3 rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
9 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
11 Access via remote shell:
13 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
15 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
17 Access via rsync daemon:
19 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
22 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
23 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26 Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
29 The online version of this manpage (that includes cross-linking of topics)
30 is available at <https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1>.
34 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
35 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
36 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
37 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
38 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
39 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
40 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
41 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
44 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
45 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
46 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
47 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
48 the file's data does not need to be updated.
50 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
52 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
53 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
54 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
55 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
56 - does not require super-user privileges
57 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
58 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
62 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
63 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
65 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
66 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
67 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
68 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
69 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
70 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
71 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the [USING
72 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) section for an
73 exception to this latter rule).
75 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
76 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
78 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
79 the copy occurs locally (see also the [`--list-only`](#opt) option).
81 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
82 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
83 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
87 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
89 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
90 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
91 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
92 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
93 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
95 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the [`-e`](#opt)
96 command line option, or by setting the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#) environment variable.
98 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
102 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
103 destination, one of which may be remote.
105 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
107 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
109 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
110 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
111 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
112 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
113 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
114 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
115 same as all other Posix-style programs).
117 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
119 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
121 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
122 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
123 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
126 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
128 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
130 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
131 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
134 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
136 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
137 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
139 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
140 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
141 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
143 > rsync -av host: /dest
144 > rsync -av host::module /dest
146 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
147 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
148 improved copy command.
150 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
151 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
153 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
155 See the following section for more details.
157 ## SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
159 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
160 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
161 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames. It can, however,
162 confuse someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what
163 was given on the command-line.
165 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
166 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
167 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
168 does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
170 ## MULTI-HOST SECURITY
172 Rsync takes steps to ensure that the file requests that are shared in a
173 transfer are protected against various security issues. Most of the potential
174 problems arise on the receiving side where rsync takes steps to ensure that the
175 list of files being transferred remains within the bounds of what was
178 Toward this end, rsync 3.1.2 and later have aborted when a file list contains
179 an absolute or relative path that tries to escape out of the top of the
180 transfer. Also, beginning with version 3.2.5, rsync does two more safety
181 checks of the file list to (1) ensure that no extra source arguments were added
182 into the transfer other than those that the client requested and (2) ensure
183 that the file list obeys the exclude rules that were sent to the sender.
185 For those that don't yet have a 3.2.5 client rsync (or those that want to be
186 extra careful), it is safest to do a copy into a dedicated destination
187 directory for the remote files when you don't trust the remote host. For
188 example, instead of doing an rsync copy into your home directory:
190 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~
192 Dedicate a "host1-files" dir to the remote content:
194 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~/host1-files
198 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
199 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
200 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
202 > rsync -aiv host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
203 > rsync -aiv host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/extra /dest/
204 > rsync -aiv host::modname/first ::modname/extra{1,2} /dest/
206 Really old versions of rsync (2.6.9 and before) only allowed specifying one
207 remote-source arg, so some people have instead relied on the remote-shell
208 performing space splitting to break up an arg into multiple paths. Such
209 unintuitive behavior is no longer supported by default (though you can request
210 it, as described below).
212 Starting in 3.2.4, filenames are passed to a remote shell in such a way as to
213 preserve the characters you give it. Thus, if you ask for a file with spaces
214 in the name, that's what the remote rsync looks for:
216 > rsync -aiv host:'a simple file.pdf' /dest/
218 If you use scripts that have been written to manually apply extra quoting to
219 the remote rsync args (or to require remote arg splitting), you can ask rsync
220 to let your script handle the extra escaping. This is done by either adding
221 the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to the rsync runs in the script (which requires
222 a new rsync) or exporting [RSYNC_OLD_ARGS](#)=1 and [RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS](#)=0
223 (which works with old or new rsync versions).
225 ## CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
227 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
228 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
229 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
230 system, so refer to the [STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS](#)
231 section below for information on that.)
233 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
236 - you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
237 hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
238 - the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
239 - the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
240 - if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
241 paths on the daemon will be shown.
242 - if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
243 the remote daemon is provided.
244 - you must not specify the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option (since that overrides
245 the daemon connection to use ssh -- see [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
246 REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) below).
248 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
250 > rsync -av host::src /dest
252 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
253 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
254 by setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_PASSWORD`](#) to the password you
255 want to use or using the [`--password-file`](#opt) option. This may be useful
256 when scripting rsync.
258 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
259 those systems using [`--password-file`](#opt) is recommended.
261 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
262 variable [`RSYNC_PROXY`](#) to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy.
263 Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port
266 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
267 setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#) to the commands you
268 wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
269 contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
270 command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
272 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
273 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
274 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
276 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
277 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
279 Note also that if the [`RSYNC_SHELL`](#) environment variable is set, that
280 program will be used to run the `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG` command instead of using
281 the default shell of the **system()** call.
283 ## USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
285 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
286 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
287 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
288 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
289 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
290 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
291 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
292 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
293 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
294 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
295 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
297 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
298 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
299 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
300 program on the command-line with the [`--rsh=COMMAND`](#opt) option. (Setting the
301 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
303 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
305 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
306 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
307 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
308 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
309 example that uses the short version of the [`--rsh`](#opt) option:
311 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
313 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
314 log-in to the "module".
316 In this setup, the daemon is started by the ssh command that is accessing the
317 system (which can be forced via the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file, if desired).
318 However, when accessing a daemon directly, it needs to be started beforehand.
320 ## STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
322 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
323 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
324 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
325 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
326 connections, see the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage -- that is
327 the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run
328 the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
330 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
331 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
335 Here are some examples of how rsync can be used.
337 To backup a home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail
338 folders, a per-user cron job can be used that runs this each day:
340 > rsync -aiz . bkhost:backup/joe/
342 To move some files from a remote host to the local host, you could run:
344 > rsync -aiv --remove-source-files rhost:/tmp/{file1,file2}.c ~/src/
348 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Each option also
349 has its own detailed description later in this manpage.
351 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
352 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
355 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
356 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
357 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
358 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
359 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
360 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
361 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
362 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
363 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
364 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
365 --relative, -R use relative path names
366 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
367 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
368 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
369 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
370 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
371 --inplace update destination files in-place
372 --append append data onto shorter files
373 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
374 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
375 --old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
376 --mkpath create the destination's path component
377 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
378 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
379 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
380 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
381 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
382 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
383 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
384 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
385 --perms, -p preserve permissions
386 --executability, -E preserve executability
387 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
388 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
389 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
390 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
391 --group, -g preserve group
392 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
393 --copy-devices copy device contents as a regular file
394 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
395 --specials preserve special files
396 -D same as --devices --specials
397 --times, -t preserve modification times
398 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
399 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
400 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
401 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
402 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
403 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
404 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
405 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
406 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
407 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
408 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
409 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
410 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
411 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
412 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
413 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
414 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
415 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
416 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
417 --del an alias for --delete-during
418 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
419 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
420 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
421 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
422 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
423 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
424 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
425 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
426 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
427 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
428 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
429 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
430 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
431 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
432 --partial keep partially transferred files
433 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
434 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
435 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
436 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
437 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
438 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
439 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
440 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
441 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
442 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
443 --size-only skip files that match in size
444 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
445 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
446 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
447 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
448 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
449 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
450 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
451 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
452 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
453 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
454 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
455 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
456 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
457 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
458 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
459 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
460 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
461 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
462 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
463 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
464 --old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
465 --protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
466 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
467 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
468 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
469 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
470 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
471 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
472 --stats give some file-transfer stats
473 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
474 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
475 --progress show progress during transfer
476 -P same as --partial --progress
477 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
478 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
479 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
480 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
481 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
482 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
483 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
484 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
485 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
486 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
487 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
488 --fsync fsync every written file
489 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
490 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
491 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
492 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
493 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
494 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
495 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
496 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
497 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
498 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
501 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
504 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
507 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
508 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
509 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
510 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
511 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
512 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
513 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
514 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
515 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
516 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
517 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
518 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
519 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
520 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
525 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
526 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
527 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
528 Some options only have a long variant, not a short.
530 If the option takes a parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long
531 variant, even though it must also be specified for the short. When specifying
532 a parameter, you can either use the form `--option=param`, `--option param`,
533 `-o=param`, `-o param`, or `-oparam` (the latter choices assume that your
534 option has a short variant).
536 The parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the
537 shell's command-line parsing. Also keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in
538 a pathname is substituted by your shell, so make sure that you separate the
539 option name from the pathname using a space if you want the shell to expand it.
541 [comment]: # (Some markup below uses a literal non-breakable space when a backtick string)
542 [comment]: # (needs to contain a space since markdown strips spaces from the start/end)
544 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
548 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
549 You can also use `-h` for `--help` when it is used without any other
550 options (since it normally means [`--human-readable`](#opt)).
554 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
556 The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
557 list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
558 to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
562 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
563 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
564 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
565 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
566 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
567 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
569 The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
570 rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
571 received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
572 transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
573 second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
574 file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
575 value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
576 sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
577 number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
578 human-readable by using the [`--human-readable`](#opt) (or
579 `--no-human-readable`) options.
581 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
582 of [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) options. You can choose to use
583 these newer options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as
584 any fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both
585 [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) have a way to ask for help that
586 tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
588 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
589 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
590 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
591 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
592 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
596 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
597 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
598 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
599 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
600 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
601 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
602 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
604 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
605 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
607 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the [`--out-format`](#opt)
608 and [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options. See those options for more
609 information on what is output and when.
611 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
612 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
613 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
614 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
618 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
619 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
620 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
621 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
622 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
623 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
624 the verbose level. Some examples:
626 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
627 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
629 Note that some debug messages will only be output when the [`--stderr=all`](#opt)
630 option is specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
632 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
633 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
634 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
635 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
636 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
637 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
639 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
641 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
643 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
644 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
645 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
647 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
648 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
649 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
650 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
651 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
654 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
655 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
656 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
657 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
658 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
659 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
660 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows [`--debug`](#opt) to
661 enable some extra I/O related messages.
663 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
664 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
665 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
666 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
667 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
668 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
669 been around for several releases.
671 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
672 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
673 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
674 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
675 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
679 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
680 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
681 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
685 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
686 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
687 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
688 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
689 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
692 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
694 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
695 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
696 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
698 This option can be confusing compared to [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) and
699 [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) in that that they cause rsync to transfer
700 fewer files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
704 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
705 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
706 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
707 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
708 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
711 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
713 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
714 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
715 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
716 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
717 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
718 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
719 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
721 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
722 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
724 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
725 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
727 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
728 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
729 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
731 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
733 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
734 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
735 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
736 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
737 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
738 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
739 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
740 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
741 transfer changed files)
743 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
744 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
745 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
746 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
747 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
749 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
750 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
751 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
752 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
753 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
755 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
756 can be overridden using either the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`)
757 option or an environment variable that is discussed in that option's
762 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
763 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
764 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
765 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
767 The only exception to the above equivalence is when [`--files-from`](#opt)
768 is specified, in which case [`-r`](#opt) is not implied.
772 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
773 with "no-". Not all positive options have a negated opposite, but a lot
774 do, including those that can be used to disable an implied option (e.g.
775 `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have different defaults in various circumstances
776 (e.g. [`--no-whole-file`](#opt), `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). Every
777 valid negated option accepts both the short and the long option name after
778 the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as `--no-relative`).
780 As an example, if you want to use [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) but don't want
781 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you
782 can specify `-a --no-o` (aka `--archive --no-owner`).
784 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the `-r`
785 option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`. Note
786 also that the side-effects of the [`--files-from`](#opt) option are NOT
787 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
788 changes the meaning of [`-a`](#opt) (see the [`--files-from`](#opt) option
791 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
793 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also
794 [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) for an option that allows the scanning of a single
797 See the [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) option for a discussion of the
798 incremental recursion for creating the list of files to transfer.
800 0. `--inc-recursive`, `--i-r`
802 This option explicitly enables on incremental recursion when scanning for
803 files, which is enabled by default when using the [`--recursive`](#opt)
804 option and both sides of the transfer are running rsync 3.0.0 or newer.
806 Incremental recursion uses much less memory than non-incremental, while
807 also beginning the transfer more quickly (since it doesn't need to scan the
808 entire transfer hierarchy before it starts transferring files). If no
809 recursion is enabled in the source files, this option has no effect.
811 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
812 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include:
813 - [`--delete-before`](#opt) (the old default of [`--delete`](#opt))
814 - [`--delete-after`](#opt)
815 - [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt)
816 - [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
818 In order to make [`--delete`](#opt) compatible with incremental recursion,
819 rsync 3.0.0 made [`--delete-during`](#opt) the default delete mode (which
820 was first added in 2.6.4).
822 One side-effect of incremental recursion is that any missing
823 sub-directories inside a recursively-scanned directory are (by default)
824 created prior to recursing into the sub-dirs. This earlier creation point
825 (compared to a non-incremental recursion) allows rsync to then set the
826 modify time of the finished directory right away (without having to delay
827 that until a bunch of recursive copying has finished). However, these
828 early directories don't yet have their completed mode, mtime, or ownership
829 set -- they have more restrictive rights until the subdirectory's copying
830 actually begins. This early-creation idiom can be avoiding by using the
831 [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option.
833 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the
834 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) (`--no-i-r`) option.
836 0. `--no-inc-recursive`, `--no-i-r`
838 Disables the new incremental recursion algorithm of the
839 [`--recursive`](#opt) option. This makes rsync scan the full file list
840 before it begins to transfer files. See [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) for more
843 0. `--relative`, `-R`
845 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
846 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
847 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
848 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
851 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
853 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
856 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
858 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
859 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
860 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
863 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
864 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
865 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
866 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
867 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
868 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
869 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
870 the [`--no-implied-dirs`](#opt) option.
872 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
873 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
874 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
875 the source path, like this:
877 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
879 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
880 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
881 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
882 path. For example, when pushing files:
884 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
886 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
887 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
888 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
889 non-daemon transfer):
891 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
892 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
894 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
896 This option affects the default behavior of the [`--relative`](#opt) option. When
897 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
898 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
899 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
900 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
901 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
902 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
904 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
905 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
906 are implied when [`--relative`](#opt) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
907 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
908 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
909 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
910 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
911 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
912 preservation is to use the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option (which will also affect
913 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
915 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
916 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
917 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
921 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
922 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
923 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the [`--backup-dir`](#opt) and
924 [`--suffix`](#opt) options.
926 If you don't specify [`--backup-dir`](#opt):
928 1. the [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option will be forced on
929 2. the use of [`--delete`](#opt) (without [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)),
930 causes rsync to add a "protect" [filter-rule](#FILTER_RULES) for the
931 backup suffix to the end of all your existing filters that looks like
932 this: `-f "P *~"`. This rule prevents previously backed-up files from
935 Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to
936 manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the
937 list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g. if your
938 rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule
939 would never be reached).
941 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
943 This implies the [`--backup`](#opt) option, and tells rsync to store all
944 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
945 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
946 using the [`--suffix`](#opt) option (otherwise the files backed up in the
947 specified directory will keep their original filenames).
949 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
950 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
951 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
952 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
953 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
957 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
958 [`--backup`](#opt) (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no
959 [`--backup-dir`](#opt) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
963 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
964 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
965 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
966 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
968 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
969 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
970 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
971 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
972 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
973 regardless of the timestamps.
975 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
976 exclude side effects.
978 A caution for those that choose to combine [`--inplace`](#opt) with
979 `--update`: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the
980 receiving side that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the
981 transfer will probably **not** continue the interrupted file. As such, it
982 is usually best to avoid combining this with[ `--inplace`](#opt) unless you
983 have implemented manual steps to handle any interrupted in-progress files.
987 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
988 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
989 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
990 updated data directly to the destination file.
992 This has several effects:
994 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
995 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
996 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
997 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
999 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
1000 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
1002 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
1003 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
1005 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
1006 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
1007 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
1008 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
1009 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
1010 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use [`--backup`](#opt),
1011 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
1014 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
1015 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
1017 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
1018 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
1019 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
1020 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
1022 The option implies [`--partial`](#opt) (since an interrupted transfer does
1023 not delete the file), but conflicts with [`--partial-dir`](#opt) and
1024 [`--delay-updates`](#opt). Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also
1025 incompatible with [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
1029 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
1030 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
1031 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
1032 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
1033 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
1034 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
1036 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
1037 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
1038 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
1039 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
1040 that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
1041 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
1042 "diminished" file when this happens).
1044 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
1045 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
1046 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
1049 0. `--append-verify`
1051 This special copy mode works like [`--append`](#opt) except that all the
1052 data in the file is included in the checksum verification (making it less
1053 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
1054 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
1055 files. See the [`--append`](#opt) option for more details.
1057 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the [`--append`](#opt) option worked like
1058 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
1059 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
1060 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
1064 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
1065 Unlike [`--recursive`](#opt), a directory's contents are not copied unless
1066 the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g.
1067 ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
1068 [`--recursive`](#opt) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters
1069 (and output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
1070 `--dirs` and [`--recursive`](#opt), `--recursive` takes precedence.
1072 The `--dirs` option is implied by the [`--files-from`](#opt) option or the
1073 [`--list-only`](#opt) option (including an implied [`--list-only`](#opt)
1074 usage) if [`--recursive`](#opt) wasn't specified (so that directories are
1075 seen in the listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to
1078 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs`
1079 (`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
1080 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1084 Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1085 to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1086 in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1087 supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1088 treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1089 same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1092 For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1093 directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1095 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1097 If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1098 sub/dir/bar directory:
1100 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1104 Add symlinks to the transferred files instead of noisily ignoring them with
1105 a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink encountered. You can
1106 alternately silence the warning by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1108 The default handling of symlinks is to recreate each symlink's unchanged
1109 value on the receiving side.
1111 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1113 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1115 The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
1116 referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
1117 references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
1118 is dropped from the transfer.
1120 This option supersedes any other options that affect symlinks in the
1121 transfer, since there are no symlinks left in the transfer.
1123 This option does not change the handling of existing symlinks on the
1124 receiving side, unlike versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3 which had the
1125 side-effect of telling the receiving side to also follow symlinks. A
1126 modern rsync won't forward this option to a remote receiver (since only the
1127 sender needs to know about it), so this caveat should only affect someone
1128 using an rsync client older than 2.6.7 (which is when `-L` stopped being
1129 forwarded to the receiver).
1131 See the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) (`-K`) if you need a symlink to a
1132 directory to be treated as a real directory on the receiving side.
1134 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1136 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1138 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1139 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1140 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when [`--relative`](#opt)
1143 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1144 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1145 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1146 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1147 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1148 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1149 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1152 Note that safe symlinks are only copied if [`--links`](#opt) was also
1153 specified or implied. The `--copy-unsafe-links` option has no extra effect
1154 when combined with [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1156 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1160 This tells the receiving rsync to ignore any symbolic links in the transfer
1161 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
1164 Since this ignoring is happening on the receiving side, it will still be
1165 effective even when the sending side has munged symlinks (when it is using
1166 [`--munge-links`](#opt)). It also affects deletions, since the file being
1167 present in the transfer prevents any matching file on the receiver from
1168 being deleted when the symlink is deemed to be unsafe and is skipped.
1170 This option must be combined with [`--links`](#opt) (or
1171 [`--archive`](#opt)) to have any symlinks in the transfer to conditionally
1172 ignore. Its effect is superseded by [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt).
1174 Using this option in conjunction with [`--relative`](#opt) may give
1177 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1181 This option affects just one side of the transfer and tells rsync to munge
1182 symlink values when it is receiving files or unmunge symlink values when it
1183 is sending files. The munged values make the symlinks unusable on disk but
1184 allows the original contents of the symlinks to be recovered.
1186 The server-side rsync often enables this option without the client's
1187 knowledge, such as in an rsync daemon's configuration file or by an option
1188 given to the rrsync (restricted rsync) script. When specified on the
1189 client side, specify the option normally if it is the client side that
1190 has/needs the munged symlinks, or use `-M--munge-links` to give the option
1191 to the server when it has/needs the munged symlinks. Note that on a local
1192 transfer, the client is the sender, so specifying the option directly
1193 unmunges symlinks while specifying it as a remote option munges symlinks.
1195 This option has no effect when sent to a daemon via [`--remote-option`](#opt)
1196 because the daemon configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
1197 "`munge symlinks`" parameter.
1199 The symlink value is munged/unmunged once it is in the transfer, so any
1200 option that transforms symlinks into non-symlinks occurs prior to the
1201 munging/unmunging **except** for [`--safe-links`](#opt), which is a choice
1202 that the receiver makes, so it bases its decision on the munged/unmunged
1203 value. This does mean that if a receiver has munging enabled, that using
1204 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause all symlinks to be ignored (since they
1207 The method that rsync uses to munge the symlinks is to prefix each one's
1208 value with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from
1209 being used as long as the directory does not exist. When this option is
1210 enabled, rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink
1211 to a directory (though it only checks at startup). See also the
1212 "munge-symlinks" python script in the support directory of the source code
1213 for a way to munge/unmunge one or more symlinks in-place.
1215 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1217 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1218 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1219 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using
1220 [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1222 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1223 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1224 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1225 [`--force`](#opt) or [`--delete`](#opt) is in effect).
1227 See also [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the
1230 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1231 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1232 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1233 [`--relative`](#opt) to make the paths match up right. For example:
1235 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1237 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1238 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1239 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1242 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1244 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1246 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1247 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1248 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1249 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1251 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1252 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1253 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1254 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1255 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1258 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1259 symlinks in the copy or enable the [`--munge-links`](#opt) option on the
1260 receiving side! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create their
1261 own symlink to any real directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1262 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1263 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1264 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1265 your receiving hierarchy.
1267 See also [`--copy-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the sending
1270 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1272 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1274 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1275 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1276 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1279 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1280 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1281 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1283 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1284 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1285 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1286 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1287 (unless you are using the [`--inplace`](#opt) option).
1288 - If you specify a [`--link-dest`](#opt) directory that contains hard
1289 links, the linking of the destination files against the
1290 [`--link-dest`](#opt) files can cause some paths in the destination to
1291 become linked together due to the [`--link-dest`](#opt) associations.
1293 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1294 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1295 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1296 you are tempted to use the [`--inplace`](#opt) option to avoid this breakage, be
1297 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1298 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1299 see the [`--inplace`](#opt) option for more caveats).
1301 If incremental recursion is active (see [`--inc-recursive`](#opt)), rsync
1302 may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link
1303 for that contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect
1304 the accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
1305 just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1306 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1307 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1308 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1309 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) option.
1313 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1314 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the [`--chmod`](#opt)
1315 option for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source
1318 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1320 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1321 permissions, though the [`--executability`](#opt) option might change
1322 just the execute permission for the file.
1323 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1324 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1325 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1326 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1327 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1328 bit from its parent directory.
1330 Thus, when `--perms` and [`--executability`](#opt) are both disabled, rsync's
1331 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1334 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1335 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1336 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1337 `--perms` option is off and use [`--chmod=ugo=rwX`](#opt) (which ensures
1338 that all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
1339 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
1340 putting this line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z`
1341 option, and includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination
1344 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1346 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1348 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1350 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1351 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1353 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1354 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1355 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1356 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1357 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1358 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1359 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1360 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1363 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1365 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1366 non-executability) of regular files when [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1367 A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1368 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1369 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1370 destination file's permissions as follows:
1372 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1373 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1374 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1376 If [`--perms`](#opt) is enabled, this option is ignored.
1380 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1381 the source ACLs. The option also implies [`--perms`](#opt).
1383 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1384 this option to work properly. See the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option for a
1385 way to backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1389 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1390 be the same as the source ones.
1392 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1393 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1394 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1395 namespaces as a normal user, see the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option.
1397 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1398 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1399 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1400 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1401 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1402 namespace, you could specify:
1404 > --filter='-x system.*'
1406 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1409 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1411 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1412 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1416 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1417 those used by [`--fake-super`](#opt)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1418 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with [`--fake-super`](#opt).
1422 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1423 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1424 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1425 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1426 existing files if [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1428 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1429 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1430 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1431 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1432 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1433 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1434 consistent executability across all bits:
1436 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1438 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1440 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1442 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1443 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1445 See the [`--perms`](#opt) and [`--executability`](#opt) options for how the
1446 resulting permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1450 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1451 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1452 the super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
1453 options). Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files
1454 are set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
1456 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1457 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1458 [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1462 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1463 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1464 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1465 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1466 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1467 user on the receiving side.
1469 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1470 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1471 (see also the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1475 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1476 the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
1477 being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
1478 (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1480 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
1481 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1482 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1486 This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
1487 and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
1488 rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the
1489 [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1491 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
1492 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1493 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1497 The `-D` option is equivalent to "[`--devices`](#opt)
1498 [`--specials`](#opt)".
1502 This tells rsync to treat a device on the sending side as a regular file,
1503 allowing it to be copied to a normal destination file (or another device
1504 if `--write-devices` was also specified).
1506 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1508 0. `--write-devices`
1510 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1511 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1513 This option implies the [`--inplace`](#opt) option.
1515 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1516 receiving side of the transfer, especially when running rsync as root.
1518 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1522 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1523 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1524 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1525 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` (or [`-a`](#opt)) will cause the
1526 next transfer to behave as if it used [`--ignore-times`](#opt) (`-I`),
1527 causing all files to be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1528 will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't actually
1529 changed, you're much better off using `-t`).
1533 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1534 the same value as the source files.
1536 If repeated, it also sets the [`--open-noatime`](#opt) option, which can help you
1537 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1538 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1541 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1542 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply
1543 [`--open-noatime`](#opt) when this option is repeated.
1547 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1548 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1549 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1550 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1551 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1552 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1554 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1556 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1557 files to the same value as the source files.
1559 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1561 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
1562 access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1563 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1564 [`--backup`](#opt) without [`--backup-dir`](#opt).
1566 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of missing
1567 sub-directories when incremental recursion is enabled, as discussed in the
1568 [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) section.
1570 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1572 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
1573 access, and create times.
1577 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1578 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1579 preserving users via the [`--owner`](#opt) option, preserving all groups
1580 (not just the current user's groups) via the [`--group`](#opt) option, and
1581 copying devices via the [`--devices`](#opt) option. This is useful for
1582 systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and also
1583 for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run
1584 as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can
1589 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1590 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1591 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1592 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1593 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1594 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1595 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1596 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1597 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1598 ACLs (if [`--acls`](#opt) was specified) and non-user extended attributes
1599 (if [`--xattrs`](#opt) was specified).
1601 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1602 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1604 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1605 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1606 [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`) option:
1608 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1610 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1611 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1612 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1613 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1615 This option is overridden by both [`--super`](#opt) and `--no-super`.
1617 See also the [`fake super`](rsyncd.conf.5#fake_super) setting in the
1618 daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1622 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1623 destination. If combined with [`--inplace`](#opt) the file created might
1624 not end up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version
1625 and/or filesystem type. If [`--whole-file`](#opt) is in effect (e.g. for a
1626 local copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior
1627 to writing out the updated version.
1629 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1630 `--sparse` and [`--inplace`](#opt).
1634 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1635 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1636 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1637 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1638 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1640 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1641 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1642 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1643 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1645 If combined with [`--sparse`](#opt), the file will only have sparse blocks
1646 (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1647 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1649 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1651 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1652 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1653 in combination with the [`--verbose`](#opt) (`-v`) and/or
1654 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options to see what an rsync command is
1655 going to do before one actually runs it.
1657 The output of [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) is supposed to be exactly the
1658 same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery
1659 and system call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should
1660 be mostly unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does
1661 not send the actual data for file transfers, so [`--progress`](#opt) has no
1662 effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched
1663 data" statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
1664 run where no file transfers were needed.
1666 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1668 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1669 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1670 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1671 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1672 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1673 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1674 batch-writing option is in effect.
1676 0. `--no-whole-file`, `--no-W`
1678 Disable whole-file updating when it is enabled by default for a local
1679 transfer. This usually slows rsync down, but it can be useful if you are
1680 trying to minimize the writes to the destination file (if combined with
1681 [`--inplace`](#opt)) or for testing the checksum-based update algorithm.
1683 See also the [`--whole-file`](#opt) option.
1685 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1687 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1688 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1689 [`--checksum`](#opt) is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1690 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1691 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1693 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1695 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1698 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1703 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1704 version (which may differ from the list above).
1706 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the [`--whole-file`](#opt)
1707 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1708 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1709 the [`--checksum`](#opt) option cannot be used.
1711 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1712 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1714 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1715 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1716 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1717 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1718 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1719 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1721 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1722 [`RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum
1723 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
1724 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
1725 If the string (or string portion) contains no non-whitespace characters,
1726 the default checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
1727 specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum,
1728 and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum names. A list with only
1729 invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1731 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1733 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1735 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1736 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1737 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1738 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1739 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1740 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1742 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1743 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1744 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1745 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1747 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via [`--copy-links`](#opt) or
1748 [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt)), a symlink to a directory on another device
1749 is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1752 0. `--ignore-non-existing`, `--existing`
1754 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1755 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1756 [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) option, no files will be updated (which can be
1757 useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1759 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1760 exclude side effects.
1762 0. `--ignore-existing`
1764 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1765 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1766 get done). See also [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt).
1768 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1769 exclude side effects.
1771 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the
1772 [`--link-dest`](#opt) option when they need to continue a backup run that
1773 got interrupted. Since a [`--link-dest`](#opt) run is copied into a new
1774 directory hierarchy (when it is used properly), using [`--ignore-existing`
1775 will ensure that the already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids
1776 a change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that
1777 this option is only looking at the existing files in the destination
1780 When [`--info=skip2`](#opt) is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists
1781 (INFO)" messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum
1782 change" (requires [`-c`](#opt)), "file change" (based on the quick check),
1783 "attr change", or "uptodate". Using [`--info=skip1`](#opt) (which is also
1784 implied by 2 [`-v`](#opt) options) outputs the exists message without the
1787 0. `--remove-source-files`
1789 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1790 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1791 duplicated on the receiving side.
1793 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1794 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1795 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1796 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1797 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1798 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1799 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1800 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1801 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option [`--exclude='*.new'`](#opt)
1802 for the rsync transfer).
1804 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1805 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1809 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1810 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1811 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1812 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1813 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1814 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1815 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1816 excluded from being deleted unless you use the [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
1817 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1818 include/exclude modifiers in the [FILTER RULES](#) section).
1820 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless
1821 [`--recursive`](#opt) was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will
1822 also occur when [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) is enabled, but only for
1823 directories whose contents are being copied.
1825 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1826 first try a run using the [`--dry-run`](#opt) (`-n`) option to see what
1827 files are going to be deleted.
1829 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1830 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1831 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1832 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1833 this with the [`--ignore-errors`](#opt) option.
1835 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1836 without conflict, as well as [`--delete-excluded`](#opt). However, if none
1837 of the `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1838 [`--delete-during`](#opt) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer,
1839 or the [`--delete-before`](#opt) algorithm when talking to an older rsync.
1840 See also [`--delete-delay`](#opt) and [`--delete-after`](#opt).
1842 0. `--delete-before`
1844 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1845 transfer starts. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1846 details on file-deletion.
1848 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1849 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1850 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1851 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1852 [`--timeout`](#opt) was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1853 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1854 files in the transfer into memory at once (see [`--recursive`](#opt)).
1856 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1858 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1859 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1860 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1861 efficient [`--delete-before`](#opt), including doing the deletions prior to
1862 any per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added
1863 in rsync version 2.6.4. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1864 details on file-deletion.
1868 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1869 the transfer (like [`--delete-during`](#opt)), and then removed after the
1870 transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1871 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) and/or [`--fuzzy`](#opt), and is more efficient
1872 than using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (but can behave differently, since
1873 [`--delete-after`](#opt) computes the deletions in a separate pass after
1874 all updates are done). If the number of removed files overflows an
1875 internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
1876 hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during
1877 the transfer). If the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try
1878 to fall back to using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (which it cannot do if
1879 [`--recursive`](#opt) is doing an incremental scan). See
1880 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1884 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1885 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1886 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1887 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1888 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1889 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1890 (see [`--recursive`](#opt)). See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for
1891 more details on file-deletion.
1893 See also the [`--delete-delay`](#opt) option that might be a faster choice
1894 for those that just want the deletions to occur at the end of the transfer.
1896 0. `--delete-excluded`
1898 This option turns any unqualified exclude/include rules into server-side
1899 rules that do not affect the receiver's deletions.
1901 By default, an exclude or include has both a server-side effect (to "hide"
1902 and "show" files when building the server's file list) and a receiver-side
1903 effect (to "protect" and "risk" files when deletions are occuring). Any
1904 rule that has no modifier to specify what sides it is executed on will be
1905 instead treated as if it were a server-side rule only, avoiding any
1906 "protect" effects of the rules.
1908 A rule can still apply to both sides even with this option specified if the
1909 rule is given both the sender & receiver modifer letters (e.g., `-f'-sr
1910 foo'`). Receiver-side protect/risk rules can also be explicitly specified
1911 to limit the deletions. This is saves you from having to edit a bunch of
1912 `-f'- foo'` rules into `-f'-s foo'` or `-f'H foo'` rules (not to mention
1913 the corresponding includes).
1915 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for more information. See
1916 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on deletion.
1918 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
1920 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1921 command-line arguments or [`--files-from`](#opt) entries), it is normally
1922 an error if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error,
1923 and does not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1924 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1927 0. `--delete-missing-args`
1929 This option takes the behavior of the (implied)
1930 [`--ignore-missing-args`](#opt) option a step farther: each missing arg
1931 will become a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the
1932 receiving side (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty
1933 directory, it will only be successfully deleted if [`--force`](#opt) or
1934 [`--delete`](#opt) are in effect. Other than that, this option is
1935 independent of any other type of delete processing.
1937 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1938 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the [`--list-only`](#opt) output.
1940 0. `--ignore-errors`
1942 Tells [`--delete`](#opt) to go ahead and delete files even when there are
1947 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1948 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1949 active (see [`--delete`](#opt) for details).
1951 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
1952 using [`--delete-after`](#opt), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1953 [`--recursive`](#opt) option was also enabled.
1955 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
1957 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
1958 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
1959 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
1960 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
1961 important error condition also occurred).
1963 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
1964 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1965 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1966 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
1967 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1968 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1970 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
1972 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
1973 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
1974 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
1975 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
1977 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1978 exclude side effects.
1980 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
1981 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
1982 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
1983 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
1984 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
1985 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
1987 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
1988 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
1991 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
1994 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
1996 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
1998 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
1999 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
2000 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of SIZE and other info.
2002 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
2004 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
2006 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
2007 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
2008 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
2009 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
2010 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
2011 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
2012 consume more memory.
2014 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
2015 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
2017 See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of how SIZE can be
2018 specified. The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
2020 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
2022 You can set a default value using the environment variable
2023 [`RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`](#) using the same SIZE values as supported by this
2024 option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option,
2025 you can override an environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`,
2026 which will make rsync avoid sending the option to the remote side (because
2027 "1G" is the default).
2029 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
2031 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
2032 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
2033 updated. See the technical report for details.
2035 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
2036 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
2038 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
2040 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
2041 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
2042 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
2045 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
2046 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
2047 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
2048 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
2049 remote host. See the [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL
2050 CONNECTION](#) section above.
2052 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the [`RSYNC_PORT`](#) environment variable will
2053 be set when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell
2054 connection. It is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or
2055 it is set to the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
2056 [`--port`](#opt) option or a non-empty port value in an `rsync://` URL.
2057 This allows the script to discern if a non-default port is being requested,
2058 allowing for things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a
2059 default or alternate port.
2061 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
2062 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
2063 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
2064 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
2065 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
2066 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
2067 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
2068 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
2071 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
2073 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
2074 options in their .ssh/config file.)
2076 You can also choose the remote shell program using the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#)
2077 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
2079 See also the [`--blocking-io`](#opt) option which is affected by this
2082 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
2084 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
2085 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
2086 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
2087 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
2088 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
2089 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
2091 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
2092 machine for use with the [`--relative`](#opt) option. For instance:
2094 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
2096 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
2098 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
2099 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
2100 you want to pass [`--log-file=FILE`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) to
2101 the remote system, specify it like this:
2103 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
2105 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
2106 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
2109 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
2111 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
2112 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
2113 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
2115 Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
2116 want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
2117 remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
2118 this requires the use of [`--old-args`](#opt) in a modern rsync.
2120 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
2121 "remote" side is the receiver.
2123 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
2124 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
2125 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
2126 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
2129 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
2131 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
2132 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
2133 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
2135 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
2136 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the [FILTER RULES](#)
2139 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
2178 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2179 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2180 delimited by whitespace).
2182 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2183 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2184 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2185 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
2187 If you're combining `-C` with your own [`--filter`](#opt) rules, you should
2188 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2189 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2190 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2191 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2192 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2193 [`--filter=:C`](#opt) and [`--filter=-C`](#opt) (either on your
2194 command-line or by putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with
2195 your other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scanning
2196 for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time import of the
2197 CVS excludes mentioned above.
2199 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2201 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2202 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2203 combination with a recursive transfer.
2205 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2206 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2207 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2208 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2209 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2211 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2215 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two [`--filter`](#opt) rules to
2216 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2218 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2220 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2221 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2222 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2225 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2227 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2229 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on how these
2232 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2234 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2235 specifies an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2236 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'- PATTERN'`.
2238 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2240 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2242 This option is related to the [`--exclude`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2243 a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2244 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2245 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2247 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2248 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2249 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an exclude.
2251 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2252 before adding any further rules.
2254 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2256 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2258 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2259 specifies an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2260 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'+ PATTERN'`.
2262 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2264 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2266 This option is related to the [`--include`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2267 a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2268 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2269 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2271 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2272 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2273 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an include.
2275 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2276 before adding any further rules.
2278 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2280 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2282 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2283 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2284 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2285 specified files and directories easier:
2287 - The [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the
2288 path information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2289 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2290 - The [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) option is implied, which will create
2291 directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily
2292 skipping them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2293 - The [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply
2294 [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2295 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2296 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2297 options are parsed (e.g. [`-a`](#opt) works the same before or after
2298 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2300 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2301 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2302 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2304 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2306 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2307 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2308 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2309 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2310 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the
2311 [`-r`](#opt) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be
2312 transferred (keep in mind that [`-r`](#opt) needs to be specified
2313 explicitly with `--files-from`, since it is not implied by [`-a`](#opt).
2314 Also note that the effect of the (enabled by default) [`-r`](#opt) option
2315 is to duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does
2316 not force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2318 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2319 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2320 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2321 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2324 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2326 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2327 was located on the remote "src" host.
2329 If the [`--iconv`](#opt) and [`--protect-args`](#opt) options are specified
2330 and the `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another,
2331 the filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2332 receiving host's charset.
2334 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2335 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2336 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2337 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2338 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2343 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2344 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2345 affects [`--exclude-from`](#opt), [`--include-from`](#opt),
2346 [`--files-from`](#opt), and any merged files specified in a
2347 [`--filter`](#opt) rule. It does not affect [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (since
2348 all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2352 This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values on the
2353 remote side from unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation.
2355 The default in a modern rsync is for "shell-active" characters (including
2356 spaces) to be backslash-escaped in the args that are sent to the remote
2357 shell. The wildcard characters `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]` are not escaped in
2358 filename args (allowing them to expand into multiple filenames) while being
2359 protected in option args, such as [`--usermap`](#opt).
2361 If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in its
2362 filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
2363 with any backslash escapes at all, specify this option twice.
2365 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) environment
2366 variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
2367 setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
2368 repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
2369 behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
2370 positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
2372 Note that this option also disables the extra safety check added in 3.2.5
2373 that ensures that a remote sender isn't including extra top-level items in
2374 the file-list that you didn't request. This side-effect is necessary
2375 because we can't know for sure what names to expect when the remote shell
2376 is interpreting the args.
2378 This option conflicts with the [`--protect-args`](#opt) option.
2380 0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
2382 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
2383 without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. Wildcards are
2384 expanded on the remote host by rsync instead of the shell doing it.
2386 This is similar to the new-style backslash-escaping of args that was added
2387 in 3.2.4, but supports some extra features and doesn't rely on backslash
2388 escaping in the remote shell.
2390 If you use this option with [`--iconv`](#opt), the args related to the
2391 remote side will also be translated from the local to the remote
2392 character-set. The translation happens before wild-cards are expanded.
2393 See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
2395 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#)
2396 environment variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
2397 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2398 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2399 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
2400 versions). This environment variable is also superseded by a non-zero
2401 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) export.
2403 You may need to disable this option when interacting with an older rsync
2404 (one prior to 3.0.0).
2406 This option conflicts with the [`--old-args`](#opt) option.
2408 Note that this option is incompatible with the use of the restricted rsync
2409 script (`rrsync`) since it hides options from the script's inspection.
2411 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2413 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2414 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2415 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2416 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2418 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2419 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2420 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2421 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2422 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2423 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2424 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2426 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2427 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the
2428 [`--remote-option`](#opt) to affect the remote side, such as
2429 `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer, the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file
2430 provides a local-shell helper script that can be used to allow a
2431 "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified without needing to setup
2432 any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that affect the
2433 side of the transfer that is using the host-spec (and using hostname "lh"
2434 avoids the overriding of the remote directory to the user's home dir).
2436 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2438 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2440 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2441 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2442 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2443 has no permissions to change.
2445 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2446 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2448 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2450 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2452 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2453 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2454 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2455 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2456 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2457 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2459 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2460 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2461 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2462 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2463 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2464 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2465 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2466 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2467 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2468 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2469 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2470 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2471 new version on the disk at the same time.
2473 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2474 space, you may wish to combine it with the [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
2475 option, which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories
2476 in the destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you
2477 don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the
2478 destination partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly
2479 concerned about disk space is to use the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option
2480 with a relative path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a
2481 copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will
2482 use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and
2483 then rename it into place from there. (Specifying a [`--partial-dir`](#opt)
2484 with an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
2488 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2489 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2490 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2491 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2492 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2494 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2495 alternate destination directories that are specified via
2496 [`--compare-dest`](#opt), [`--copy-dest`](#opt), or [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2498 Note that the use of the [`--delete`](#opt) option might get rid of any
2499 potential fuzzy-match files, so either use [`--delete-after`](#opt) or
2500 specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2502 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2504 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2505 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2506 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2507 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2508 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2509 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2510 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2513 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2514 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2515 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2516 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2517 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2520 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2521 See also [`--copy-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2523 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2524 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2525 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2528 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2530 This option behaves like [`--compare-dest`](#opt), but rsync will also copy
2531 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2532 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2533 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2534 files have been successfully transferred.
2536 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2537 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2538 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2539 try to speed up the transfer.
2541 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2542 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2544 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2546 This option behaves like [`--copy-dest`](#opt), but unchanged files are
2547 hard linked from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be
2548 identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly
2549 ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:
2551 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2553 If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2554 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2555 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2556 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2559 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2560 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2561 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2562 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2563 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2564 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2566 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2567 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2568 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2569 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2570 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2571 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2573 Note that if you combine this option with [`--ignore-times`](#opt), rsync will not
2574 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2575 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2576 the file is updated.
2578 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2579 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--copy-dest`](#opt).
2581 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2582 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when
2583 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) was specified (or implied). You can work-around
2584 this bug by avoiding the `-o` option (or using `--no-o`) when sending to an
2587 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2589 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2590 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2591 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2593 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2594 unless you force the choice using the [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`)
2597 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2600 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2601 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2602 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2603 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2604 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2606 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2607 [`RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable
2608 compression names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is
2609 separated into the "client string & server string", otherwise the same
2610 string applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
2611 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2612 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2613 names results in a failed negotiation.
2615 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2616 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2617 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2618 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2621 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2623 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2624 compression algorithm that occurs when [`--compress`](#opt) is used. The
2625 option implies [`--compress`](#opt) unless "none" was specified, which
2626 instead implies `--no-compress`.
2628 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2636 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2637 version (which may differ from the list above).
2639 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2640 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2641 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2642 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2643 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2645 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2646 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2647 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2649 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2651 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see [`--compress`](#opt),
2652 `-z`) instead of letting it default. The [`--compress`](#opt) option is
2653 implied as long as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the
2654 compression algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level
2657 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2658 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2659 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a
2660 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the
2661 choice in effect. For example:
2663 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2665 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2666 the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
2667 `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
2669 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2670 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2672 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2674 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2675 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2676 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2677 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2679 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2680 [`--debug=nstr`](#opt) to see the "negotiated string" results. This will
2681 report something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the
2682 checksum choice in effect).
2684 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2686 **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
2687 changes, so this option has no effect.
2689 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2690 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2691 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
2692 no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
2693 changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
2694 reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
2696 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2697 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2700 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2701 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2702 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2704 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2706 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2707 matches 2 suffixes):
2709 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2711 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2714 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2813 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2814 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2815 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2820 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2821 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2823 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2824 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2825 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2828 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2829 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2830 instead. See also the [`use chroot`](rsyncd.conf.5#use_chroot) setting
2831 in the rsyncd.conf manpage for some comments on how the chroot setting
2832 affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and
2833 what you can do about it.
2835 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2837 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2838 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2839 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2840 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2841 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2842 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2843 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2844 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2845 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2848 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2850 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2851 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2852 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2854 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2855 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2856 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2857 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2858 match those in use on the receiving side.
2860 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2861 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2862 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2864 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2866 When the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option is used, the sender does not send any
2867 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2868 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
2869 nameless IDs to different values.
2871 For the `--usermap` option to work, the receiver will need to be running as
2872 a super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
2873 options). For the `--groupmap` option to work, the receiver will need to
2874 have permissions to set that group.
2876 Starting with rsync 3.2.4, the `--usermap` option implies the
2877 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) option while the `--groupmap` option implies the
2878 [`--group`](#opt) (`-g`) option (since rsync needs to have those options
2879 enabled for the mapping options to work).
2881 An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
2882 avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
2885 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
2887 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2888 a simpler interface than using [`--usermap`](#opt) & [`--groupmap`](#opt)
2889 directly, but it is implemented using those options internally so they
2890 cannot be mixed. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
2891 omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
2892 be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2894 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
2895 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (and with the same
2896 implied [`--owner`](#opt) and/or [`--group`](#opt) options).
2898 An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
2899 avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
2902 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
2904 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2905 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2906 0, which means no timeout.
2908 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
2910 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
2911 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
2912 rsync exits with an error.
2914 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
2916 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
2917 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
2918 address (or hostname) to bind to.
2920 See also [the daemon version of the `--address` option](#dopt--address).
2924 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
2925 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
2926 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
2927 the port as a part of the URL).
2929 See also [the daemon version of the `--port` option](#dopt--port).
2931 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
2933 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
2934 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
2935 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the manpage for the
2936 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
2937 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
2938 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
2940 See also [the daemon version of the `--sockopts` option](#dopt--sockopts).
2944 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
2945 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
2946 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
2947 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2951 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
2952 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
2953 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2955 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2956 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2958 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
2960 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
2961 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
2962 [`--out-format='%i %n%L'`](#opt). If you repeat the option, unchanged
2963 files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least
2964 version 2.6.7 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that
2965 also turns on the output of other verbose messages).
2967 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
2968 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
2969 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
2970 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
2972 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
2974 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
2975 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
2977 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
2978 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
2979 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
2980 [`--hard-links`](#opt)).
2981 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
2982 attributes that are being modified).
2983 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
2986 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
2987 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
2988 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
2990 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
2991 have changed, as follows:
2993 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
2994 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
2995 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
2996 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
2997 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
2999 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
3001 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
3002 [`--checksum`](#opt)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a
3003 changed value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to
3004 3.0.1, this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing
3006 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
3007 by the file transfer.
3008 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
3009 the sender's value (requires [`--times`](#opt)). An alternate value of
3010 `T` means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time,
3011 which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without
3012 [`--times`](#opt) and when a symlink is changed and the receiver can't
3013 set its time. (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the
3014 `s` flag combined with `t` instead of the proper `T` flag for this
3015 time-setting failure.)
3016 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
3017 sender's value (requires [`--perms`](#opt)).
3018 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
3019 value (requires [`--owner`](#opt) and super-user privileges).
3020 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
3021 value (requires [`--group`](#opt) and the authority to set the group).
3022 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information:
3023 - `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
3024 the sender's value (requires [`--atimes`](#opt))
3025 - `n` means the create time (newness) is different and is being updated
3026 to the sender's value (requires [`--crtimes`](#opt))
3027 - `b` means that both the access and create times are being updated
3028 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
3029 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
3031 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
3032 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
3033 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
3034 outputting them as a verbose message).
3036 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
3038 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
3039 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
3040 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
3041 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either
3042 [`--info=name`](#opt) or [`-v`](#opt) is specified (this tells you just the
3043 name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full
3044 list of the possible escape characters, see the [`log
3045 format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format) setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3047 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the [`--info=name`](#opt)
3048 option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a
3049 significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
3050 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
3051 included in the string (e.g. if the [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option was
3052 used), the logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed
3053 in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the
3054 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option for a description of the output of "%i".
3056 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
3057 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
3058 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
3059 is in effect and [`--progress`](#opt) is also specified, rsync will also
3060 output the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress
3061 information (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
3063 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3065 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
3066 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
3067 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
3068 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
3069 of "%i %n%L". See the [`--log-file-format`](#opt) option if you wish to
3072 Here's an example command that requests the remote side to log what is
3075 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
3077 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
3080 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file` option](#dopt--log-file).
3082 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3084 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
3085 file specified by the [`--log-file`](#opt) option (which must also be
3086 specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty
3087 string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of
3088 the possible escape characters, see the [`log format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format)
3089 setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3091 The default FORMAT used if [`--log-file`](#opt) is specified and this
3092 option is not is '%i %n%L'.
3094 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file-format`
3095 option](#dopt--log-file-format).
3099 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
3100 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
3101 your data. This option is equivalent to [`--info=stats2`](#opt) if
3102 combined with 0 or 1 [`-v`](#opt) options, or [`--info=stats3`](#opt) if
3103 combined with 2 or more [`-v`](#opt) options.
3105 The current statistics are as follows:
3107 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
3108 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
3109 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
3110 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
3111 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
3112 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
3113 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3114 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3115 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3116 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3117 sense) were deleted. The total count will be
3118 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3119 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
3120 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
3121 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
3122 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
3123 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
3125 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
3126 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
3127 include the size of symlinks.
3128 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
3129 just the transferred files.
3130 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
3131 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
3132 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
3134 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
3135 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
3136 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
3138 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
3139 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
3140 sending side for this to be present.
3141 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
3142 sending the file list to the receiver.
3143 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
3144 client side to the server side.
3145 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
3146 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
3147 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
3148 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
3150 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
3152 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
3153 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
3154 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
3155 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
3157 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
3158 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
3159 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
3160 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
3162 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
3164 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible levels:
3166 1. output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits (either a
3167 comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
3169 2. output numbers in units of 1000 (with a character suffix for larger
3170 units -- see below).
3171 3. output numbers in units of 1024.
3173 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
3174 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
3175 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
3177 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
3178 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
3179 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
3182 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
3183 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
3184 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
3185 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
3186 to one or more `-h` options. See the [`--list-only`](#opt) option for one
3191 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
3192 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
3193 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
3194 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
3195 rest of the file much faster.
3197 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
3199 This option modifies the behavior of the [`--partial`](#opt) option while
3200 also implying that it be enabled. This enhanced partial-file method puts
3201 any partially transferred files into the specified _DIR_ instead of writing
3202 the partial file out to the destination file. On the next transfer, rsync
3203 will use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3204 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3206 Note that if [`--whole-file`](#opt) is specified (or implied), any
3207 partial-dir files that are found for a file that is being updated will
3208 simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's
3209 delta-transfer algorithm).
3211 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing, but just the last dir -- not
3212 the whole path. This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3213 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
3214 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when it is needed,
3215 and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that this
3216 directory removal is only done for a relative pathname, as it is expected
3217 that an absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir
3220 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3221 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3222 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3223 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3224 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
3225 equivalent of this "perishable" exclude at the end of any other filter
3226 rules: `-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`
3228 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3229 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because:
3231 1. the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or
3232 2. you may wish to override rsync's exclude choice.
3234 For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
3235 that may be lying around, you should specify [`--delete-after`](#opt) and
3236 add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. Avoid using
3237 [`--delete-before`](#opt) or [`--delete-during`](#opt) unless you don't
3238 need rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data during the current
3241 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
3242 is a security risk! E.g. AVOID "/tmp"!
3244 You can also set the partial-dir value the [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`](#)
3245 environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not force
3246 [`--partial`](#opt) to be enabled, but rather it affects where partial
3247 files go when [`--partial`](#opt) is specified. For instance, instead of
3248 using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along with [`--progress`](#opt), you could
3249 set [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp`](#) in your environment and then use
3250 the [`-P`](#opt) option to turn on the use of the .rsync-tmp dir for
3251 partial transfers. The only times that the [`--partial`](#opt) option does
3252 not look for this environment value are:
3254 1. when [`--inplace`](#opt) was specified (since [`--inplace`](#opt)
3255 conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and
3256 2. when [`--delay-updates`](#opt) was specified (see below).
3258 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3259 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3260 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3261 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3264 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
3265 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply [`--partial`](#opt). This is so that a
3266 refusal of the [`--partial`](#opt) option can be used to disallow the
3267 overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while still
3268 allowing the safer idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3270 0. `--delay-updates`
3272 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3273 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3274 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3275 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3276 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3277 you've specified the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option, that directory will be
3278 used instead. See the comments in the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) section for
3279 a discussion of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer,
3280 and what you can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that
3281 might be lying around. Conflicts with [`--inplace`](#opt) and
3284 This option implies [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) since it needs the full
3285 file list in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3287 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3288 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3289 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3290 should not use an absolute path to [`--partial-dir`](#opt) unless:
3292 1. there is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same
3293 name (since all the updated files will be put into a single directory if
3294 the path is absolute), and
3295 2. there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates
3296 will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3298 See also the "atomic-rsync" python script in the "support" subdir for an
3299 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses [`--link-dest`](#opt)
3300 and a parallel hierarchy of files).
3302 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3304 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3305 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3306 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3307 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3308 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3310 This option can still leave empty directories on the receiving side if you
3311 make use of [TRANSFER_RULES](#).
3313 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3314 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3315 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3316 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3317 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3320 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3321 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3322 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3324 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3326 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3327 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3328 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3329 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3331 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3333 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3334 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3335 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3339 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3340 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3341 this is the same as specifying [`--info=flist2,name,progress`](#opt), but
3342 any user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3343 [`--info=flist0 --progress`](#opt)).
3345 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3348 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3350 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3351 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3352 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3353 is maintained until the end.
3355 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3356 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3357 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3358 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3359 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3360 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3362 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3363 summary line that looks like this:
3365 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3367 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3368 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3369 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3370 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3371 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3372 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3374 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3375 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3376 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3377 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3378 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3379 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3380 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3381 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3382 of the files added to the list).
3386 The `-P` option is equivalent to "[`--partial`](#opt)
3387 [`--progress`](#opt)". Its purpose is to make it much easier to specify
3388 these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
3390 There is also a [`--info=progress2`](#opt) option that outputs statistics
3391 based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag
3392 without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify
3393 [`--info=name0`](#opt)) if you want to see how the transfer is doing
3394 without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to
3395 specify the [`--progress`](#opt) option in order to use
3396 [`--info=progress2`](#opt).)
3398 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3399 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3400 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3401 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3402 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3403 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3404 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3405 followed by the [`--info=progress2`](#opt) format of progress info. If you
3406 don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3407 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3409 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3411 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3413 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3414 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3415 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3416 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3417 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3419 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3420 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3421 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3422 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3423 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3426 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3428 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3429 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3430 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3431 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3433 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3437 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3438 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3439 no destination specified, so its main uses are:
3441 1. to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into a
3442 file-listing command, or
3443 2. to be able to specify more than one source arg. Note: be sure to
3444 include the destination.
3446 CAUTION: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
3447 shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
3448 without using this option. For example:
3450 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3452 Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
3453 by the [`--human-readable`](#opt) option. By default they will contain
3454 digit separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes
3455 with unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output
3456 has increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
3457 `--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
3460 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3461 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3462 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the
3463 [`--dirs`](#opt) option w/o [`--recursive`](#opt), and older rsyncs don't
3464 have that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs`
3465 option (if you don't need to expand a directory's content), or turn on
3466 recursion and exclude the content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3470 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3471 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3472 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3473 fractional value (e.g. `--bwlimit=1.5m`). If no suffix is specified, the
3474 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3475 been appended). See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of
3476 all the available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3478 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3479 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3482 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3483 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3484 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3485 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3488 Due to the internal buffering of data, the [`--progress`](#opt) option may
3489 not be an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is
3490 because some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is
3491 quickly buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of
3492 the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3494 See also [the daemon version of the `--bwlimit` option](#dopt--bwlimit).
3496 0. `--stop-after=MINS`, (`--time-limit=MINS`)
3498 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3499 minutes has elapsed.
3501 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3502 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3503 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3504 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3505 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise.
3507 The `--time-limit` version of this option is deprecated.
3509 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
3511 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3512 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3513 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3514 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3517 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3518 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3519 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3520 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3521 time, rsync exits with an error.
3523 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3524 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3525 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3526 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3528 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3529 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3530 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3531 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3532 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise. Do
3533 keep in mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone
3534 than your local host.
3538 Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
3539 the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
3542 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3544 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3545 with [`--read-batch`](#opt). See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and
3546 also the [`--only-write-batch`](#opt) option.
3548 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3549 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3550 a more modern choice, use the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`) and/or
3551 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) options.
3553 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3555 Works like [`--write-batch`](#opt), except that no updates are made on the
3556 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3557 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3558 changes via [`--read-batch`](#opt).
3560 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3561 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3562 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3563 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3564 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3567 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3568 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3569 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3570 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3572 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3574 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3575 [`--write-batch`](#opt). If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read
3576 from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3580 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3581 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3582 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the [`--write-batch`](#opt)
3583 option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
3584 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating
3585 the batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
3586 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
3588 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3590 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3591 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3592 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3593 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3594 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3595 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3596 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3597 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3598 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the
3599 [`RSYNC_ICONV`](#) environment variable.
3601 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3602 run "`iconv --list`".
3604 If you specify the [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) option, rsync will
3605 translate the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent
3606 to the remote host. See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
3608 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3609 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3610 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3611 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3612 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3614 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3615 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3616 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3617 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3620 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3622 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3623 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3624 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3625 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3626 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3627 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever IPv4/IPv6 hint options
3630 See also [the daemon version of these options](#dopt--ipv4).
3632 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3633 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3636 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3638 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3639 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3640 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3641 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3642 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3643 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3644 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3645 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3649 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3653 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3654 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3655 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3657 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3658 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3659 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3660 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly.
3662 See the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage for more details.
3664 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3666 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3667 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3668 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3669 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option.
3671 See also the [address](rsyncd.conf.5#address) global option in the
3672 rsyncd.conf manpage and the [client version of the `--address`
3673 option](#opt--address).
3677 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3678 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3679 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed.
3681 See the [client version of the `--bwlimit` option](#opt--bwlimit) for some
3686 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3687 relevant when [`--daemon`](#dopt) is specified. The default is
3688 /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program
3689 and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case the default is
3690 rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
3692 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3694 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3695 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3696 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3697 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3700 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3704 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3705 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3706 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3707 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3708 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3709 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3713 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3714 rather than the default of 873.
3716 See also [the client version of the `--port` option](#opt--port) and the
3717 [port](rsyncd.conf.5#port) global setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3719 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3721 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3722 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3724 See also [the client version of the `--log-file` option](#opt--log-file).
3726 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3728 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3729 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3730 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3731 logging is turned off.
3733 See also [the client version of the `--log-file-format`
3734 option](#opt--log-file-format).
3738 This overrides the [`socket options`](rsyncd.conf.5#socket_options)
3739 setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
3741 See also [the client version of the `--sockopts` option](#opt--sockopts).
3743 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3745 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3746 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3747 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3748 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3750 See also [the client version of the `--verbose` option](#opt--verbose).
3752 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3754 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3755 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3756 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3757 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3758 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3761 See also [the client version of these options](#opt--ipv4).
3763 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3764 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3769 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3770 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3774 The filter rules allow for custom control of several aspects of how files are
3777 - Control which files the sending side puts into the file list that describes
3778 the transfer hierarchy
3779 - Control which files the receiving side protects from deletion when the file
3780 is not in the sender's file list
3781 - Control which extended attribute names are skipped when copying xattrs
3783 The rules are either directly specified via option arguments or they can be
3784 read in from one or more files. The filter-rule files can even be a part of
3785 the hierarchy of files being copied, affecting different parts of the tree in
3788 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE RULES
3790 We will first cover the basics of how include & exclude rules affect what files
3791 are transferred, ignoring any deletion side-effects. Filter rules mainly
3792 affect the contents of directories that rsync is "recursing" into, but they can
3793 also affect a top-level item in the transfer that were specified as a argument.
3795 The default for any unmatched file/dir is for it to be included in the
3796 transfer, which puts the file/dir into the sender's file list. The use of an
3797 exclude rule causes one or more matching files/dirs to be left out of the
3798 sender's file list. An include rule can be used to limit the effect of an
3799 exclude rule that is matching too many files.
3801 The order of the rules is important because the first rule that matches is the
3802 one that takes effect. Thus, if an early rule excludes a file, no include rule
3803 that comes after it can have any effect. This means that you must place any
3804 include overrides somewhere prior to the exclude that it is intended to limit.
3806 When a directory is excluded, all its contents and sub-contents are also
3807 excluded. The sender doesn't scan through any of it at all, which can save a
3808 lot of time when skipping large unneeded sub-trees.
3810 It is also important to understand that the include/exclude rules are applied
3811 to every file and directory that the sender is recursing into. Thus, if you
3812 want a particular deep file to be included, you have to make sure that none of
3813 the directories that must be traversed on the way down to that file are
3814 excluded or else the file will never be discovered to be included. As an
3815 example, if the directory "`a/path`" was given as a transfer argument and you
3816 want to ensure that the file "`a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt`" is a part of the
3817 transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories "`a/path`",
3818 "`a/path/down`", or "`a/path/down/deep`" as it makes it way scanning through
3821 When you are working on the rules, it can be helpful to ask rsync to tell you
3822 what is being excluded/included and why. Specifying `--debug=FILTER` or (when
3823 pulling files) `-M--debug=FILTER` turns on level 1 of the FILTER debug
3824 information that will output a message any time that a file or directory is
3825 included or excluded and which rule it matched. Beginning in 3.2.4 it will
3826 also warn if a filter rule has trailing whitespace, since an exclude of "foo "
3827 (with a trailing space) will not exclude a file named "foo".
3829 Exclude and include rules can specify wildcard [PATTERN MATCHING RULES](#)
3830 (similar to shell wildcards) that allow you to match things like a file suffix
3831 or a portion of a filename.
3833 A rule can be limited to only affecting a directory by putting a trailing slash
3836 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE EXAMPLE
3838 With the following file tree created on the sending side:
3843 > touch x/y/file.txt
3846 > touch x/z/file.txt
3848 Then the following rsync command will transfer the file "`x/y/file.txt`" and
3849 the directories needed to hold it, resulting in the path "`/tmp/x/y/file.txt`"
3850 existing on the remote host:
3852 > rsync -ai -f'+ x/' -f'+ x/y/' -f'+ x/y/file.txt' -f'- *' x host:/tmp/
3854 Aside: this copy could also have been accomplished using the [`-R`](#opt)
3855 option (though the 2 commands behave differently if deletions are enabled):
3857 > rsync -aiR x/y/file.txt host:/tmp/
3859 The following command does not need an include of the "x" directory because it
3860 is not a part of the transfer (note the traililng slash). Running this command
3861 would copy just "`/tmp/x/file.txt`" because the "y" and "z" dirs get excluded:
3863 > rsync -ai -f'+ file.txt' -f'- *' x/ host:/tmp/x/
3865 This command would omit the zzz.txt file while copying "x" and everything else
3868 > rsync -ai -f'- zzz.txt' x host:/tmp/
3870 ### FILTER RULES WHEN DELETING
3872 By default the include & exclude filter rules affect both the sender
3873 (as it creates its file list)
3874 and the receiver (as it creates its file lists for calculating deletions). If
3875 no delete option is in effect, the receiver skips creating the delete-related
3876 file lists. This two-sided default can be manually overridden so that you are
3877 only specifying sender rules or receiver rules, as described in the [FILTER
3878 RULES IN DEPTH](#) section.
3880 When deleting, an exclude protects a file from being removed on the receiving
3881 side while an include overrides that protection (putting the file at risk of
3882 deletion). The default is for a file to be at risk -- its safety depends on it
3883 matching a corresponding file from the sender.
3885 An example of the two-sided exclude effect can be illustrated by the copying of
3886 a C development directory between 2 systems. When doing a touch-up copy, you
3887 might want to skip copying the built executable and the `.o` files (sender
3888 hide) so that the receiving side can build their own and not lose any object
3889 files that are already correct (receiver protect). For instance:
3891 > rsync -ai --del -f'- *.o' -f'- cmd' src host:/dest/
3893 Note that using `-f'-p *.o'` is even better than `-f'- *.o'` if there is a
3894 chance that the directory structure may have changed. The "p" modifier is
3895 discussed in [FILTER RULE MODIFIERS](#).
3897 One final note, if your shell doesn't mind unexpanded wildcards, you could
3898 simplify the typing of the filter options by using an underscore in place of
3899 the space and leaving off the quotes. For instance, `-f -_*.o -f -_cmd` (and
3900 similar) could be used instead of the filter options above.
3902 ### FILTER RULES IN DEPTH
3904 Rsync supports old-style include/exclude rules and new-style filter rules. The
3905 older rules are specified using [`--include`](#opt) and [`--exclude`](#opt) as
3906 well as the [`--include-from`](#opt) and [`--exclude-from`](#opt). These are
3907 limited in behavior but they don't require a "-" or "+" prefix. An old-style
3908 exclude rule is turned into a "`- name`" filter rule (with no modifiers) and an
3909 old-style include rule is turned into a "`+ name`" filter rule (with no
3912 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line
3913 and/or read-in from files. New style filter rules have the following syntax:
3915 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3916 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3918 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
3919 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
3920 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
3921 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Any additional
3922 spaces and/or undeerscore are considered to be a part of the pattern name.
3923 Here are the available rule prefixes:
3925 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern that (by default) is both a
3926 `hide` and a `protect`.
3927 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern that (by default) is both a
3928 `show` and a `risk`.
3929 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file on the client side to read for more
3931 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file. Using this kind of
3932 filter rule requires that you trust the sending side's filter checking, and
3933 thus it disables the receiver's verification of the file-list names against
3934 the filter rules (since only the sender can know for sure if it obeyed all
3935 the filter rules when some are per-dir merged from the sender's files).
3936 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
3937 Equivalent to a sender-only exclude, so `-f'H foo'` could also be specified
3939 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden. Equivalent to a
3940 sender-only include, so `-f'S foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+s
3942 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
3943 Equivalent to a receiver-only exclude, so `-f'P foo'` could also be
3944 specified as `-f'-r foo'`.
3945 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected. Equivalent to a
3946 receiver-only include, so `-f'R foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+r
3948 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
3950 When rules are being read from a file (using merge or dir-merge), empty lines
3951 are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules
3952 that contain a hash character are unaffected).
3954 Note also that the [`--filter`](#opt), [`--include`](#opt), and
3955 [`--exclude`](#opt) options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
3956 you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of
3957 the [`--filter`](#opt) option, or the [`--include-from`](#opt) /
3958 [`--exclude-from`](#opt) options.
3960 ### PATTERN MATCHING RULES
3962 Most of the rules mentioned above take an argument that specifies what the rule
3963 should match. If rsync is recursing through a directory hierarchy, keep in
3964 mind that each pattern is matched against the name of every directory in the
3965 descent path as rsync finds the filenames to send.
3967 The matching rules for the pattern argument take several forms:
3969 - If a pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing slash) or a "`**`"
3970 (which can match a slash), then the pattern is matched against the full
3971 pathname, including any leading directories within the transfer. If the
3972 pattern doesn't contain a `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched only against
3973 the final component of the filename or pathname. For example, `foo` means
3974 that the final path component must be "foo" while `foo/bar` would match the
3975 last 2 elements of the path (as long as both elements are within the
3977 - A pattern that ends with a `/` only matches a directory, not a regular file,
3979 - A pattern that starts with a `/` is anchored to the start of the transfer
3980 path instead of the end. For example, `/foo` or `/foo/bar` match only
3981 leading elements in the path. If the rule is read from a per-directory
3982 filter file, the transfer path being matched will begin at the level of the
3983 filter file instead of the top of the transfer. See the section on
3984 [ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS](#) for a full discussion of how to
3985 specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.
3987 Rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
3988 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters: '`*`',
3991 - a '`?`' matches any single character except a slash (`/`).
3992 - a '`*`' matches zero or more non-slash characters.
3993 - a '`**`' matches zero or more characters, including slashes.
3994 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`, that
3995 must match one character.
3996 - a trailing `***` in the pattern is a shorthand that allows you to match a
3997 directory and all its contents using a single rule. For example, specifying
3998 "`dir_name/***`" will match both the "dir_name" directory (as if "`dir_name/`"
3999 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
4000 had been specified).
4001 - a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard character, but it is only
4002 interpreted as an escape character if at least one wildcard character is
4003 present in the match pattern. For instance, the pattern "`foo\bar`" matches
4004 that single backslash literally, while the pattern "`foo\bar*`" would need to
4005 be changed to "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
4007 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
4009 - Option `-f'- *.o'` would exclude all filenames ending with `.o`
4010 - Option `-f'- /foo'` would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
4011 transfer-root directory
4012 - Option `-f'- foo/'` would exclude any directory named foo
4013 - Option `-f'- /foo/*/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar which is at
4014 two levels below a directory named foo, which must be at the root of the
4016 - Option `-f'- /foo/**/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar two or more
4017 levels below a directory named foo, which must be at the root of the transfer
4018 - Options `-f'+ */' -f'+ *.c' -f'- *'` would include all directories and .c
4019 source files but nothing else
4020 - Options `-f'+ foo/' -f'+ foo/bar.c' -f'- *'` would include only the foo
4021 directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it
4022 would be excluded by the "`- *`")
4024 ### FILTER RULE MODIFIERS
4026 The following modifiers are accepted after an include (+) or exclude (-) rule:
4028 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
4029 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, `-f'-/ /etc/passwd'`
4030 would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from
4031 the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it
4032 is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
4034 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
4035 fails to match. For instance, `-f'-! */'` would exclude all non-directories.
4036 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
4037 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
4038 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
4039 rule affects the sending side, it affects what files are put into the
4040 sender's file list. The default is for a rule to affect both sides unless
4041 [`--delete-excluded`](#opt) was specified, in which case default rules become
4042 sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an
4043 alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
4044 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
4045 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
4046 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
4047 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
4048 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
4049 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the
4050 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's default rules that exclude things
4051 like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable, and will not prevent a
4052 directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the
4054 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
4055 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
4056 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
4057 (see the [`--xattrs`](#opt) option).
4059 ### MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
4061 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
4062 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#)
4065 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
4066 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
4067 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
4068 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
4069 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
4070 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
4071 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
4072 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
4073 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
4074 (see [PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE](#) below).
4078 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
4079 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
4080 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
4081 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4082 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4084 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
4086 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
4087 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4088 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
4089 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4090 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
4091 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
4092 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
4094 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
4095 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
4096 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
4097 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
4098 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
4099 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
4100 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
4101 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
4102 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
4103 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
4104 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
4105 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
4106 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
4107 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
4108 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
4111 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
4112 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
4113 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
4114 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
4115 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
4116 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
4117 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
4118 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
4119 the current merge file.
4121 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
4122 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
4123 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
4124 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
4127 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
4129 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
4136 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
4137 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
4138 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
4139 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
4142 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
4143 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
4144 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
4145 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see [`-F`](#opt)):
4147 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
4149 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
4150 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
4151 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
4152 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
4153 same as the module's "path".)
4155 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
4157 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
4158 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4159 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4161 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
4162 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
4163 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
4164 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
4166 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
4167 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
4168 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
4169 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory
4170 .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you
4171 like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule
4172 for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower
4173 priority than your command-line rules). For example:
4176 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
4181 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
4184 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
4185 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
4186 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
4187 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
4188 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
4189 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
4190 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
4193 ### LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
4195 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
4196 introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The "current" list is either
4197 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
4198 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
4199 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
4201 ### ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
4203 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
4204 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
4205 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
4206 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
4207 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
4208 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
4210 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
4211 slash on a source path or changing your use of the [`--relative`](#opt) option
4212 affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how
4213 much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following
4214 examples demonstrate this.
4216 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
4217 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
4218 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
4221 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
4222 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
4223 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
4224 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4225 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4229 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
4230 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
4231 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
4232 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
4233 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
4237 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
4238 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
4239 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
4240 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
4241 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
4245 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
4246 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
4247 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
4248 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4249 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4252 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at the
4253 output when using [`--verbose`](#opt) and put a / in front of the name (use the
4254 `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
4256 ### PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
4258 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
4259 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
4260 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
4261 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
4263 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
4264 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
4266 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
4267 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
4268 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
4269 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use [`--delete-after`](#opt),
4270 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as
4271 the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
4273 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
4275 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
4276 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
4277 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
4278 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
4279 exclude themselves):
4281 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
4282 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
4284 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
4285 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
4286 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
4287 per-directory merge rule.
4289 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
4290 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
4291 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
4292 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
4293 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
4294 one of these commands:
4297 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
4298 > host:src/dir /dest
4299 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
4304 In addition to the [FILTER RULES](#) that affect the recursive file scans that
4305 generate the file list on the sending and (when deleting) receiving sides,
4306 there are transfer rules. These rules affect which files the generator decides
4307 need to be transferred without the side effects of an exclude filter rule.
4308 Transfer rules affect only files and never directories.
4310 Because a transfer rule does not affect what goes into the sender's (and
4311 receiver's) file list, it cannot have any effect on which files get deleted on
4312 the receiving side. For example, if the file "foo" is present in the sender's
4313 list but its size is such that it is omitted due to a transfer rule, the
4314 receiving side does not request the file. However, its presence in the file
4315 list means that a delete pass will not remove a matching file named "foo" on
4316 the receiving side. On the other hand, a server-side exclude (hide) of the
4317 file "foo" leaves the file out of the server's file list, and absent a
4318 receiver-side exclude (protect) the receiver will remove a matching file named
4319 "foo" if deletions are requested.
4321 Given that the files are still in the sender's file list, the
4322 [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option will not judge a directory as being empty
4323 even if it contains only files that the transfer rules omitted.
4325 Similarly, a transfer rule does not have any extra effect on which files are
4326 deleted on the receiving side, so setting a maximum file size for the transfer
4327 does not prevent big files from being deleted.
4329 Examples of transfer rules include the default "quick check" algorithm (which
4330 compares size & modify time), the [`--update`](#opt) option, the
4331 [`--max-size`](#opt) option, the [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) option, and a
4336 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
4337 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
4338 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
4339 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
4340 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
4341 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
4342 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
4343 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
4345 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
4346 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
4347 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
4348 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
4349 same data to every host individually.
4351 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
4352 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
4353 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
4354 stored in the batch file.
4356 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
4357 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
4358 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
4359 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
4360 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
4361 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
4362 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
4363 used to create the batch file.
4367 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4368 > $ scp foo* remote:
4369 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4371 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4372 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4374 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4375 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4376 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4377 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4378 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4380 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
4381 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4382 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4383 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4384 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4385 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4386 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4387 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
4388 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, but you could edit the script file if you
4389 wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
4390 standard input, such as the [`--exclude-from=-`](#opt) option).
4394 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4395 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4396 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4397 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4398 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4399 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4400 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4401 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4402 size and date, use the [`-I`](#opt) option (when reading the batch). If an
4403 error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
4404 state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of
4405 operation to fix up the destination tree.
4407 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4408 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4409 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4410 See also the [`--protocol`](#opt) option for a way to have the creating rsync
4411 generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch
4412 files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with
4413 newer versions will not work.)
4415 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4416 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4417 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4418 instance [`--write-batch`](#opt) changes to [`--read-batch`](#opt),
4419 [`--files-from`](#opt) is dropped, and the [`--filter`](#opt) /
4420 [`--include`](#opt) / [`--exclude`](#opt) options are not needed unless one of
4421 the [`--delete`](#opt) options is specified.
4423 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4424 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4425 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4426 change in what gets deleted by [`--delete`](#opt) is desired. A normal user
4427 can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the
4428 appropriate [`--read-batch`](#opt) command for the batched data.
4430 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4431 version uses a new implementation.
4435 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4436 link in the source directory.
4438 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4439 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4441 If [`--links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are added to the transfer
4442 (instead of being noisily ignored), and the default handling is to recreate
4443 them with the same target on the destination. Note that [`--archive`](#opt)
4444 implies [`--links`](#opt).
4446 If [`--copy-links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4447 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4449 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4450 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4451 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4452 the public section of the site. Using [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt) will cause
4453 any links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4454 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause unsafe links to be omitted by the receiver.
4455 (Note that you must specify or imply [`--links`](#opt) for
4456 [`--safe-links`](#opt) to have any effect.)
4458 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with
4459 `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".." components to ascend from the top
4462 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4463 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4464 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4466 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files and directories
4467 (leaving no symlinks in the transfer for any other options to affect).
4468 0. `--copy-dirlinks` Turn just symlinks to directories into real
4469 directories, leaving all other symlinks to be handled as described below.
4470 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks
4471 into files and create all safe symlinks.
4472 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
4473 skip all safe symlinks.
4474 0. `--links --safe-links` The receiver skips creating
4475 unsafe symlinks found in the transfer and creates the safe ones.
4476 0. `--links` Create all symlinks.
4478 For the effect of [`--munge-links`](#opt), see the discussion in that option's
4481 Note that the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option does not effect symlinks in the
4482 transfer but instead affects how rsync treats a symlink to a directory that
4483 already exists on the receiving side. See that option's section for a warning.
4487 Rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4488 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4491 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4492 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4493 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4495 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4497 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4498 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4499 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4500 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4501 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4502 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4504 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4505 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4506 file is included or excluded.
4511 - **1** - Syntax or usage error
4512 - **2** - Protocol incompatibility
4513 - **3** - Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4514 - **4** - Requested action not supported. Either:
4515 - an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them
4516 - an option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server
4517 - **5** - Error starting client-server protocol
4518 - **6** - Daemon unable to append to log-file
4519 - **10** - Error in socket I/O
4520 - **11** - Error in file I/O
4521 - **12** - Error in rsync protocol data stream
4522 - **13** - Errors with program diagnostics
4523 - **14** - Error in IPC code
4524 - **20** - Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4525 - **21** - Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4526 - **22** - Error allocating core memory buffers
4527 - **23** - Partial transfer due to error
4528 - **24** - Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4529 - **25** - The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4530 - **30** - Timeout in data send/receive
4531 - **35** - Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4533 ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4537 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4538 .cvsignore files. See the [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) option for more details.
4542 Specify a default [`--iconv`](#opt) setting using this environment
4543 variable. First supported in 3.0.0.
4547 Specify a "1" if you want the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to be enabled by
4548 default, a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the
4549 repeated-option state, or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by
4550 default. When this environment variable is set to a non-zero value, it
4551 supersedes the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#) variable.
4553 This variable is ignored if [`--old-args`](#opt), `--no-old-args`, or
4554 [`--protect-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4556 First supported in 3.2.4.
4558 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4560 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the [`--protect-args`](#opt)
4561 option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is
4562 disabled by default.
4564 This variable is ignored if [`--protect-args`](#opt), `--no-protect-args`,
4565 or [`--old-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4567 First supported in 3.1.0. Starting in 3.2.4, this variable is ignored if
4568 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) is set to a non-zero value.
4572 This environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as
4573 the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after the
4574 command name, just as in the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option.
4578 This environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4579 client to use a web proxy when connecting to an rsync daemon. You should
4580 set `RSYNC_PROXY` to a hostname:port pair.
4584 This environment variable allows you to set the password for an rsync
4585 **daemon** connection, which avoids the password prompt. Note that this
4586 does **not** supply a password to a remote shell transport such as ssh
4587 (consult its documentation for how to do that).
4589 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4591 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4592 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4593 to "nobody". If both are set, `USER` takes precedence.
4595 0. `RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`
4597 This environment variable specifies the directory to use for a
4598 [`--partial`](#opt) transfer without implying that partial transfers be
4599 enabled. See the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option for full details.
4601 0. `RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`
4603 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4604 compression algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4605 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available compression
4606 names. See the [`--compress`](#opt) option for full details.
4608 0. `RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`
4610 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4611 checksum algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4612 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available checksum
4613 names. See the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) option for full details.
4615 0. `RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`
4617 This environment variable sets an allocation maximum as if you had used the
4618 [`--max-alloc`](#opt) option.
4622 This environment variable is not read by rsync, but is instead set in
4623 its sub-environment when rsync is running the remote shell in combination
4624 with a daemon connection. This allows a script such as
4625 [`rsync-ssl`](rsync-ssl.1) to be able to know the port number that the user
4626 specified on the command line.
4630 This environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4633 0. `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`
4635 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4636 to use when making a daemon connection. See [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC
4637 DAEMON](#) for full details.
4641 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4642 to use to run the program specified by [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#). See
4643 [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON](#) for full details.
4647 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4651 [**rsync-ssl**(1)](rsync-ssl.1), [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5), [**rrsync**(1)](rrsync.1)
4655 - Times are transferred as \*nix time_t values.
4656 - When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified files. See
4657 the comments on the [`--modify-window`](#opt) option.
4658 - File permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values.
4659 - See also the comments on the [`--delete`](#opt) option.
4661 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4665 This manpage is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4669 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4670 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4671 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4672 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4673 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4674 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4678 Rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4679 [COPYING](COPYING) for details.
4681 An rsync web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site
4682 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
4685 The rsync github project is <https://github.com/WayneD/rsync>.
4687 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4688 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4690 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4691 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4695 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4696 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4697 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4699 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4700 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4704 Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4705 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4708 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4709 <https://lists.samba.org/>.