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
883 preservation is to use the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option (which will also affect
884 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
886 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
887 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
888 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
892 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
893 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
894 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the [`--backup-dir`](#opt) and
895 [`--suffix`](#opt) options.
897 If you don't specify [`--backup-dir`](#opt):
899 1. the [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option will be forced on
900 2. the use of [`--delete`](#opt) (without [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)),
901 causes rsync to add a "protect" [filter-rule](#FILTER_RULES) for the
902 backup suffix to the end of all your existing filters that looks like
903 this: `-f "P *~"`. This rule prevents previously backed-up files from
906 Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to
907 manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the
908 list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g. if your
909 rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule
910 would never be reached).
912 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
914 This implies the [`--backup`](#opt) option, and tells rsync to store all
915 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
916 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
917 using the [`--suffix`](#opt) option (otherwise the files backed up in the
918 specified directory will keep their original filenames).
920 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
921 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
922 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
923 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
924 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
928 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
929 [`--backup`](#opt) (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no
930 [`--backup-dir`](#opt) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
934 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
935 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
936 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
937 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
939 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
940 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
941 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
942 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
943 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
944 regardless of the timestamps.
946 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
947 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
948 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
950 A caution for those that choose to combine [`--inplace`](#opt) with
951 `--update`: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the
952 receiving side that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the
953 transfer will probably **not** continue the interrupted file. As such, it
954 is usually best to avoid combining this with[ `--inplace`](#opt) unless you
955 have implemented manual steps to handle any interrupted in-progress files.
959 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
960 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
961 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
962 updated data directly to the destination file.
964 This has several effects:
966 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
967 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
968 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
969 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
971 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
972 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
974 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
975 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
977 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
978 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
979 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
980 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
981 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
982 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use [`--backup`](#opt),
983 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
986 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
987 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
989 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
990 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
991 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
992 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
994 The option implies [`--partial`](#opt) (since an interrupted transfer does
995 not delete the file), but conflicts with [`--partial-dir`](#opt) and
996 [`--delay-updates`](#opt). Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also
997 incompatible with [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
1001 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
1002 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
1003 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
1004 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
1005 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
1006 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
1008 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
1009 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
1010 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
1011 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
1012 that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
1013 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
1014 "diminished" file when this happens).
1016 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
1017 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
1018 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
1021 0. `--append-verify`
1023 This special copy mode works like [`--append`](#opt) except that all the
1024 data in the file is included in the checksum verification (making it less
1025 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
1026 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
1027 files. See the [`--append`](#opt) option for more details.
1029 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the [`--append`](#opt) option worked like
1030 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
1031 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
1032 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
1036 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
1037 Unlike [`--recursive`](#opt), a directory's contents are not copied unless
1038 the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g.
1039 ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
1040 [`--recursive`](#opt) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters
1041 (and output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
1042 `--dirs` and [`--recursive`](#opt), `--recursive` takes precedence.
1044 The `--dirs` option is implied by the [`--files-from`](#opt) option or the
1045 [`--list-only`](#opt) option (including an implied [`--list-only`](#opt)
1046 usage) if [`--recursive`](#opt) wasn't specified (so that directories are
1047 seen in the listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to
1050 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs`
1051 (`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
1052 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1056 Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1057 to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1058 in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1059 supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1060 treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1061 same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1064 For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1065 directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1067 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1069 If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1070 sub/dir/bar directory:
1072 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1076 Add symlinks to the transferred files instead of noisily ignoring them with
1077 a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink encountered. You can
1078 alternately silence the warning by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1080 The default handling of symlinks is to recreate each symlink's unchanged
1081 value on the receiving side.
1083 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1085 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1087 The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
1088 referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
1089 references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
1090 is dropped from the transfer.
1092 This option supersedes any other options that affect symlinks in the
1093 transfer, since there are no symlinks left in the transfer.
1095 This option does not change the handling of existing symlinks on the
1096 receiving side, unlike versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3 which had the
1097 side-effect of telling the receiving side to also follow symlinks. A
1098 modern rsync won't forward this option to a remote receiver (since only the
1099 sender needs to know about it), so this caveat should only affect someone
1100 using an rsync client older than 2.6.7 (which is when `-L` stopped being
1101 forwarded to the receiver).
1103 See the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) (`-K`) if you need a symlink to a
1104 directory to be treated as a real directory on the receiving side.
1106 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1108 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1110 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1111 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1112 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when [`--relative`](#opt)
1115 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1116 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1117 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1118 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1119 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1120 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1121 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1124 Note that safe symlinks are only copied if [`--links`](#opt) was also
1125 specified or implied. The `--copy-unsafe-links` option has no extra effect
1126 when combined with [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1128 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1132 This tells the receiving rsync to ignore any symbolic links in the transfer
1133 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
1136 Since this ignoring is happening on the receiving side, it will still be
1137 effective even when the sending side has munged symlinks (when it is using
1138 [`--munge-links`](#opt)). It also affects deletions, since the file being
1139 present in the transfer prevents any matching file on the receiver from
1140 being deleted when the symlink is deemed to be unsafe and is skipped.
1142 This option must be combined with [`--links`](#opt) (or
1143 [`--archive`](#opt)) to have any symlinks in the transfer to conditionally
1144 ignore. Its effect is superseded by [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt).
1146 Using this option in conjunction with [`--relative`](#opt) may give
1149 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1153 This option affects just one side of the transfer and tells rsync to munge
1154 symlink values when it is receiving files or unmunge symlink values when it
1155 is sending files. The munged values make the symlinks unusable on disk but
1156 allows the original contents of the symlinks to be recovered.
1158 The server-side rsync often enables this option without the client's
1159 knowledge, such as in an rsync daemon's configuration file or by an option
1160 given to the rrsync (restricted rsync) script. When specified on the
1161 client side, specify the option normally if it is the client side that
1162 has/needs the munged symlinks, or use `-M--munge-links` to give the option
1163 to the server when it has/needs the munged symlinks. Note that on a local
1164 transfer, the client is the sender, so specifying the option directly
1165 unmunges symlinks while specifying it as a remote option munges symlinks.
1167 This option has no affect when sent to a daemon via [`--remote-option`](#opt)
1168 because the daemon configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
1169 "`munge symlinks`" parameter.
1171 The symlink value is munged/unmunged once it is in the transfer, so any
1172 option that transforms symlinks into non-symlinks occurs prior to the
1173 munging/unmunging **except** for [`--safe-links`](#opt), which is a choice
1174 that the receiver makes, so it bases its decision on the munged/unmunged
1175 value. This does mean that if a receiver has munging enabled, that using
1176 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause all symlinks to be ignored (since they
1179 The method that rsync uses to munge the symlinks is to prefix each one's
1180 value with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from
1181 being used as long as the directory does not exist. When this option is
1182 enabled, rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink
1183 to a directory (though it only checks at startup). See also the
1184 "munge-symlinks" python script in the support directory of the source code
1185 for a way to munge/unmunge one or more symlinks in-place.
1187 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1189 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1190 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1191 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using
1192 [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1194 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1195 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1196 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1197 [`--force`](#opt) or [`--delete`](#opt) is in effect).
1199 See also [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the
1202 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1203 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1204 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1205 [`--relative`](#opt) to make the paths match up right. For example:
1207 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1209 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1210 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1211 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1214 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1216 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1218 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1219 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1220 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1221 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1223 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1224 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1225 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1226 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1227 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1230 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1231 symlinks in the copy or enable the [`--munge-links`](#opt) option on the
1232 receiving side! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create their
1233 own symlink to any real directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1234 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1235 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1236 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1237 your receiving hierarchy.
1239 See also [`--copy-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the sending
1242 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1244 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1246 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1247 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1248 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1251 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1252 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1253 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1255 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1256 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1257 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1258 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1259 (unless you are using the [`--inplace`](#opt) option).
1260 - If you specify a [`--link-dest`](#opt) directory that contains hard
1261 links, the linking of the destination files against the
1262 [`--link-dest`](#opt) files can cause some paths in the destination to
1263 become linked together due to the [`--link-dest`](#opt) associations.
1265 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1266 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1267 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1268 you are tempted to use the [`--inplace`](#opt) option to avoid this breakage, be
1269 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1270 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1271 see the [`--inplace`](#opt) option for more caveats).
1273 If incremental recursion is active (see [`--inc-recursive`](#opt)), rsync
1274 may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link
1275 for that contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect
1276 the accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
1277 just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1278 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1279 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1280 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1281 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) option.
1285 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1286 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the [`--chmod`](#opt)
1287 option for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source
1290 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1292 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1293 permissions, though the [`--executability`](#opt) option might change
1294 just the execute permission for the file.
1295 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1296 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1297 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1298 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1299 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1300 bit from its parent directory.
1302 Thus, when `--perms` and [`--executability`](#opt) are both disabled, rsync's
1303 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1306 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1307 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1308 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1309 `--perms` option is off and use [`--chmod=ugo=rwX`](#opt) (which ensures
1310 that all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
1311 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
1312 putting this line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z`
1313 option, and includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination
1316 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1318 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1320 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1322 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1323 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1325 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1326 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1327 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1328 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1329 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1330 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1331 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1332 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1335 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1337 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1338 non-executability) of regular files when [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1339 A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1340 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1341 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1342 destination file's permissions as follows:
1344 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1345 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1346 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1348 If [`--perms`](#opt) is enabled, this option is ignored.
1352 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1353 the source ACLs. The option also implies [`--perms`](#opt).
1355 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1356 this option to work properly. See the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option for a
1357 way to backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1361 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1362 be the same as the source ones.
1364 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1365 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1366 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1367 namespaces as a normal user, see the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option.
1369 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1370 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1371 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1372 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1373 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1374 namespace, you could specify:
1376 > --filter='-x system.*'
1378 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1381 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1383 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1384 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1388 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1389 those used by [`--fake-super`](#opt)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1390 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with [`--fake-super`](#opt).
1394 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1395 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1396 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1397 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1398 existing files if [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1400 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1401 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1402 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1403 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1404 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1405 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1406 consistent executability across all bits:
1408 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1410 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1412 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1414 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1415 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1417 See the [`--perms`](#opt) and [`--executability`](#opt) options for how the
1418 resulting permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1422 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1423 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1424 the super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
1425 options). Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files
1426 are set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
1428 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1429 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1430 [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1434 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1435 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1436 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1437 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1438 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1439 user on the receiving side.
1441 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1442 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1443 (see also the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1447 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1448 the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
1449 being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
1450 (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1452 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
1453 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1454 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1458 This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
1459 and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
1460 rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the
1461 [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1463 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
1464 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1465 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1469 The `-D` option is equivalent to "[`--devices`](#opt)
1470 [`--specials`](#opt)".
1474 This tells rsync to treat a device on the sending side as a regular file,
1475 allowing it to be copied to a normal destination file (or another device
1476 if `--write-devices` was also specified).
1478 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1480 0. `--write-devices`
1482 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1483 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1485 This option implies the [`--inplace`](#opt) option.
1487 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1488 receiving side of the transfer, especially when running rsync as root.
1490 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1494 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1495 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1496 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1497 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` (or [`-a`](#opt)) will cause the
1498 next transfer to behave as if it used [`--ignore-times`](#opt) (`-I`),
1499 causing all files to be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1500 will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't actually
1501 changed, you're much better off using `-t`).
1505 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1506 the same value as the source files.
1508 If repeated, it also sets the [`--open-noatime`](#opt) option, which can help you
1509 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1510 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1513 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1514 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply
1515 [`--open-noatime`](#opt) when this option is repeated.
1519 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1520 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1521 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1522 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1523 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1524 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1526 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1528 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1529 files to the same value as the source files.
1531 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1533 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
1534 access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1535 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1536 [`--backup`](#opt) without [`--backup-dir`](#opt).
1538 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of missing
1539 sub-directories when incremental recursion is enabled, as discussed in the
1540 [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) section.
1542 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1544 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
1545 access, and create times.
1549 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1550 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1551 preserving users via the [`--owner`](#opt) option, preserving all groups
1552 (not just the current user's groups) via the [`--group`](#opt) option, and
1553 copying devices via the [`--devices`](#opt) option. This is useful for
1554 systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and also
1555 for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run
1556 as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can
1561 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1562 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1563 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1564 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1565 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1566 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1567 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1568 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1569 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1570 ACLs (if [`--acls`](#opt) was specified) and non-user extended attributes
1571 (if [`--xattrs`](#opt) was specified).
1573 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1574 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1576 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1577 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1578 [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`) option:
1580 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1582 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1583 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1584 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1585 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1587 This option is overridden by both [`--super`](#opt) and `--no-super`.
1589 See also the [`fake super`](rsyncd.conf.5#fake_super) setting in the
1590 daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1594 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1595 destination. If combined with [`--inplace`](#opt) the file created might
1596 not end up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version
1597 and/or filesystem type. If [`--whole-file`](#opt) is in effect (e.g. for a
1598 local copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior
1599 to writing out the updated version.
1601 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1602 `--sparse` and [`--inplace`](#opt).
1606 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1607 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1608 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1609 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1610 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1612 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1613 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1614 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1615 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1617 If combined with [`--sparse`](#opt), the file will only have sparse blocks
1618 (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1619 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1621 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1623 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1624 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1625 in combination with the [`--verbose`](#opt) (`-v`) and/or
1626 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options to see what an rsync command is
1627 going to do before one actually runs it.
1629 The output of [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) is supposed to be exactly the
1630 same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery
1631 and system call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should
1632 be mostly unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does
1633 not send the actual data for file transfers, so [`--progress`](#opt) has no
1634 effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched
1635 data" statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
1636 run where no file transfers were needed.
1638 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1640 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1641 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1642 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1643 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1644 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1645 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1646 batch-writing option is in effect.
1648 0. `--no-whole-file`, `--no-W`
1650 Disable whole-file updating when it is enabled by default for a local
1651 transfer. This usually slows rsync down, but it can be useful if you are
1652 trying to minimize the writes to the destination file (if combined with
1653 [`--inplace`](#opt)) or for testing the checksum-based update algorithm.
1655 See also the [`--whole-file`](#opt) option.
1657 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1659 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1660 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1661 [`--checksum`](#opt) is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1662 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1663 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1665 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1667 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1670 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1675 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1676 version (which may differ from the list above).
1678 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the [`--whole-file`](#opt)
1679 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1680 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1681 the [`--checksum`](#opt) option cannot be used.
1683 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1684 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1686 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1687 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1688 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1689 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1690 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1691 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1693 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1694 [`RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum
1695 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
1696 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
1697 If the string (or string portion) contains no non-whitespace characters,
1698 the default checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
1699 specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum,
1700 and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum names. A list with only
1701 invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1703 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1705 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1707 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1708 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1709 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1710 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1711 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1712 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1714 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1715 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1716 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1717 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1719 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via [`--copy-links`](#opt) or
1720 [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt)), a symlink to a directory on another device
1721 is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1724 0. `--ignore-non-existing`, `--existing`
1726 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1727 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1728 [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) option, no files will be updated (which can be
1729 useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1731 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1732 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1733 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1735 0. `--ignore-existing`
1737 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1738 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1739 get done). See also [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt).
1741 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1742 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1743 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1745 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the
1746 [`--link-dest`](#opt) option when they need to continue a backup run that
1747 got interrupted. Since a [`--link-dest`](#opt) run is copied into a new
1748 directory hierarchy (when it is used properly), using [`--ignore-existing`
1749 will ensure that the already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids
1750 a change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that
1751 this option is only looking at the existing files in the destination
1754 When [`--info=skip2`](#opt) is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists
1755 (INFO)" messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum
1756 change" (requires [`-c`](#opt)), "file change" (based on the quick check),
1757 "attr change", or "uptodate". Using [`--info=skip1`](#opt) (which is also
1758 implied by 2 [`-v`](#opt) options) outputs the exists message without the
1761 0. `--remove-source-files`
1763 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1764 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1765 duplicated on the receiving side.
1767 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1768 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1769 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1770 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1771 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1772 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1773 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1774 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1775 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option [`--exclude='*.new'`](#opt)
1776 for the rsync transfer).
1778 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1779 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1783 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1784 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1785 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1786 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1787 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1788 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1789 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1790 excluded from being deleted unless you use the [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
1791 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1792 include/exclude modifiers in the [FILTER RULES](#) section).
1794 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless
1795 [`--recursive`](#opt) was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will
1796 also occur when [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) is enabled, but only for
1797 directories whose contents are being copied.
1799 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1800 first try a run using the [`--dry-run`](#opt) (`-n`) option to see what
1801 files are going to be deleted.
1803 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1804 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1805 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1806 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1807 this with the [`--ignore-errors`](#opt) option.
1809 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1810 without conflict, as well as [`--delete-excluded`](#opt). However, if none
1811 of the `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1812 [`--delete-during`](#opt) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer,
1813 or the [`--delete-before`](#opt) algorithm when talking to an older rsync.
1814 See also [`--delete-delay`](#opt) and [`--delete-after`](#opt).
1816 0. `--delete-before`
1818 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1819 transfer starts. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1820 details on file-deletion.
1822 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1823 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1824 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1825 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1826 [`--timeout`](#opt) was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1827 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1828 files in the transfer into memory at once (see [`--recursive`](#opt)).
1830 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1832 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1833 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1834 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1835 efficient [`--delete-before`](#opt), including doing the deletions prior to
1836 any per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added
1837 in rsync version 2.6.4. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1838 details on file-deletion.
1842 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1843 the transfer (like [`--delete-during`](#opt)), and then removed after the
1844 transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1845 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) and/or [`--fuzzy`](#opt), and is more efficient
1846 than using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (but can behave differently, since
1847 [`--delete-after`](#opt) computes the deletions in a separate pass after
1848 all updates are done). If the number of removed files overflows an
1849 internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
1850 hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during
1851 the transfer). If the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try
1852 to fall back to using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (which it cannot do if
1853 [`--recursive`](#opt) is doing an incremental scan). See
1854 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1858 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1859 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1860 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1861 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1862 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1863 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1864 (see [`--recursive`](#opt)). See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for
1865 more details on file-deletion.
1867 See also the [`--delete-delay`](#opt) option that might be a faster choice
1868 for those that just want the deletions to occur at the end of the transfer.
1870 0. `--delete-excluded`
1872 In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side that are not on the
1873 sending side, this tells rsync to also delete any files on the receiving
1874 side that are excluded (see [`--exclude`](#opt)). See the [FILTER
1875 RULES](#) section for a way to make individual exclusions behave this way
1876 on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from `--delete-excluded`.
1877 See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on
1880 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
1882 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1883 command-line arguments or [`--files-from`](#opt) entries), it is normally
1884 an error if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error,
1885 and does not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1886 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1889 0. `--delete-missing-args`
1891 This option takes the behavior of the (implied)
1892 [`--ignore-missing-args`](#opt) option a step farther: each missing arg
1893 will become a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the
1894 receiving side (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty
1895 directory, it will only be successfully deleted if [`--force`](#opt) or
1896 [`--delete`](#opt) are in effect. Other than that, this option is
1897 independent of any other type of delete processing.
1899 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1900 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the [`--list-only`](#opt) output.
1902 0. `--ignore-errors`
1904 Tells [`--delete`](#opt) to go ahead and delete files even when there are
1909 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1910 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1911 active (see [`--delete`](#opt) for details).
1913 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
1914 using [`--delete-after`](#opt), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1915 [`--recursive`](#opt) option was also enabled.
1917 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
1919 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
1920 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
1921 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
1922 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
1923 important error condition also occurred).
1925 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
1926 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1927 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1928 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
1929 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1930 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1932 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
1934 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
1935 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
1936 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
1937 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
1939 This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1940 data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1941 It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1943 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
1944 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
1945 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
1946 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
1947 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
1948 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
1950 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
1951 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
1954 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
1957 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
1959 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
1961 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
1962 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
1963 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of SIZE and other info.
1965 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
1967 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
1969 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
1970 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
1971 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
1972 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
1973 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
1974 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
1975 consume more memory.
1977 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
1978 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
1980 See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of how SIZE can be
1981 specified. The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
1983 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
1985 You can set a default value using the environment variable
1986 [`RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`](#) using the same SIZE values as supported by this
1987 option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option,
1988 you can override an environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`,
1989 which will make rsync avoid sending the option to the remote side (because
1990 "1G" is the default).
1992 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
1994 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
1995 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
1996 updated. See the technical report for details.
1998 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
1999 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
2001 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
2003 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
2004 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
2005 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
2008 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
2009 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
2010 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
2011 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
2012 remote host. See the [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL
2013 CONNECTION](#) section above.
2015 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the [`RSYNC_PORT`](#) environment variable will
2016 be set when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell
2017 connection. It is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or
2018 it is set to the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
2019 [`--port`](#opt) option or a non-empty port value in an `rsync://` URL.
2020 This allows the script to discern if a non-default port is being requested,
2021 allowing for things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a
2022 default or alternate port.
2024 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
2025 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
2026 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
2027 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
2028 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
2029 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
2030 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
2031 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
2034 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
2036 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
2037 options in their .ssh/config file.)
2039 You can also choose the remote shell program using the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#)
2040 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
2042 See also the [`--blocking-io`](#opt) option which is affected by this
2045 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
2047 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
2048 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
2049 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
2050 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
2051 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
2052 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
2054 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
2055 machine for use with the [`--relative`](#opt) option. For instance:
2057 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
2059 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
2061 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
2062 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
2063 you want to pass [`--log-file=FILE`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) to
2064 the remote system, specify it like this:
2066 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
2068 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
2069 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
2072 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
2074 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
2075 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
2076 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
2078 Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
2079 want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
2080 remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
2081 this requires the use of [`--old-args`](#opt) in a modern rsync.
2083 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
2084 "remote" side is the receiver.
2086 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
2087 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
2088 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
2089 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
2092 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
2094 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
2095 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
2096 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
2098 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
2099 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the [FILTER RULES](#)
2102 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
2141 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2142 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2143 delimited by whitespace).
2145 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2146 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2147 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2148 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
2150 If you're combining `-C` with your own [`--filter`](#opt) rules, you should
2151 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2152 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2153 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2154 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2155 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2156 [`--filter=:C`](#opt) and [`--filter=-C`](#opt) (either on your
2157 command-line or by putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with
2158 your other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scanning
2159 for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time import of the
2160 CVS excludes mentioned above.
2162 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2164 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2165 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2166 combination with a recursive transfer.
2168 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2169 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2170 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2171 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2172 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2174 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2178 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two [`--filter`](#opt) rules to
2179 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2181 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2183 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2184 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2185 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2188 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2190 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2192 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on how these
2195 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2197 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2198 defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2199 of normal filter rules.
2201 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2203 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2205 This option is related to the [`--exclude`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2206 a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2207 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2208 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2210 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2212 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2214 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2215 defaults to an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2216 of normal filter rules.
2218 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2220 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2222 This option is related to the [`--include`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2223 a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2224 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2225 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2227 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2229 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2231 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2232 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2233 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2234 specified files and directories easier:
2236 - The [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the
2237 path information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2238 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2239 - The [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) option is implied, which will create
2240 directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily
2241 skipping them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2242 - The [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply
2243 [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2244 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2245 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2246 options are parsed (e.g. [`-a`](#opt) works the same before or after
2247 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2249 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2250 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2251 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2253 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2255 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2256 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2257 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2258 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2259 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the
2260 [`-r`](#opt) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be
2261 transferred (keep in mind that [`-r`](#opt) needs to be specified
2262 explicitly with `--files-from`, since it is not implied by [`-a`](#opt).
2263 Also note that the effect of the (enabled by default) [`-r`](#opt) option
2264 is to duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does
2265 not force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2267 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2268 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2269 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2270 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2273 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2275 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2276 was located on the remote "src" host.
2278 If the [`--iconv`](#opt) and [`--protect-args`](#opt) options are specified
2279 and the `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another,
2280 the filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2281 receiving host's charset.
2283 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2284 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2285 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2286 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2287 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2292 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2293 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2294 affects [`--exclude-from`](#opt), [`--include-from`](#opt),
2295 [`--files-from`](#opt), and any merged files specified in a
2296 [`--filter`](#opt) rule. It does not affect [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (since
2297 all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2301 This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values on the
2302 remote side from unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation.
2304 The default in a modern rsync is for "shell-active" characters (including
2305 spaces) to be backslash-escaped in the args that are sent to the remote
2306 shell. The wildcard characters `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]` are not escaped in
2307 filename args (allowing them to expand into multiple filenames) while being
2308 protected in option args, such as [`--usermap`](#opt).
2310 If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in its
2311 filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
2312 with any backslash escapes at all, specify this option twice.
2314 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) environment
2315 variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
2316 setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
2317 repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
2318 behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
2319 positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
2321 This option conflicts with the [`--protect-args`](#opt) option.
2323 0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
2325 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
2326 without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. Wildcards are
2327 expanded on the remote host by rsync instead of the shell doing it.
2329 This is similar to the new-style backslash-escaping of args that was added
2330 in 3.2.4, but supports some extra features and doesn't rely on backslash
2331 escaping in the remote shell.
2333 If you use this option with [`--iconv`](#opt), the args related to the
2334 remote side will also be translated from the local to the remote
2335 character-set. The translation happens before wild-cards are expanded.
2336 See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
2338 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#)
2339 environment variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
2340 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2341 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2342 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
2343 versions). This environment variable is also superseded by a non-zero
2344 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) export.
2346 You may need to disable this option when interacting with an older rsync
2347 (one prior to 3.0.0).
2349 This option conflicts with the [`--old-args`](#opt) option.
2351 Note that this option is incompatible with the use of the restricted rsync
2352 script (`rrsync`) since it hides options from the script's inspection.
2354 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2356 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2357 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2358 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2359 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2361 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2362 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2363 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2364 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2365 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2366 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2367 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2369 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2370 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the
2371 [`--remote-option`](#opt) to affect the remote side, such as
2372 `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer, the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file
2373 provides a local-shell helper script that can be used to allow a
2374 "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified without needing to setup
2375 any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that affect the
2376 side of the transfer that is using the host-spec (and using hostname "lh"
2377 avoids the overriding of the remote directory to the user's home dir).
2379 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2381 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2383 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2384 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2385 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2386 has no permissions to change.
2388 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2389 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2391 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2393 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2395 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2396 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2397 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2398 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2399 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2400 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2402 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2403 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2404 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2405 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2406 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2407 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2408 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2409 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2410 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2411 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2412 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2413 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2414 new version on the disk at the same time.
2416 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2417 space, you may wish to combine it with the [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
2418 option, which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories
2419 in the destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you
2420 don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the
2421 destination partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly
2422 concerned about disk space is to use the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option
2423 with a relative path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a
2424 copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will
2425 use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and
2426 then rename it into place from there. (Specifying a [`--partial-dir`](#opt)
2427 with an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
2431 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2432 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2433 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2434 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2435 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2437 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2438 alternate destination directories that are specified via
2439 [`--compare-dest`](#opt), [`--copy-dest`](#opt), or [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2441 Note that the use of the [`--delete`](#opt) option might get rid of any
2442 potential fuzzy-match files, so either use [`--delete-after`](#opt) or
2443 specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2445 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2447 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2448 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2449 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2450 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2451 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2452 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2453 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2456 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2457 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2458 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2459 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2460 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2463 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2464 See also [`--copy-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2466 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2467 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2468 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2471 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2473 This option behaves like [`--compare-dest`](#opt), but rsync will also copy
2474 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2475 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2476 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2477 files have been successfully transferred.
2479 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2480 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2481 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2482 try to speed up the transfer.
2484 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2485 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2487 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2489 This option behaves like [`--copy-dest`](#opt), but unchanged files are
2490 hard linked from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be
2491 identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly
2492 ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:
2494 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2496 If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2497 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2498 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2499 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2502 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2503 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2504 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2505 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2506 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2507 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2509 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2510 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2511 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2512 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2513 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2514 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2516 Note that if you combine this option with [`--ignore-times`](#opt), rsync will not
2517 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2518 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2519 the file is updated.
2521 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2522 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--copy-dest`](#opt).
2524 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2525 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when
2526 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) was specified (or implied). You can work-around
2527 this bug by avoiding the `-o` option (or using `--no-o`) when sending to an
2530 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2532 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2533 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2534 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2536 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2537 unless you force the choice using the [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`)
2540 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2543 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2544 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2545 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2546 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2547 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2549 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2550 [`RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable
2551 compression names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is
2552 separated into the "client string & server string", otherwise the same
2553 string applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
2554 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2555 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2556 names results in a failed negotiation.
2558 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2559 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2560 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2561 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2564 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2566 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2567 compression algorithm that occurs when [`--compress`](#opt) is used. The
2568 option implies [`--compress`](#opt) unless "none" was specified, which
2569 instead implies `--no-compress`.
2571 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2579 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2580 version (which may differ from the list above).
2582 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2583 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2584 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2585 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2586 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2588 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2589 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2590 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2592 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2594 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see [`--compress`](#opt),
2595 `-z`) instead of letting it default. The [`--compress`](#opt) option is
2596 implied as long as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the
2597 compression algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level
2600 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2601 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2602 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a
2603 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the
2604 choice in effect. For example:
2606 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2608 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2609 the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
2610 `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
2612 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2613 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2615 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2617 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2618 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2619 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2620 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2622 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2623 [`--debug=nstr`](#opt) to see the "negotiated string" results. This will
2624 report something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the
2625 checksum choice in effect).
2627 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2629 **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
2630 changes, so this option has no effect.
2632 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2633 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2634 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
2635 no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
2636 changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
2637 reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
2639 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2640 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2643 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2644 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2645 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2647 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2649 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2650 matches 2 suffixes):
2652 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2654 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2657 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2756 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2757 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2758 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2763 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2764 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2766 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2767 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2768 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2771 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2772 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2773 instead. See also the [`use chroot`](rsyncd.conf.5#use_chroot) setting
2774 in the rsyncd.conf manpage for some comments on how the chroot setting
2775 affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and
2776 what you can do about it.
2778 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2780 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2781 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2782 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2783 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2784 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2785 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2786 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2787 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2788 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2791 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2793 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2794 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2795 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2797 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2798 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2799 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2800 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2801 match those in use on the receiving side.
2803 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2804 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2805 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2807 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2809 When the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option is used, the sender does not send any
2810 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2811 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
2812 nameless IDs to different values.
2814 For the `--usermap` option to work, the receiver will need to be running as
2815 a super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
2816 options). For the `--groupmap` option to work, the receiver will need to
2817 have permissions to set that group.
2819 Starting with rsync 3.2.4, the `--usermap` option implies the
2820 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) option while the `--groupmap` option implies the
2821 [`--group`](#opt) (`-g`) option (since rsync needs to have those options
2822 enabled for the mapping options to work).
2824 An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
2825 avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
2828 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
2830 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2831 a simpler interface than using [`--usermap`](#opt) & [`--groupmap`](#opt)
2832 directly, but it is implemented using those options internally so they
2833 cannot be mixed. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
2834 omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
2835 be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2837 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
2838 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (and with the same
2839 implied [`--owner`](#opt) and/or [`--group`](#opt) options).
2841 An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
2842 avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
2845 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
2847 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2848 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2849 0, which means no timeout.
2851 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
2853 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
2854 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
2855 rsync exits with an error.
2857 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
2859 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
2860 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
2861 address (or hostname) to bind to.
2863 See also [the daemon version of the `--address` option](#dopt--address).
2867 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
2868 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
2869 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
2870 the port as a part of the URL).
2872 See also [the daemon version of the `--port` option](#dopt--port).
2874 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
2876 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
2877 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
2878 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the manpage for the
2879 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
2880 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
2881 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
2883 See also [the daemon version of the `--sockopts` option](#dopt--sockopts).
2887 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
2888 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
2889 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
2890 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2894 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
2895 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
2896 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2898 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2899 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2901 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
2903 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
2904 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
2905 [`--out-format='%i %n%L'`](#opt). If you repeat the option, unchanged
2906 files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least
2907 version 2.6.7 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that
2908 also turns on the output of other verbose messages).
2910 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
2911 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
2912 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
2913 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
2915 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
2917 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
2918 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
2920 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
2921 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
2922 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
2923 [`--hard-links`](#opt)).
2924 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
2925 attributes that are being modified).
2926 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
2929 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
2930 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
2931 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
2933 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
2934 have changed, as follows:
2936 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
2937 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
2938 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
2939 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
2940 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
2942 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
2944 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
2945 [`--checksum`](#opt)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a
2946 changed value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to
2947 3.0.1, this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing
2949 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
2950 by the file transfer.
2951 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
2952 the sender's value (requires [`--times`](#opt)). An alternate value of
2953 `T` means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time,
2954 which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without
2955 [`--times`](#opt) and when a symlink is changed and the receiver can't
2956 set its time. (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the
2957 `s` flag combined with `t` instead of the proper `T` flag for this
2958 time-setting failure.)
2959 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
2960 sender's value (requires [`--perms`](#opt)).
2961 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
2962 value (requires [`--owner`](#opt) and super-user privileges).
2963 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
2964 value (requires [`--group`](#opt) and the authority to set the group).
2965 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information:
2966 - `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
2967 the sender's value (requires [`--atimes`](#opt))
2968 - `n` means the create time (newness) is different and is being updated
2969 to the sender's value (requires [`--crtimes`](#opt))
2970 - `b` means that both the access and create times are being updated
2971 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
2972 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
2974 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
2975 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
2976 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
2977 outputting them as a verbose message).
2979 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
2981 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
2982 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
2983 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
2984 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either
2985 [`--info=name`](#opt) or [`-v`](#opt) is specified (this tells you just the
2986 name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full
2987 list of the possible escape characters, see the [`log
2988 format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format) setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2990 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the [`--info=name`](#opt)
2991 option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a
2992 significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
2993 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
2994 included in the string (e.g. if the [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option was
2995 used), the logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed
2996 in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the
2997 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option for a description of the output of "%i".
2999 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
3000 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
3001 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
3002 is in effect and [`--progress`](#opt) is also specified, rsync will also
3003 output the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress
3004 information (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
3006 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3008 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
3009 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
3010 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
3011 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
3012 of "%i %n%L". See the [`--log-file-format`](#opt) option if you wish to
3015 Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
3018 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
3020 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
3023 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file` option](#dopt--log-file).
3025 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3027 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
3028 file specified by the [`--log-file`](#opt) option (which must also be
3029 specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty
3030 string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of
3031 the possible escape characters, see the [`log format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format)
3032 setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3034 The default FORMAT used if [`--log-file`](#opt) is specified and this
3035 option is not is '%i %n%L'.
3037 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file-format`
3038 option](#dopt--log-file-format).
3042 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
3043 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
3044 your data. This option is equivalent to [`--info=stats2`](#opt) if
3045 combined with 0 or 1 [`-v`](#opt) options, or [`--info=stats3`](#opt) if
3046 combined with 2 or more [`-v`](#opt) options.
3048 The current statistics are as follows:
3050 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
3051 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
3052 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
3053 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
3054 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
3055 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
3056 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3057 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3058 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3059 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3060 sense) were deleted. The total count will be
3061 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3062 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
3063 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
3064 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
3065 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
3066 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
3068 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
3069 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
3070 include the size of symlinks.
3071 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
3072 just the transferred files.
3073 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
3074 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
3075 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
3077 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
3078 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
3079 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
3081 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
3082 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
3083 sending side for this to be present.
3084 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
3085 sending the file list to the receiver.
3086 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
3087 client side to the server side.
3088 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
3089 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
3090 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
3091 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
3093 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
3095 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
3096 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
3097 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
3098 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
3100 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
3101 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
3102 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
3103 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
3105 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
3107 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible levels:
3109 1. output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits (either a
3110 comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
3112 2. output numbers in units of 1000 (with a character suffix for larger
3113 units -- see below).
3114 3. output numbers in units of 1024.
3116 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
3117 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
3118 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
3120 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
3121 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
3122 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
3125 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
3126 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
3127 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
3128 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
3129 to one or more `-h` options. See the [`--list-only`](#opt) option for one
3134 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
3135 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
3136 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
3137 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
3138 rest of the file much faster.
3140 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
3142 This option modifies the behavior of the [`--partial`](#opt) option while
3143 also implying that it be enabled. This enhanced partial-file method puts
3144 any partially transferred files into the specified _DIR_ instead of writing
3145 the partial file out to the destination file. On the next transfer, rsync
3146 will use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3147 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3149 Note that if [`--whole-file`](#opt) is specified (or implied), any
3150 partial-dir files that are found for a file that is being updated will
3151 simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's
3152 delta-transfer algorithm).
3154 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing, but just the last dir -- not
3155 the whole path. This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3156 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
3157 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when it is needed,
3158 and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that this
3159 directory removal is only done for a relative pathname, as it is expected
3160 that an absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir
3163 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3164 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3165 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3166 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3167 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
3168 equivalent of this "perishable" exclude at the end of any other filter
3169 rules: `-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`
3171 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3172 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because:
3174 1. the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or
3175 2. you may wish to override rsync's exclude choice.
3177 For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
3178 that may be lying around, you should specify [`--delete-after`](#opt) and
3179 add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. Avoid using
3180 [`--delete-before`](#opt) or [`--delete-during`](#opt) unless you don't
3181 need rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data during the current
3184 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
3185 is a security risk! E.g. AVOID "/tmp"!
3187 You can also set the partial-dir value the [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`](#)
3188 environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not force
3189 [`--partial`](#opt) to be enabled, but rather it affects where partial
3190 files go when [`--partial`](#opt) is specified. For instance, instead of
3191 using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along with [`--progress`](#opt), you could
3192 set [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp`](#) in your environment and then use
3193 the [`-P`](#opt) option to turn on the use of the .rsync-tmp dir for
3194 partial transfers. The only times that the [`--partial`](#opt) option does
3195 not look for this environment value are:
3197 1. when [`--inplace`](#opt) was specified (since [`--inplace`](#opt)
3198 conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and
3199 2. when [`--delay-updates`](#opt) was specified (see below).
3201 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3202 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3203 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3204 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3207 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
3208 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply [`--partial`](#opt). This is so that a
3209 refusal of the [`--partial`](#opt) option can be used to disallow the
3210 overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while still
3211 allowing the safer idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3213 0. `--delay-updates`
3215 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3216 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3217 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3218 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3219 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3220 you've specified the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option, that directory will be
3221 used instead. See the comments in the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) section for
3222 a discussion of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer,
3223 and what you can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that
3224 might be lying around. Conflicts with [`--inplace`](#opt) and
3227 This option implies [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) since it needs the full
3228 file list in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3230 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3231 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3232 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3233 should not use an absolute path to [`--partial-dir`](#opt) unless:
3235 1. there is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same
3236 name (since all the updated files will be put into a single directory if
3237 the path is absolute), and
3238 2. there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates
3239 will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3241 See also the "atomic-rsync" python script in the "support" subdir for an
3242 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses [`--link-dest`](#opt)
3243 and a parallel hierarchy of files).
3245 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3247 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3248 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3249 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3250 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3251 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3253 Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the [`--min-size`](#opt)
3254 option, does not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not
3255 leave directories empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the
3258 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3259 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3260 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3261 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3262 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3265 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3266 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3267 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3269 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3271 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3272 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3273 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3274 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3276 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3278 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3279 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3280 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3284 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3285 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3286 this is the same as specifying [`--info=flist2,name,progress`](#opt), but
3287 any user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3288 [`--info=flist0 --progress`](#opt)).
3290 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3293 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3295 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3296 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3297 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3298 is maintained until the end.
3300 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3301 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3302 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3303 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3304 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3305 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3307 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3308 summary line that looks like this:
3310 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3312 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3313 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3314 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3315 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3316 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3317 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3319 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3320 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3321 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3322 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3323 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3324 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3325 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3326 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3327 of the files added to the list).
3331 The `-P` option is equivalent to "[`--partial`](#opt)
3332 [`--progress`](#opt)". Its purpose is to make it much easier to specify
3333 these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
3335 There is also a [`--info=progress2`](#opt) option that outputs statistics
3336 based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag
3337 without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify
3338 [`--info=name0`](#opt)) if you want to see how the transfer is doing
3339 without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to
3340 specify the [`--progress`](#opt) option in order to use
3341 [`--info=progress2`](#opt).)
3343 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3344 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3345 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3346 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3347 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3348 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3349 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3350 followed by the [`--info=progress2`](#opt) format of progress info. If you
3351 don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3352 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3354 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3356 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3358 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3359 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3360 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3361 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3362 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3364 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3365 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3366 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3367 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3368 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3371 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3373 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3374 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3375 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3376 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3378 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3382 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3383 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3384 no destination specified, so its main uses are:
3386 1. to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into a
3387 file-listing command, or
3388 2. to be able to specify more than one source arg. Note: be sure to
3389 include the destination.
3391 CAUTION: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
3392 shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
3393 without using this option. For example:
3395 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3397 Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
3398 by the [`--human-readable`](#opt) option. By default they will contain
3399 digit separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes
3400 with unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output
3401 has increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
3402 `--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
3405 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3406 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3407 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the
3408 [`--dirs`](#opt) option w/o [`--recursive`](#opt), and older rsyncs don't
3409 have that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs`
3410 option (if you don't need to expand a directory's content), or turn on
3411 recursion and exclude the content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3415 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3416 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3417 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3418 fractional value (e.g. `--bwlimit=1.5m`). If no suffix is specified, the
3419 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3420 been appended). See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of
3421 all the available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3423 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3424 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3427 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3428 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3429 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3430 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3433 Due to the internal buffering of data, the [`--progress`](#opt) option may
3434 not be an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is
3435 because some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is
3436 quickly buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of
3437 the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3439 See also [the daemon version of the `--bwlimit` option](#dopt--bwlimit).
3441 0. `--stop-after=MINS`, (`--time-limit=MINS`)
3443 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3444 minutes has elapsed.
3446 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3447 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3448 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3449 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3450 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise.
3452 The `--time-limit` version of this option is deprecated.
3454 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
3456 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3457 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3458 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3459 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3462 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3463 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3464 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3465 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3466 time, rsync exits with an error.
3468 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3469 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3470 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3471 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3473 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3474 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3475 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3476 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3477 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise. Do
3478 keep in mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone
3479 than your local host.
3483 Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
3484 the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
3487 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3489 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3490 with [`--read-batch`](#opt). See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and
3491 also the [`--only-write-batch`](#opt) option.
3493 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3494 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3495 a more modern choice, use the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`) and/or
3496 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) options.
3498 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3500 Works like [`--write-batch`](#opt), except that no updates are made on the
3501 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3502 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3503 changes via [`--read-batch`](#opt).
3505 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3506 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3507 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3508 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3509 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3512 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3513 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3514 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3515 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3517 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3519 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3520 [`--write-batch`](#opt). If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read
3521 from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3525 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3526 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3527 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the [`--write-batch`](#opt)
3528 option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
3529 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating
3530 the batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
3531 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
3533 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3535 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3536 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3537 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3538 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3539 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3540 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3541 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3542 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3543 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the
3544 [`RSYNC_ICONV`](#) environment variable.
3546 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3547 run "`iconv --list`".
3549 If you specify the [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) option, rsync will
3550 translate the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent
3551 to the remote host. See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
3553 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3554 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3555 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3556 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3557 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3559 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3560 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3561 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3562 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3565 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3567 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3568 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3569 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3570 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3571 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3572 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever IPv4/IPv6 hint options
3575 See also [the daemon version of these options](#dopt--ipv4).
3577 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3578 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3581 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3583 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3584 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3585 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3586 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3587 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3588 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3589 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3590 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3594 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3598 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3599 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3600 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3602 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3603 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3604 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3605 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly.
3607 See the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage for more details.
3609 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3611 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3612 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3613 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3614 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option.
3616 See also the [address](rsyncd.conf.5#address) global option in the
3617 rsyncd.conf manpage and the [client version of the `--address`
3618 option](#opt--address).
3622 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3623 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3624 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed.
3626 See the [client version of the `--bwlimit` option](#opt--bwlimit) for some
3631 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3632 relevant when [`--daemon`](#dopt) is specified. The default is
3633 /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program
3634 and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case the default is
3635 rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
3637 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3639 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3640 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3641 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3642 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3645 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3649 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3650 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3651 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3652 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3653 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3654 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3658 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3659 rather than the default of 873.
3661 See also [the client version of the `--port` option](#opt--port) and the
3662 [port](rsyncd.conf.5#port) global setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3664 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3666 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3667 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3669 See also [the client version of the `--log-file` option](#opt--log-file).
3671 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3673 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3674 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3675 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3676 logging is turned off.
3678 See also [the client version of the `--log-file-format`
3679 option](#opt--log-file-format).
3683 This overrides the [`socket options`](rsyncd.conf.5#socket_options)
3684 setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
3686 See also [the client version of the `--sockopts` option](#opt--sockopts).
3688 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3690 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3691 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3692 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3693 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3695 See also [the client version of the `--verbose` option](#opt--verbose).
3697 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3699 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3700 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3701 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3702 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3703 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3706 See also [the client version of these options](#opt--ipv4).
3708 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3709 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3714 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3715 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3719 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
3720 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify
3721 include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude
3722 patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
3724 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name
3725 to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the
3726 first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file
3727 is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if
3728 no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.
3730 Aside: because the interactions of filter rules can be complex, it is useful to
3731 use the `--debug=FILTER` option if things aren't working the way you expect.
3732 The level-1 output (the default if no level number is specified) mentions the
3733 filter rule that is first matched by each file in the transfer. It also warns
3734 if a filter rule has trailing whitespace. The level-2 output mentions a lot
3735 more filter events, including the definition of each rule and the handling of
3736 per-directory filter files.
3738 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line.
3739 Filter rules have the following syntax:
3741 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3742 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3744 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
3745 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
3746 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
3747 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Here are the
3748 available rule prefixes:
3750 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern.
3751 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern.
3752 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
3753 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file.
3754 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
3755 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden.
3756 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
3757 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected.
3758 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
3760 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
3761 whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules that contain a hash
3764 [comment]: # (Remember that markdown strips spaces from start/end of ` ... ` sequences!)
3765 [comment]: # (Thus, the `x ` sequences below use a literal non-breakable space!)
3767 Note that the [`--include`](#opt) & [`--exclude`](#opt) command-line options do
3768 not allow the full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow
3769 the specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "`!`" token to clear the
3770 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a
3771 pattern does not begin with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
3772 the rule will be interpreted as if "`+Â `" (for an include option) or "`-Â `"
3773 (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A [`--filter`](#opt)
3774 option, on the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name
3775 at the start of the rule.
3777 Note also that the [`--filter`](#opt), [`--include`](#opt), and
3778 [`--exclude`](#opt) options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
3779 you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of
3780 the [`--filter`](#opt) option, or the [`--include-from`](#opt) /
3781 [`--exclude-from`](#opt) options.
3783 ## INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES
3785 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+", "-",
3786 etc. filter rules (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The
3787 include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against the names
3788 of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several
3791 - if the pattern starts with a `/` then it is anchored to a particular spot in
3792 the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the
3793 pathname. This is similar to a leading `^` in regular expressions. Thus
3794 `/foo` would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for
3795 a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule).
3796 An unqualified `foo` would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because
3797 the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each
3798 path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the
3799 unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo"
3800 was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING
3801 INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern
3802 that matches at the root of the transfer.
3803 - if the pattern ends with a `/` then it will only match a directory, not a
3804 regular file, symlink, or device.
3805 - rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
3806 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters:
3807 '`*`', '`?`', and '`[`' .
3808 - a '`*`' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
3809 - use '`**`' to match anything, including slashes.
3810 - a '`?`' matches any character except a slash (`/`).
3811 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`.
3812 - in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
3813 character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. This
3814 means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a pattern
3815 contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none. e.g. if
3816 you add a wildcard to "`foo\bar`" (which matches the backslash) you would
3817 need to use "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
3818 - if the pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing /) or a "`**`", then it
3819 is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If
3820 the pattern doesn't contain a `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched only against
3821 the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied
3822 recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the
3823 starting directory on down.)
3824 - a trailing "`dir_name/***`" will match both the directory (as if "dir_name/"
3825 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
3826 had been specified). This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.
3828 Note that, when using the [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`) option (which is implied
3829 by [`-a`](#opt)), every subdir component of every path is visited left to
3830 right, with each directory having a chance for exclusion before its content.
3831 In this way include/exclude patterns are applied recursively to the pathname of
3832 each node in the filesystem's tree (those inside the transfer). The exclude
3833 patterns short-circuit the directory traversal stage as rsync finds the files
3836 For instance, to include "`/foo/bar/baz`", the directories "`/foo`" and "`/foo/bar`"
3837 must not be excluded. Excluding one of those parent directories prevents the
3838 examination of its content, cutting off rsync's recursion into those paths and
3839 rendering the include for "`/foo/bar/baz`" ineffectual (since rsync can't match
3840 something it never sees in the cut-off section of the directory hierarchy).
3842 The concept path exclusion is particularly important when using a trailing '`*`'
3843 rule. For instance, this won't work:
3845 > + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
3846 > + /file-is-included
3849 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '`*`' rule, so
3850 rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" directories.
3851 One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by
3852 using a single rule: "`+ */`" (put it somewhere before the "`- *`" rule), and
3853 perhaps use the [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option. Another solution is to add
3854 specific include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
3855 instance, this set of rules works fine:
3859 > + /some/path/this-file-is-found
3860 > + /file-also-included
3863 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
3865 - "`- *.o`" would exclude all names matching `*.o`
3866 - "`- /foo`" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root
3868 - "`- foo/`" would exclude any directory named foo
3869 - "`- /foo/*/bar`" would exclude any file named bar which is at two levels
3870 below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3871 - "`- /foo/**/bar`" would exclude any file named bar two or more levels below a
3872 directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3873 - The combination of "`+ */`", "`+ *.c`", and "`- *`" would include all
3874 directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
3875 [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option)
3876 - The combination of "`+ foo/`", "`+ foo/bar.c`", and "`- *`" would include
3877 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly
3878 included or it would be excluded by the "`*`")
3880 The following modifiers are accepted after a "`+`" or "`-`":
3882 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
3883 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, "`-/ /etc/passwd`" would
3884 exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from the
3885 "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is
3886 in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
3888 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
3889 fails to match. For instance, "`-! */`" would exclude all non-directories.
3890 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
3891 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
3892 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
3893 rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from being transferred. The
3894 default is for a rule to affect both sides unless [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
3895 was specified, in which case default rules become sender-side only. See also
3896 the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify
3897 sending-side includes/excludes.
3898 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
3899 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
3900 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
3901 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
3902 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
3903 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the
3904 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's default rules that exclude things
3905 like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable, and will not prevent a
3906 directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the
3908 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
3909 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
3910 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
3911 (see the [`--xattrs`](#opt) option).
3913 ## MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
3915 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
3916 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#)
3919 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
3920 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
3921 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
3922 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
3923 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
3924 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
3925 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
3926 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
3927 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
3928 (see [PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE](#) below).
3932 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
3933 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
3934 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
3935 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
3936 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
3938 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
3940 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
3941 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
3942 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
3943 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
3944 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
3945 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
3946 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
3948 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
3949 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
3950 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
3951 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
3952 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
3953 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
3954 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
3955 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
3956 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
3957 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
3958 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
3959 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
3960 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
3961 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
3962 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
3965 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
3966 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
3967 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
3968 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
3969 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
3970 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
3971 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
3972 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
3973 the current merge file.
3975 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
3976 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
3977 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
3978 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
3981 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
3983 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
3990 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
3991 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
3992 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
3993 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
3996 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
3997 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
3998 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
3999 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see [`-F`](#opt)):
4001 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
4003 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
4004 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
4005 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
4006 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
4007 same as the module's "path".)
4009 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
4011 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
4012 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4013 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4015 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
4016 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
4017 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
4018 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
4020 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
4021 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
4022 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
4023 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory
4024 .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you
4025 like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule
4026 for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower
4027 priority than your command-line rules). For example:
4030 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
4035 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
4038 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
4039 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
4040 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
4041 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
4042 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
4043 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
4044 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
4047 ## LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
4049 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
4050 introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The "current" list is either
4051 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
4052 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
4053 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
4055 ## ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
4057 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
4058 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
4059 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
4060 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
4061 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
4062 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
4064 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
4065 slash on a source path or changing your use of the [`--relative`](#opt) option
4066 affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how
4067 much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following
4068 examples demonstrate this.
4070 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
4071 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
4072 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
4075 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
4076 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
4077 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
4078 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4079 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4083 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
4084 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
4085 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
4086 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
4087 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
4091 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
4092 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
4093 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
4094 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
4095 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
4099 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
4100 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
4101 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
4102 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4103 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4106 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at the
4107 output when using [`--verbose`](#opt) and put a / in front of the name (use the
4108 `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
4110 ## PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
4112 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
4113 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
4114 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
4115 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
4117 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
4118 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
4120 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
4121 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
4122 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
4123 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use [`--delete-after`](#opt),
4124 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as
4125 the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
4127 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
4129 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
4130 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
4131 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
4132 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
4133 exclude themselves):
4135 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
4136 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
4138 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
4139 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
4140 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
4141 per-directory merge rule.
4143 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
4144 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
4145 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
4146 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
4147 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
4148 one of these commands:
4151 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
4152 > host:src/dir /dest
4153 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
4158 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
4159 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
4160 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
4161 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
4162 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
4163 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
4164 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
4165 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
4167 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
4168 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
4169 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
4170 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
4171 same data to every host individually.
4173 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
4174 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
4175 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
4176 stored in the batch file.
4178 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
4179 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
4180 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
4181 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
4182 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
4183 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
4184 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
4185 used to create the batch file.
4189 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4190 > $ scp foo* remote:
4191 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4193 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4194 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4196 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4197 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4198 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4199 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4200 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4202 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
4203 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4204 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4205 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4206 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4207 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4208 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4209 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
4210 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, but you could edit the script file if you
4211 wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
4212 standard input, such as the [`--exclude-from=-`](#opt) option).
4216 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4217 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4218 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4219 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4220 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4221 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4222 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4223 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4224 size and date, use the [`-I`](#opt) option (when reading the batch). If an
4225 error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
4226 state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of
4227 operation to fix up the destination tree.
4229 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4230 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4231 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4232 See also the [`--protocol`](#opt) option for a way to have the creating rsync
4233 generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch
4234 files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with
4235 newer versions will not work.)
4237 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4238 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4239 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4240 instance [`--write-batch`](#opt) changes to [`--read-batch`](#opt),
4241 [`--files-from`](#opt) is dropped, and the [`--filter`](#opt) /
4242 [`--include`](#opt) / [`--exclude`](#opt) options are not needed unless one of
4243 the [`--delete`](#opt) options is specified.
4245 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4246 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4247 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4248 change in what gets deleted by [`--delete`](#opt) is desired. A normal user
4249 can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the
4250 appropriate [`--read-batch`](#opt) command for the batched data.
4252 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4253 version uses a new implementation.
4257 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4258 link in the source directory.
4260 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4261 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4263 If [`--links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are added to the transfer
4264 (instead of being noisily ignored), and the default handling is to recreate
4265 them with the same target on the destination. Note that [`--archive`](#opt)
4266 implies [`--links`](#opt).
4268 If [`--copy-links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4269 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4271 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4272 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4273 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4274 the public section of the site. Using [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt) will cause
4275 any links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4276 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause unsafe links to be omitted by the receiver.
4277 (Note that you must specify or imply [`--links`](#opt) for
4278 [`--safe-links`](#opt) to have any effect.)
4280 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with
4281 `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".." components to ascend from the top
4284 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4285 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4286 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4288 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files and directories
4289 (leaving no symlinks in the transfer for any other options to affect).
4290 0. `--copy-dirlinks` Turn just symlinks to directories into real
4291 directories, leaving all other symlinks to be handled as described below.
4292 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks
4293 into files and create all safe symlinks.
4294 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
4295 skip all safe symlinks.
4296 0. `--links --safe-links` The receiver skips creating
4297 unsafe symlinks found in the transfer and creates the safe ones.
4298 0. `--links` Create all symlinks.
4300 For the effect of [`--munge-links`](#opt), see the discussion in that option's
4303 Note that the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option does not effect symlinks in the
4304 transfer but instead affects how rsync treats a symlink to a directory that
4305 already exists on the receiving side. See that option's section for a warning.
4309 Rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4310 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4313 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4314 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4315 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4317 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4319 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4320 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4321 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4322 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4323 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4324 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4326 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4327 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4328 file is included or excluded.
4333 - **1** - Syntax or usage error
4334 - **2** - Protocol incompatibility
4335 - **3** - Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4336 - **4** - Requested action not supported. Either:
4337 - an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them
4338 - an option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server
4339 - **5** - Error starting client-server protocol
4340 - **6** - Daemon unable to append to log-file
4341 - **10** - Error in socket I/O
4342 - **11** - Error in file I/O
4343 - **12** - Error in rsync protocol data stream
4344 - **13** - Errors with program diagnostics
4345 - **14** - Error in IPC code
4346 - **20** - Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4347 - **21** - Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4348 - **22** - Error allocating core memory buffers
4349 - **23** - Partial transfer due to error
4350 - **24** - Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4351 - **25** - The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4352 - **30** - Timeout in data send/receive
4353 - **35** - Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4355 ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4359 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4360 .cvsignore files. See the [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) option for more details.
4364 Specify a default [`--iconv`](#opt) setting using this environment
4365 variable. First supported in 3.0.0.
4369 Specify a "1" if you want the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to be enabled by
4370 default, a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the
4371 repeated-option state, or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by
4372 default. When this environment variable is set to a non-zero value, it
4373 supersedes the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#) variable.
4375 This variable is ignored if [`--old-args`](#opt), `--no-old-args`, or
4376 [`--protect-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4378 First supported in 3.2.4.
4380 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4382 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the [`--protect-args`](#opt)
4383 option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is
4384 disabled by default.
4386 This variable is ignored if [`--protect-args`](#opt), `--no-protect-args`,
4387 or [`--old-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4389 First supported in 3.1.0. Starting in 3.2.4, this variable is ignored if
4390 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) is set to a non-zero value.
4394 This environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as
4395 the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after the
4396 command name, just as in the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option.
4400 This environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4401 client to use a web proxy when connecting to an rsync daemon. You should
4402 set `RSYNC_PROXY` to a hostname:port pair.
4406 This environment variable allows you to set the password for an rsync
4407 **daemon** connection, which avoids the password prompt. Note that this
4408 does **not** supply a password to a remote shell transport such as ssh
4409 (consult its documentation for how to do that).
4411 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4413 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4414 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4415 to "nobody". If both are set, `USER` takes precedence.
4417 0. `RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`
4419 This environment variable specifies the directory to use for a
4420 [`--partial`](#opt) transfer without implying that partial transfers be
4421 enabled. See the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option for full details.
4423 0. `RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`
4425 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4426 compression algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4427 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available compression
4428 names. See the [`--compress`](#opt) option for full details.
4430 0. `RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`
4432 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4433 checksum algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4434 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available checksum
4435 names. See the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) option for full details.
4437 0. `RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`
4439 This environment variable sets an allocation maximum as if you had used the
4440 [`--max-alloc`](#opt) option.
4444 This environment variable is not read by rsync, but is instead set in
4445 its sub-environment when rsync is running the remote shell in combination
4446 with a daemon connection. This allows a script such as
4447 [`rsync-ssl`](rsync-ssl.1) to be able to know the port number that the user
4448 specified on the command line.
4452 This environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4455 0. `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`
4457 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4458 to use when making a daemon connection. See [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC
4459 DAEMON](#) for full details.
4463 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4464 to use to run the program specified by [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#). See
4465 [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON](#) for full details.
4469 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4473 [**rsync-ssl**(1)](rsync-ssl.1), [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5), [**rrsync**(1)](rrsync.1)
4477 - Times are transferred as \*nix time_t values.
4478 - When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified files. See
4479 the comments on the [`--modify-window`](#opt) option.
4480 - File permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values.
4481 - See also the comments on the [`--delete`](#opt) option.
4483 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4487 This manpage is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4491 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4492 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4493 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4494 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4495 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4496 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4500 Rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4501 [COPYING](COPYING) for details.
4503 An rsync web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site
4504 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
4507 The rsync github project is <https://github.com/WayneD/rsync>.
4509 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4510 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4512 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4513 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4517 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4518 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4519 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4521 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4522 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4526 Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4527 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4530 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4531 <https://lists.samba.org/>.