1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
52 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
53 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
54 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
56 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
57 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
58 contains a : separator.
59 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
60 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
61 separator or an rsync:// URL.
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
65 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
66 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
67 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
68 separator and the bf(--rsh=COMMAND) (aka "bf(-e COMMAND)") option is
70 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
71 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
72 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
73 destination path contains a :: separator and the
74 bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option is also provided.
75 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
76 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
80 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
81 and destination paths must be local.
85 See the file README for installation instructions.
87 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
88 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
89 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
90 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
91 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
93 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
94 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
96 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
99 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
102 manpagesection(USAGE)
104 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
105 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
107 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
109 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
111 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
112 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
113 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
114 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
115 differences. See the tech report for details.
117 quote(tt(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
121 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
122 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
123 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
124 size of data portions of the transfer.
126 quote(tt(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
131 to "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
134 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
138 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
139 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
142 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
143 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
144 an improved copy command.
146 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
148 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
149 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
151 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
153 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
154 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
156 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
158 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
159 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
160 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
161 to be a part of the filenames.
163 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
165 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
166 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
167 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
168 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
169 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
170 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
171 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
174 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
175 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
178 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
179 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
181 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
183 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
184 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
185 running on TCP port 873.
187 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
188 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
189 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
190 proxy connections to port 873.
192 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
196 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
197 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
198 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
200 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
201 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
202 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
203 specified files on the remote server is provided.
206 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
207 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
208 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
209 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
210 may be useful when scripting rsync.
212 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
213 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
215 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
217 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
218 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
219 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
220 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
221 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
222 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
225 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
226 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
227 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
228 bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
231 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
232 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
234 verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
235 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
237 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
238 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
240 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
242 An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
243 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
244 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
245 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
246 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
249 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
251 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
252 server configuration file.
254 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
255 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
256 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
257 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
259 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
260 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
262 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
264 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
266 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
267 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
269 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
271 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
274 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
278 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
280 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
283 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
284 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
285 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
287 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
290 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
292 This is launched from cron every few hours.
294 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
296 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
297 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
298 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
299 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
300 -c, --checksum always checksum
301 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
302 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
303 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
304 -R, --relative use relative path names
305 --no-relative turn off --relative
306 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
307 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
308 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
309 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
310 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
311 --inplace update destination files in-place
312 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
313 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
314 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
315 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
316 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
317 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
318 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
319 -p, --perms preserve permissions
320 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
321 -g, --group preserve group
322 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
323 -t, --times preserve times
324 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
325 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
326 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
327 -W, --whole-file copy files whole
328 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
329 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
330 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
331 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
332 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
333 --existing only update files that already exist
334 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
335 --del an alias for --delete-during
336 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
337 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
338 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
339 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
340 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
341 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
342 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
343 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
344 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
345 --partial keep partially transferred files
346 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
347 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
348 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
349 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
350 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
351 --size-only skip files that match in size
352 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
353 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
354 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
355 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
356 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
357 -z, --compress compress file data
358 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
359 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
360 -F same as --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
361 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
362 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
363 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
364 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
365 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
366 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
367 -0 --from0 all *from file lists are delimited by nulls
368 --version print version number
369 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
370 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
371 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
372 --stats give some file-transfer stats
373 --progress show progress during transfer
374 -P same as --partial --progress
375 --log-format=FORMAT log file-transfers using specified format
376 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
377 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
378 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
379 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
380 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
381 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
382 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
383 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
384 -h, --help show this help screen)
386 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
388 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
389 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
390 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
391 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
392 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
393 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
394 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
395 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
396 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
397 -h, --help show this help screen)
401 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
402 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
403 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
404 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
408 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
411 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
413 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
414 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
415 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
416 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
417 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
418 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
419 you are debugging rsync.
421 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
422 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
423 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
426 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
427 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
428 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
430 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
431 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
432 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
433 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
434 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
437 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
438 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
439 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
440 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
441 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
442 with a 1 second resolution bf(--modify-window=1) is useful.
444 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
445 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
446 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
447 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
448 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
450 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
451 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
452 everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
453 specified, in which case bf(-d) is implied instead of bf(-r).
455 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
456 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
459 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
460 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
462 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
463 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
464 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
465 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
466 example, if you used the command
468 quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
470 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
471 machine. If instead you used
473 quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
475 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
476 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
477 path information that is sent, do something like this:
481 tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
484 That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
486 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
487 needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
490 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
491 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
492 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
493 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
494 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
495 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
496 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
497 the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
498 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
499 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
501 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
502 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
503 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
504 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
506 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
507 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
508 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
509 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
510 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
511 will keep their original filenames).
512 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
513 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
515 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
516 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
517 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
519 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
520 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
521 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
522 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
524 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
525 between the sender and receiver is always
526 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
527 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
528 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
529 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
530 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
532 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
533 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
534 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
535 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
536 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
537 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
538 basis file for the transfer.
540 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
541 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
544 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
545 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
546 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest),
547 bf(--copy-dest), and bf(--link-dest).
549 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
550 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
551 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
552 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
555 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
556 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
557 unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
558 name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
559 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
560 output a message to that effect for each one).
562 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
563 symlink on the destination.
565 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
566 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
567 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
568 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
569 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
570 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
571 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
572 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
574 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
575 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
576 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
577 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
579 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
580 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
581 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
582 give unexpected results.
584 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
585 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
586 option hard links are treated like regular files.
588 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
589 are in the list of files being sent.
591 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
593 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
594 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
597 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
598 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
599 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
600 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
601 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
602 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
604 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
607 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
608 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
610 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
611 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
612 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
613 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
615 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
616 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
617 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
618 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
619 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
621 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
622 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
623 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
624 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
625 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
626 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
628 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
629 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
630 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
632 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
633 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
634 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
635 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
636 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
637 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
638 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
640 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
641 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
642 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
644 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
645 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
647 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
648 up less space on the destination.
650 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
651 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
652 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
654 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
655 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
656 contents of only one filesystem.
658 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
659 only update files that already exist on the destination.
661 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
662 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
665 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
666 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
667 to prevent disasters.
669 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
670 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
671 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
672 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
674 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
675 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
676 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
677 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
678 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
679 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
680 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
681 excluded from being deleted unless you use bf(--delete-excluded).
683 This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
685 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
686 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
687 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
689 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
690 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
691 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
692 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
693 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
695 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
696 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
697 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
698 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
699 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
701 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
702 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
703 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
704 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
706 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
707 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
708 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
709 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
712 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
713 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
714 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
715 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
716 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
718 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
719 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
720 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
721 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
723 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
725 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
726 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
727 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
728 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
730 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
731 even when there are I/O errors.
733 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
734 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
735 is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
736 Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
738 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
739 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
740 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
742 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
743 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
744 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
745 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
747 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
748 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
749 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
750 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
751 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
752 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
754 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
755 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
757 quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
759 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
760 options in their .ssh/config file.)
762 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
763 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
765 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
767 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
768 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
769 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
772 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
773 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
774 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
775 a file should be ignored.
777 The exclude list is initialized to:
779 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
780 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
781 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
783 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
784 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
785 are delimited by whitespace).
787 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
788 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
789 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
790 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
792 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
793 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
794 regardless of where the -C was placed on the command-line. This makes them
795 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
796 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
797 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
798 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
799 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
800 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
801 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
804 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
805 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
806 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
808 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
809 to build up the list of files to exclude.
811 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
813 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
814 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
816 quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
818 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
819 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
820 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
823 quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
825 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
827 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
830 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
831 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
832 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
834 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
836 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
837 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
838 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
839 ';' or '#' are ignored.
840 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
842 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
843 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
844 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
846 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
848 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
850 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
852 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
853 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
854 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
855 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
858 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
859 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
860 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
861 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
862 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
864 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
865 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
868 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
869 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
870 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
873 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
875 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
876 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
877 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified bf(-r)
878 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
879 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
880 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
881 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
883 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
884 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
885 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
886 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
887 transfer". For example:
889 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
891 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
892 was located on the remote "src" host.
894 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
895 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
896 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
897 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
898 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
899 file are split on whitespace).
901 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
902 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
903 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
904 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
906 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
907 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
908 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
909 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
910 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
911 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
912 have changed from an earlier backup.
914 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
915 provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
916 finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
917 and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
919 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
920 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
922 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
923 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
924 directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
925 useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
926 files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
927 successfully transferred.
929 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
930 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
932 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
933 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
934 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
935 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
938 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
940 Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one bf(--link-dest) option is
941 specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
942 the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
943 of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
945 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
946 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
948 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
949 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
950 (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
951 when sending to an old rsync.
953 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
954 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
955 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
956 same method that gzip uses.
958 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
959 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
960 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
961 information sent for matching data blocks.
963 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
964 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
967 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
968 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
969 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
970 option is not specified.
972 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
973 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
974 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
975 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
976 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
977 users and groups and what you can do about it.
979 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
980 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
981 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
983 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
984 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
985 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
986 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
987 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
989 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
990 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
991 rsync defaults to using
992 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
993 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
995 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
998 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
999 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
1000 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
1003 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1004 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1005 algorithm is for your data.
1007 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1008 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1009 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1010 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1011 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1013 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on bf(--partial) mode, but tells rsync to
1014 put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
1015 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
1016 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
1017 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
1018 its purpose. Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied) that an
1019 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
1020 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1022 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
1023 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1024 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the partial-directory
1025 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
1026 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
1027 DIR was specified as a relative path).
1029 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
1030 bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1031 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1032 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1033 the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1034 rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1035 supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1036 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1037 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1038 a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
1040 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1041 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1043 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1044 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1045 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1046 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1047 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1048 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1049 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1050 option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1051 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1052 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1054 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1055 updated file into the file's partial-dir (see above) until the end of the
1056 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1057 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1058 atomic. If you don't specify the bf(--partial-dir) option, this option will
1059 cause it to default to ".~tmp~" (RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR is not consulted for
1060 this value). Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1062 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1063 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1064 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1065 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1066 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1067 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1070 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1071 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1072 parallel hierarchy of files).
1074 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1075 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1077 Implies bf(--verbose) without incrementing verbosity.
1079 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1081 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1083 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1084 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1085 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1086 remaining in this transfer.
1088 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1090 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1092 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1093 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1094 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1095 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1096 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1098 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1099 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1100 transfer that may be interrupted.
1102 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1103 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1104 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1105 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1106 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1109 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1110 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1111 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1112 come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1113 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1114 non-recursive listing.
1116 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1117 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1118 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1119 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1120 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1121 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1122 of zero specifies no limit.
1124 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1125 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1126 section for details.
1128 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1129 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1130 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1131 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1133 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1134 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1135 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1136 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1138 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1139 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1140 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1141 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1142 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1143 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1144 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1145 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1149 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1151 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1154 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1155 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1156 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1158 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1159 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1160 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1161 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1162 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1165 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1166 when run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option or when connecting to a
1167 rsync server. The bf(--address) option allows you to specify a specific IP
1168 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1169 in conjunction with the bf(--config) option. See also the "address" global
1170 option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1172 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1173 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1174 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1175 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1176 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1178 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1179 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1180 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1181 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1182 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1184 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1185 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1186 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1187 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1188 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1189 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1190 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1193 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1194 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1195 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1197 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1198 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1199 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1200 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1202 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1203 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1204 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1205 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1206 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1207 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1209 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1210 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1213 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1215 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1216 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1217 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1218 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1220 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1221 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1222 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1223 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1224 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1225 filename is not skipped.
1227 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1228 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1231 tt(x [PATTERN_OR_FILE])nl()
1232 tt(xMODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILE])nl()
1235 The 'x' is a single-letter that specifies the kind of rule to create. It
1236 can have trailing modifiers, and is separated from its arg by either a
1237 single space or an underscore (_). Here are the available rule prefixes:
1240 bf(-) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1241 bf(+) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1242 bf(.) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1243 bf(:) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1244 bf(!) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1247 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1248 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1249 specification of include/exclude patterns and the "!" token (not to
1250 mention the comment lines when reading rules from a file). If a pattern
1251 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1252 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1253 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1254 the other hand, must always contain one of the prefixes above.
1256 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1257 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1258 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1259 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1261 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1262 comment lines that start with a "#".
1264 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1266 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+" and
1267 "-" filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1269 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1270 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1271 can take several forms:
1274 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1275 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1276 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1277 regular expressions.
1278 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1279 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1280 per-directory rule).
1281 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1282 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1284 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1285 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1286 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1287 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1288 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1290 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1291 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1292 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1293 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1294 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1295 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1296 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1297 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1298 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1299 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1300 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1301 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1302 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1306 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1307 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1308 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1309 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1310 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1311 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1312 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1313 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1314 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1315 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1316 For instance, this won't work:
1319 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1320 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1324 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1325 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1326 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1327 to be included by using a single rule: "+_*/" (put it somewhere before the
1328 "-_*" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1329 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1334 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1335 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1336 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1340 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1343 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1344 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1345 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1346 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1347 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1348 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1349 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1350 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1351 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1352 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1353 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1354 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1357 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1359 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1360 "." or a ":" filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
1363 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1364 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1365 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1366 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1367 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1368 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1369 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1370 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1371 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1372 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1378 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1379 tt(: .per-dir-filter)nl()
1380 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1383 The following modifiers are accepted after a "." or ":":
1386 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1387 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1389 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1390 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for the list-clearing
1392 it() A bf(C) is a shorthand for the modifiers bf(nw-), which makes the
1393 parsing compatible with the way CVS parses their exclude files. If no
1394 filename is specified, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1395 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file from the transfer; e.g.
1396 ":e_.rules" is like ":_.rules" and "-_.rules".
1397 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1398 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1399 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1400 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1401 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that bf(-) or bf(+) was not
1402 specified to turn off the parsing of prefixes).
1403 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for "+" or "-" to have the
1404 rules that are read-in default to having that option set. For instance,
1405 ".-/_.excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes.
1408 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1411 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1412 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1413 "-/_/etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1414 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1415 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1416 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1418 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1419 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1423 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1424 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1425 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1426 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1427 inherited rules. The entire set of per-dir rules is grouped together in
1428 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1429 per-dir rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1430 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1431 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1433 Another way to prevent a single per-dir rule from being inherited is to
1434 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1435 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1436 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the per-dir filter
1439 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1442 tt(. /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1449 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1450 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1451 filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1452 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1455 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1456 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1457 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1458 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1460 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1462 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1463 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1464 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1465 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1466 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1468 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1471 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1472 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1473 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1476 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1477 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1478 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1479 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1480 a part of the transfer.
1482 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1483 you should use the rule ":C" -- this is a short-hand for the rule
1484 ":nw-_.cvsignore", and ensures that the .cvsignore file's contents are
1485 interpreted according to the same parsing rules that CVS uses. You can
1486 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1487 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting a
1488 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1489 add the per-dir rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1490 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1494 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1499 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1502 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1503 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1504 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1505 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1506 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1507 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1508 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1509 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1511 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1513 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1514 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1515 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1516 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1517 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1518 out the parent's rules).
1520 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1522 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1523 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1524 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1525 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1526 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1527 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1529 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1530 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1531 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1532 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1533 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1535 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1536 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1537 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1540 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1541 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1542 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1543 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1544 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1548 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1549 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1550 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1551 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1552 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1556 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1557 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1558 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1559 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1560 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1564 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1565 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1566 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1567 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1568 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1571 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1572 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1573 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1575 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1577 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1578 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1579 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1580 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1583 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1584 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1587 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1588 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1589 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1590 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1591 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1592 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1594 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1596 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1597 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1598 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1599 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1600 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1602 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1603 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1605 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1606 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1607 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1608 per-directory merge rule.
1610 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1611 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1612 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1613 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1614 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1615 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1617 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1619 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1621 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1623 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1624 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1625 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1626 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1627 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1628 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1629 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1630 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1631 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1633 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1634 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1635 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1636 using the information stored in the batch file.
1638 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1639 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1640 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1641 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1642 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1643 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1644 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1645 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1647 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1648 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1649 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1650 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1651 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1656 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1657 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1658 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1662 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1663 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1666 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1667 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1668 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1669 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1670 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1673 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1674 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1675 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1676 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1677 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1678 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1679 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1680 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1681 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1682 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1683 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1688 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1689 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1690 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1691 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1692 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1693 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1694 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1695 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1696 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1697 option (when reading the batch).
1698 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1699 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1700 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1703 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1704 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1705 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1708 The bf(--dry-run) (bf(-n)) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1711 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1712 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1713 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1714 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1715 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1716 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1717 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1719 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1720 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1721 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1722 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1723 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1724 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1726 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1727 version uses a new implementation.
1729 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1731 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1732 link in the source directory.
1734 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1735 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1737 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1738 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1741 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1742 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1744 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1745 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1746 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1747 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1748 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1749 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1750 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1752 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1753 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1754 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1756 manpagediagnostics()
1758 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1759 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1760 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
1762 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1763 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1764 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1765 remote shell like this:
1767 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1769 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1770 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1771 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1772 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1773 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1774 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1775 for non-interactive logins.
1777 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1778 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1779 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1781 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1785 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1786 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1787 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1788 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1789 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1790 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1792 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1793 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1794 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1795 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1796 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1797 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1798 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1799 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1800 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1801 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1802 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1803 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1806 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1809 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1810 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
1812 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1813 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1814 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
1815 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1816 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1817 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1818 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1819 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1820 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1821 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1822 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1823 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1824 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1825 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1826 default .cvsignore file.
1831 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1839 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1841 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1843 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
1845 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1848 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
1850 Please report bugs! See the website at
1851 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1853 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1855 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1856 COPYING for details.
1858 A WEB site is available at
1859 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1860 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1863 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1864 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1866 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1868 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1869 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1871 manpagesection(THANKS)
1873 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1874 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1875 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1877 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1878 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1882 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1883 Many people have later contributed to it.
1885 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1886 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)