1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(13 May 1998)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [options] [user@]host:path path
8 rsync [options] path [user@]host:path
10 rsync [options] path path
12 rsync [options] [user@]host::path path
14 rsync [options] path [user@]host::path
18 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
19 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
20 greatly speedup file transfers when the destination file already
23 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
24 differences between two sets of files across the network link, using
25 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
26 report that accompanies this package.
28 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
31 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups and permissions
32 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
33 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
34 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh or ssh
35 it() does not require root privileges
36 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
37 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
41 manpagesection(GENERAL)
43 There are five different ways of using rsync. They are:
46 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
47 source nor destination path contains a : separator
49 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
50 a remote shell program as the transport (such as rsh or
51 ssh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
54 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
55 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the local path
56 contains a : separator.
58 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
59 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
62 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
63 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
67 Note that in all cases at least one of the source and destination
72 See the file README for installation instructions.
74 Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you can use rsh
75 to. rsync uses rsh for its communications, unless both the source and
76 destination are local.
78 You can also specify a alternative to rsh, by either using the -e
79 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
81 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
84 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
89 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
90 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
92 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some examples:
94 quote(rsync *.c foo:src/)
96 this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
97 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
98 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
99 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
100 differences. See the tech report for details.
102 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
104 recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
105 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
106 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
107 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are preserved
108 in the transfer. Additionally compression will be used to reduce the
109 size of data portions of the transfer.
111 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
113 With a trailing slash on the source this behavior changes to transfer
114 all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the
115 /data/tmp/. With a trailing / on a source name it means "copy the
116 contents of this directory". Without a trailing slash it means "copy
117 the directory". This difference becomes particularly important when
118 using the --delete option.
120 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
121 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
122 an improved copy command.
125 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
127 It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh as the
128 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
129 running on TCP port 873.
131 Using rsync in this was is the same as using it with rsh or ssh except
135 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
136 separate the hostname from the path.
138 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
141 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
142 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
145 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
146 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
147 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
148 the password you want to use. This may be useful when scripting rsync.
150 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
152 An rsync server is configured using a config file which by default is
153 called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
156 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
158 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
160 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS word
161 files and mail folders I use a cron job that runs
163 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
165 each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my machine
168 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
172 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
175 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
179 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
180 link. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
181 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
183 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
186 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
188 this is launched from cron every few hours.
190 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
192 Here is a short summary of the options avalable in rsync. Please refer
193 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
196 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
197 -c, --checksum always checksum
198 -a, --archive archive mode
199 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
200 -R, --relative use relative path names
201 -b, --backup make backups (default ~ extension)
202 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
203 -l, --links preserve soft links
204 -L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular files
205 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
206 -p, --perms preserve permissions
207 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
208 -g, --group preserve group
209 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
210 -t, --times preserve times
211 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
212 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
213 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
214 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
215 -B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size
216 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
217 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
218 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
219 --delete delete files that don't exist on the sending side
220 --partial keep partially transferred files
221 --force force deletion of directories even if not empty
222 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
223 --timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
224 -I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that match length and time
225 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
226 -z, --compress compress file data
227 --exclude=PATTERN exclude file FILE
228 --exclude-from=PATTERN exclude files listed in FILE
229 --include=PATTERN don't exclude file FILE
230 --include-from=PATTERN don't exclude files listed in FILE
231 --suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
232 --version print version number
233 --daemon run as a rsync daemon
234 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
235 --port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port number
236 --stats give some file transfer stats
237 --progress show progress during transfer
238 -h, --help show this help screen
243 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
244 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
245 below separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
248 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
251 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit
253 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
254 are given during the transfer. By default rsync works silently. A
255 single -v will give you information about what files are being
256 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
257 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
258 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
259 you are debugging rsync
261 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
262 already the same length and have the same time-stamp. This option turns
265 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
266 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
267 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
268 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
269 receiver are skipped. This option can be quite slow.
271 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptDg. It is a quick way
272 of saying I want recursion and want to preserve everything.
274 Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the -o option (preserve
275 uid) is also implied.
277 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories recursively
279 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
280 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
281 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
282 you want to sent several different directories at the same time. For
283 example if you used the command
285 verb(rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
287 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
288 machine. If instead you used
290 verb(rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
292 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
293 machine. The full path name is preserved.
295 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option preexisting destination files are
296 renamed with a ~ extension as each file is transferred. You can
297 control the backup suffix using the --suffix option.
299 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
300 destination file already exists and has a date later than the source
303 dit(bf(-l, --links)) This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
304 remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
305 option all symbolic links are skipped.
307 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just
310 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
311 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
312 option hard links are treated like regular files.
314 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
315 are in the list of files being sent.
317 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
319 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
320 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. This may be
321 useful when using rsync with a local machine.
323 dit(bf(--partial)) By default rsync will delete any partially
324 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
325 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
326 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
327 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
329 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to update the remote
330 permissions to be the same as the local permissions.
332 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to update the remote owner
333 of the file to be the same as the local owner. This is only available
336 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to update the remote group
337 of the file to be the same as the local group.
339 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
340 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
341 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
343 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
344 with the files and update them on the remote system
346 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
347 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
349 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
350 up less space on the destination.
352 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
353 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
354 contents of only one filesystem.
356 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiving
357 side that aren't on the sending side. This option can be dangerous if
360 It is a very good idea to run first using the dry run option (-n) to
361 see what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't
364 rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to make it less
365 dangerous. rsync now only scans directories on the receiving side
366 that are explicitly transferred from the sending side. Only files in
367 these directories are deleted.
369 Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this option. The moral
370 of the story is to use the -n option until you get used to the
371 behavior of --delete.
373 NOTE: It also may delete files on the destination if the sending side
374 can't open them or stat them. This is a bug that hopefully will be
375 fixed in a future release.
377 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
378 they are not empty. This applies to both the --delete option and to
379 cases where rsync tries to copy a normal file but the destination
380 contains a directory of the same name. Normally rsync will refuse to
381 do a recursive directory deletion in such cases, by using --force
382 the recursive deletion will be done.
384 Use this option with caution!
386 dit(bf(-B , --block_size BLOCKSIZE)) This controls the block size used in
387 the rsync algorithm. See the technical report for details.
389 dit(bf(-e, --rsh COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
390 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
391 remote copies of rsync. By default rsync will use rsh, but you may
392 like to instead use ssh because of its high security.
394 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
395 environment variable.
397 dit(bf(--rsync-path PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
398 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when its not in your path.
400 dit(bf(--exclude pattern)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
401 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
402 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
404 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
405 to build up the list of files to exclude.
407 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
410 dit(bf(--exclude-from FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
411 option, but instead it adds all filenames listed in the file FILE to
414 dit(bf(--include pattern)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
415 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
416 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
418 See the section of exclude patterns for information on the syntax of
421 dit(bf(--include-from FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
424 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
425 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
426 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
427 a file should be ignored.
429 The exclude list is initialized to:
431 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
432 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
433 *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z *.elc *.ln core)
435 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
436 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (space delimited).
438 Finally in each directory any files listed in the .cvsignore file in
439 that directory are added to the list.
441 dit(bf(--suffix SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
442 backup suffix used with the -b option. The default is a ~.
444 dit(bf(--csum-length LENGTH)) By default the primary checksum used in
445 rsync is a very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you will
446 find that a truncated version of this checksum is quite efficient, and
447 this will decrease the size of the checksum data sent over the link,
448 making things faster.
450 You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated checksum using the
451 --csum-length option. Any value less than or equal to 16 is valid.
453 Note that if you use this option then you run the risk of ending up
454 with an incorrect target file. The risk with a value of 16 is
455 microscopic and can be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
456 before it fails) but with smaller values the risk is higher.
458 Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive algorithm for the
459 checksum length by default, using a 16 byte file checksum to determine
460 if a 2nd pass is required with a longer block checksum. Only use this
461 option if you have read the source code and know what you are doing.
463 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir DIR)) This options instructs rsync to use DIR as a
464 scratch directory when creating a temporary copies of the files
465 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
466 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
468 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
469 the source file(s) which it sends to the destination machine. This
470 option is useful on slow links. The compression method used is the
471 same method that gzip uses.
473 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
474 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
475 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
476 information sent for matching data blocks.
478 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
479 and user ids rather than using user and group names and mapping them
482 By default rsync will use the user name and group name to determine
483 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
484 0 and never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
485 option is not specified.
487 If a user or group name does not exist on the destination system then
488 the numeric id from the source system is used instead.
490 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum IO
491 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
492 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
494 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync
495 daemon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it
496 is being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current
497 terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read the
498 config file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and
499 respond to requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
502 dit(bf(--config FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
503 the default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant when --daemon is
506 dit(bf(--port PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
507 rather than the default port 873.
509 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
510 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
511 algorithm is for your data. This option only works in conjunction with
512 the -v (verbose) option.
514 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
515 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
520 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
522 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
523 selection of what files to transfer and what files to skip.
525 rsync build a ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
526 the command line. When a filename is encountered rsync then checks the
527 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
528 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern than that file is
529 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
530 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
531 filename is not skipped.
533 The patterns themselves can take several forms. The rules are:
536 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
537 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
538 the filename. Thus /foo would match a file called foo
539 at the base of the tree whereas foo would match any file
540 called foo anywhere in the tree.
542 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
543 directory, not a file, link or device.
545 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
546 *?[ then regular expression matching is applied using the
547 normal shell filename matching rules. Otherwise a simple string
550 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) then it
551 is matched against the full filename, including any leading
552 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / then it is matched
553 only against the final component of the filename.
555 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
556 then it is always considered a include pattern, even if specified as
557 part of an exclude option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
559 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
560 then it is always considered a exclude pattern, even if specified as
561 part of an include option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
563 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
564 exclude list is reset, removing all previous exclude patterns.
567 The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing you to have a
568 single exclude list that contains both include and exclude options.
570 Here are some examples:
573 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
574 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base directory called foo
575 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
576 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
577 directories and C source files.
580 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
584 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
585 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
588 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
589 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. This can
590 be used instead of the -e option.
592 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
593 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to a rsync
594 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
595 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
597 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
598 are used to determine the default username sent to a rsync server.
600 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the users
601 default .cvsignore file.
617 times are transferred as unix time_t values
619 file permissions, devices etc are transferred as native numerical
622 see also the comments on the --delete option
624 Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is online at
625 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
627 manpagesection(VERSION)
628 This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
630 manpagesection(CREDITS)
632 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
635 The primary ftp site for rsync is
636 url(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync)(ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/rsync).
638 A WEB site is available at
639 url(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)(http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/)
641 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
643 This program uses the zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
644 Gailly and Mark Adler.
646 manpagesection(THANKS)
648 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
649 and David Bell for helpful suggestions and testing of rsync. I've
650 probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
655 rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. They may be
656 contacted via email at tridge@samba.anu.edu.au and
657 Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au