1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(7 Jul 2005)()()
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 daemons (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
48 current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
50 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
51 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
52 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
53 the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
54 a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
55 source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
56 host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
57 "CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" section for
58 an exception to this latter rule).
60 As a special case, if a remote source is specified without a destination,
61 the remote files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
63 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
64 host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
68 See the file README for installation instructions.
70 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
71 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
72 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
73 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
74 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
76 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
77 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
79 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
82 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
87 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
88 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
90 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
92 quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
94 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
95 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
96 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
97 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
98 differences. See the tech report for details.
100 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
102 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
103 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
104 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
105 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
106 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
107 size of data portions of the transfer.
109 quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
111 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
112 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
113 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
114 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
115 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
116 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
117 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
121 tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
122 tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
125 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
126 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
127 copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
130 tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
131 tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
134 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
135 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
136 an improved copy command.
138 quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
140 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
141 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
143 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
145 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
146 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
148 quote(tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
150 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
151 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
152 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
153 to be a part of the filenames.
155 quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest))
157 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
158 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
159 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
160 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
161 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
162 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
163 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
166 tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)nl()
167 tt(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)nl()
170 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
171 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
173 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
175 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
176 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync daemon
177 running on TCP port 873.
179 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
180 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
181 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
182 proxy connections to port 873.
184 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
188 it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
189 separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
190 it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
192 it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
193 list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
194 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
195 specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
198 Some paths on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so then
199 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
200 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
201 the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
202 may be useful when scripting rsync.
204 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
205 users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
207 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
209 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
210 daemon capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
211 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
212 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
213 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync daemon
214 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
217 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
218 using it to connect to an rsync daemon, except that you must
219 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
220 bf(--rsh=COMMAND). (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
223 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
224 daemon user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
226 verb( rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" \
227 rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
229 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
230 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
232 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON)
234 An rsync daemon is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
235 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
236 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf (unless the daemon is spawned via a remote
239 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
241 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
242 daemon configuration file.
244 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
245 user is root (e.g. chroot, uid, gid, etc.). There is no need to
246 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync daemon port
247 if you run an rsync daemon only via a remote shell program.
249 To run an rsync daemon out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
250 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
252 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
254 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
256 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
257 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
259 quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
261 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
264 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
268 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
270 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
273 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
274 connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
275 lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
277 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
280 tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
282 This is launched from cron every few hours.
284 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
286 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
287 to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
288 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
289 -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
290 -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
291 -a, --archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)
292 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
293 -R, --relative use relative path names
294 --no-relative turn off --relative
295 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
296 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
297 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
298 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
299 -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
300 --inplace update destination files in-place
301 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
302 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
303 -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
304 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
305 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
306 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
307 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
308 -p, --perms preserve permissions
309 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
310 -g, --group preserve group
311 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
312 -t, --times preserve times
313 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
314 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
315 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
316 -W, --whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)
317 --no-whole-file always use incremental rsync algorithm
318 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
319 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
320 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
321 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
322 --existing only update files that already exist
323 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
324 --remove-sent-files sent files/symlinks are removed from sender
325 --del an alias for --delete-during
326 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
327 --delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)
328 --delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before
329 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before
330 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
331 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
332 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
333 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
334 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
335 --partial keep partially transferred files
336 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
337 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
338 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
339 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
340 -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
341 --size-only skip files that match in size
342 --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
343 -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
344 -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
345 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
346 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
347 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
348 -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
349 -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
350 -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
351 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
352 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
353 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
354 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
355 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
356 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
357 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
358 -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
359 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
360 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
361 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
362 --no-blocking-io turn off blocking I/O when it is default
363 --stats give some file-transfer stats
364 --progress show progress during transfer
365 -P same as --partial --progress
366 -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
367 --log-format=FORMAT output filenames using the specified format
368 --password-file=FILE read password from FILE
369 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
370 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
371 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
372 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
373 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
374 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
375 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
376 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
377 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
378 --version print version number
379 -h, --help show this help screen)
381 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
383 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
384 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
385 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
386 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
387 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
388 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
389 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
390 -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
391 -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
392 -h, --help show this help screen)
396 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
397 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
398 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
399 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
403 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
406 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
408 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
409 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
410 single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
411 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
412 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
413 information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
414 you are debugging rsync.
416 Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
417 a default bf(--log-format) of "%n%L", which tells you just the name of the
418 file and, if the item is a link, where it points. At the single bf(-v)
419 level of verbosity, this does not mention when a file gets its attributes
420 changed. If you ask for an itemized list of changed attributes (either
421 bf(--itemize-changes) or adding "%i" to the bf(--log-format) setting), the
422 output (on the client) increases to mention all items that are changed in
423 any way. See the bf(--log-format) option for more details.
425 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
426 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
427 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
430 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
431 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
432 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
434 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
435 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
436 bf(--size-only) option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
437 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
438 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
441 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
442 timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
443 value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
444 to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
445 transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
446 times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
447 (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
449 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
450 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
451 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
452 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
453 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
455 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
456 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
457 everything. The only exception to this is if bf(--files-from) was
458 specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
460 Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
461 finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
464 dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
465 recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
467 dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
468 names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
469 just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
470 you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
471 example, if you used the command
473 quote(tt( rsync /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
475 then this would create a file called foo.c in /tmp/ on the remote
476 machine. If instead you used
478 quote(tt( rsync -R /foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/))
480 then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be created on the remote
481 machine -- the full path name is preserved. To limit the amount of
482 path information that is sent, do something like this:
486 tt( rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)nl()
489 That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
491 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the bf(--relative) option. This is only
492 needed if you want to use bf(--files-from) without its implied bf(--relative)
495 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
496 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
497 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
498 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
499 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
500 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
501 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
502 the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
503 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
504 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
506 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
507 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
508 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
509 bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
510 Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), the bf(--omit-dir-times)
511 option will be enabled.
513 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
514 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
515 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
516 specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
517 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
518 will keep their original filenames).
520 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
521 backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
522 if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
524 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
525 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
526 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
527 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
529 In the current implementation of bf(--update), a difference of file format
530 between the sender and receiver is always
531 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
532 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
533 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
534 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
535 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
537 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
538 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
539 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
540 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
541 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
542 with bf(--backup), since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
543 basis file for the transfer.
545 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
546 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
549 The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
550 the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
551 Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
554 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
555 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
556 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
557 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
560 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
561 are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
562 unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
563 name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
564 bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
565 output a message to that effect for each one).
567 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
568 symlink on the destination.
570 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
571 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
572 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
573 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
574 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
575 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
576 an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
577 will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
579 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
580 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
581 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
582 source path itself when bf(--relative) is used.
584 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
585 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
586 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
587 give unexpected results.
589 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
590 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
591 option hard links are treated like regular files.
593 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
594 are in the list of files being sent.
596 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
598 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
599 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
602 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
603 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
604 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
605 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
606 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
607 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
609 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off bf(--whole-file), for use when it is the
612 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
613 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
615 Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
616 their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
617 based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
619 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
621 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
622 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
623 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
624 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
625 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
627 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
628 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
629 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
630 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
631 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
632 circumstances. See the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion.
634 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
635 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
636 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
638 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
639 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
640 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
641 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
642 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
643 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
644 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
646 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
647 it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
648 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
649 This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
651 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
652 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
654 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
655 up less space on the destination.
657 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
658 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
659 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
661 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
662 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
663 contents of only one filesystem.
665 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files --
666 only update files that already exist on the destination.
668 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
669 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
672 dit(bf(--remove-sent-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
673 side the files and/or symlinks that are newly created or whose content is
674 updated on the receiving side. Directories and devices are not removed,
675 nor are files/symlinks whose attributes are merely changed.
677 dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
678 receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
679 directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
680 send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
681 for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
682 by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
683 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
684 also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
685 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
686 include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
688 This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
690 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
691 to run first using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files would be
692 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
694 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
695 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
696 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
697 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
698 destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
700 The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
701 without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
702 --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will currently choose the
703 bf(--delete-before) algorithm. A future version may change this to choose the
704 bf(--delete-during) algorithm. See also bf(--delete-after).
706 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
707 side be done before the transfer starts. This is the default if bf(--delete)
708 or bf(--delete-excluded) is specified without one of the --delete-WHEN options.
709 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
711 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
712 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
713 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
714 and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
717 dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
718 receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
719 a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
720 but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
721 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
723 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
724 side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
725 are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
726 you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
728 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
730 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
731 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
732 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
733 See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
734 this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
735 bf(--delete-excluded).
736 See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
738 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
739 even when there are I/O errors.
741 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
742 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
743 is only relevant without bf(--delete) because deletions are now done depth-first.
744 Requires the bf(--recursive) option (which is implied by bf(-a)) to have any effect.
746 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
747 files or directories (NUM must be non-zero).
748 This is useful when mirroring very large trees to prevent disasters.
750 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
751 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
752 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
753 may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
755 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
756 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
757 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
759 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
760 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
761 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
762 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
764 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
765 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
766 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
767 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
768 running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
769 TO AN RSYNC DAEMON OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
771 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
772 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
774 quote(tt( -e "ssh -p 2234"))
776 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
777 options in their .ssh/config file.)
779 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
780 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
782 See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
784 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
785 on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
786 the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
787 Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
788 program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
789 not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
792 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
793 machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
795 quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/))
797 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
798 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
799 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
800 a file should be ignored.
802 The exclude list is initialized to:
804 quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
805 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
806 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)))
808 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
809 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
810 are delimited by whitespace).
812 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
813 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
814 rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
815 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
817 If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
818 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
819 regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
820 a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
821 control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
822 should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
823 bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
824 putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
825 The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
826 file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
829 dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
830 exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
831 most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
833 You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
834 to build up the list of files to exclude.
836 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
838 dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
839 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
841 quote(tt( --filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
843 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
844 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
845 files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
848 quote(tt( --filter='- .rsync-filter'))
850 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
852 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
855 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
856 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
857 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
859 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
861 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the bf(--exclude)
862 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
863 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
864 ';' or '#' are ignored.
865 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
867 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
868 bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
869 the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
871 See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
873 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
875 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
877 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
878 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
879 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
880 transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
883 it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
884 information that is specified for each item in the file (use
885 bf(--no-relative) if you want to turn that off).
886 it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
887 specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
889 it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
890 (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
893 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
894 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
895 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
898 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
900 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
901 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
902 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
903 the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
904 mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
905 if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
906 also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
907 explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
909 that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
910 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
911 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
913 In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
914 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
915 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
916 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
917 transfer". For example:
919 quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
921 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
922 was located on the remote "src" host.
924 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
925 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
926 This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
927 merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
928 It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
929 file are split on whitespace).
931 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
932 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
933 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
934 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
936 dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
937 basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
938 looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
939 has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
940 found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
942 Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
943 fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
944 filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
946 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
947 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
948 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
949 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
950 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
951 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
952 have changed from an earlier backup.
954 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
955 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
957 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
958 and the attributes updated.
959 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
960 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
962 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
963 See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
965 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
966 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
967 directory using a local copy.
968 This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
969 existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
970 been successfully transferred.
972 Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
973 rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
974 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
975 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
977 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
978 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
980 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
981 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
982 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
983 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
986 quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
988 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
989 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
991 If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
992 and the attributes updated.
993 If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
994 selected to try to speed up the transfer.
996 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
997 See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
999 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1000 bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-root user when bf(-o) was specified
1001 (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the bf(-o) option
1002 when sending to an old rsync.
1004 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1005 as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1006 being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1008 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios that can
1009 be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1010 because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1011 blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
1013 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1014 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1017 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1018 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1019 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1020 option is not specified.
1022 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1023 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1024 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1025 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1026 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1027 users and groups and what you can do about it.
1029 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
1030 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
1031 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
1033 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1034 connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
1035 specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
1036 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1038 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
1039 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
1040 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
1041 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
1042 option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1044 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
1045 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
1046 rsync defaults to using
1047 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
1048 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
1050 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off bf(--blocking-io), for use when it is the
1053 dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
1054 changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
1055 This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--log-format='%i %n%L').
1057 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long. The general
1058 format is like the string bf(UXcstpoga)), where bf(U) is replaced by the
1059 kind of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
1060 other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
1063 The update types that replace the bf(U) are as follows:
1066 it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
1068 it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
1070 it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
1071 (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
1072 it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard-link to another item (requires
1074 it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
1075 have attributes that are being modified).
1078 The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
1079 directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, and a bf(D) for a device.
1081 The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
1082 will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
1083 a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
1084 item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
1085 dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
1086 a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
1088 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
1091 it() A bf(c) means the checksum of the file is different and will be
1092 updated by the file transfer (requires bf(--checksum)).
1093 it() A bf(s) means the size of the file is different and will be updated
1094 by the file transfer.
1095 it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
1096 to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
1097 means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
1098 anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred
1099 without bf(--times).
1100 it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
1101 the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
1102 it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
1103 sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and root privileges).
1104 it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
1105 sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
1106 it() The bf(a) is reserved for a future enhanced version that supports
1107 extended file attributes, such as ACLs.
1110 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
1111 the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
1112 you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
1113 outputting them as a verbose message).
1115 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
1116 rsync client outputs to the user on a per-file basis. The format is a text
1117 string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
1118 a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
1119 the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage. (Note that this
1120 option does not affect what a daemon logs to its logfile.)
1122 Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
1123 in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
1124 touched directory) unless the itemized-changes escape (%i) is included in
1125 the string, in which case the logging of names increases to mention any
1126 item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
1127 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemized-changes) option for a description of the
1130 The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
1131 bf(--log-format) without bv(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
1132 the format of its per-file output using this option.
1134 Rsync will output the log-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
1135 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
1136 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
1137 is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
1138 the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
1139 (followed, of course, by the log-format output).
1141 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
1142 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
1143 algorithm is for your data.
1145 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
1146 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
1147 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
1148 bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
1149 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
1151 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
1152 bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
1153 partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
1154 On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
1155 dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then deletes it
1156 after it has served its purpose.
1157 Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
1158 file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
1160 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
1162 Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
1163 the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
1164 "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
1165 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
1166 remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
1168 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add a directory
1169 bf(--exclude) of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
1170 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
1171 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
1172 the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add an "bf(--exclude=.rsync-partial/)"
1173 rule at the end of any other filter rules. Note that if you are
1174 supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert a
1175 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
1176 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
1177 a trailing bf(--exclude='*') rule, the auto-added rule would never be
1180 IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
1181 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
1183 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
1184 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
1185 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
1186 specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
1187 along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1188 environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
1189 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time that the bf(--partial)
1190 option does not look for this environment value is (1) when bf(--inplace) was
1191 specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), or (2) when
1192 bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
1194 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
1195 bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
1196 refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
1197 of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
1198 safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
1200 dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
1201 updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
1202 transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
1203 succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
1204 atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
1205 each file's destination directory, but you can override this by specifying
1206 the bf(--partial-dir) option. (Note that RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR has no effect
1207 on this value, nor is bf(--partial-dir) considered to be implied for the
1208 purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting.)
1209 Conflicts with bf(--inplace).
1211 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
1212 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
1213 side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
1214 you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless there is no
1215 chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
1216 the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
1219 See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
1220 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
1221 parallel hierarchy of files).
1223 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1224 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1226 Implies bf(--verbose) if it wasn't already specified.
1228 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1230 verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
1232 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1233 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1234 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1235 remaining in this transfer.
1237 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1239 verb( 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396))
1241 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1242 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1243 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1244 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1245 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1247 dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
1248 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1249 transfer that may be interrupted.
1251 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1252 in a file for accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option
1253 is only useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in
1254 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1255 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1258 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1259 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1260 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1261 come in handy for a user that wants to avoid the "bf(-r --exclude='/*/*')"
1262 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1263 non-recursive listing, or to list the files that are involved in a local
1264 copy (since the destination path is not optional for a local copy, you
1265 must specify this option explicitly and still include a destination).
1267 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1268 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1269 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1270 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1271 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1272 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1273 of zero specifies no limit.
1275 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1276 another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
1277 section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
1279 dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
1280 no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
1281 This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
1282 other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
1284 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
1285 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
1286 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
1287 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
1288 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
1291 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
1292 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
1293 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
1294 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
1296 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1297 file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
1298 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1299 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1301 dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
1302 is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
1303 version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
1304 bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
1305 bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
1306 batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
1307 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
1309 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1310 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1311 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1312 rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
1314 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1315 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1316 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1317 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1318 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1319 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1320 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1321 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1325 manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
1327 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1330 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1331 daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
1332 the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1334 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1335 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1336 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1337 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1338 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1341 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
1342 run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
1343 allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
1344 makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
1345 See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1347 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1348 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1349 The client can still specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but their
1350 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1351 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1353 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1354 the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
1355 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1356 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1357 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1359 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1360 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1361 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1362 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1363 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1364 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1365 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1368 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1369 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1370 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1372 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
1373 daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
1374 daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
1375 used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
1377 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1378 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1379 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1380 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1381 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1382 try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
1384 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
1385 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1388 manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
1390 The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
1391 (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
1392 specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
1393 include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
1395 As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
1396 name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
1397 turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
1398 pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
1399 filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
1400 filename is not skipped.
1402 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
1403 command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
1406 tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1407 tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
1410 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
1411 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
1412 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
1413 must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
1414 Here are the available rule prefixes:
1417 bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
1418 bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
1419 bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
1420 bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
1421 bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
1422 bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
1423 bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
1424 bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
1425 bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
1428 When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
1429 comment lines that start with a "#".
1431 Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
1432 full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
1433 specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
1434 list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
1436 does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
1437 rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
1438 an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
1439 the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
1442 Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
1443 rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
1444 the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
1445 the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
1447 manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
1449 You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
1450 "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
1451 The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
1452 the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
1453 can take several forms:
1456 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
1457 particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
1458 against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
1459 regular expressions.
1460 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at either the "root of the
1461 transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
1462 per-directory rule).
1463 An unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"
1464 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1466 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1467 end of the file name. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
1468 any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
1469 named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
1470 a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
1472 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1473 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1474 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1475 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1476 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1477 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1478 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1479 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1480 then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
1481 directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1482 matched only against the final component of the filename.
1483 (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
1484 can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
1488 Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
1489 bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
1490 include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
1491 full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
1492 "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1493 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1494 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1495 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1496 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1497 hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
1498 For instance, this won't work:
1501 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
1502 tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
1506 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
1507 rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1508 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1509 to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
1510 "- *" rule). Another solution is to add specific include rules for all
1511 the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
1516 tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
1517 tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
1518 tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
1522 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1525 it() "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1526 it() "- /foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1527 it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1528 it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1529 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1530 it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1531 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1532 it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
1533 directories and C source files but nothing else.
1534 it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
1535 only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
1536 explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
1539 manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
1541 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
1542 merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
1545 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
1546 per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
1547 its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
1548 rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
1549 it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
1550 into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
1551 must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
1552 being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
1553 also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
1554 affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
1560 tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1561 tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
1562 tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
1563 tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1564 tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
1567 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
1570 it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
1571 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1572 it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
1573 patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
1574 it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
1575 CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
1576 allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
1577 provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
1578 it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
1579 "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
1580 it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
1581 it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
1582 of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
1583 space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
1584 "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
1586 it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
1587 (below) in order to have the rules that are read-in from the file
1588 default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
1589 treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
1590 while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
1591 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
1594 The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
1597 it() A "/" specifies that the include/exclude should be treated as an
1598 absolute path, relative to the root of the filesystem. For example,
1599 "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
1600 was sending files from the "/etc" directory.
1601 it() A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
1602 the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
1604 it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
1605 should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
1607 it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
1608 side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
1609 being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
1610 unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
1611 become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
1612 which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
1613 it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
1614 side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
1615 being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
1616 protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
1617 specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
1620 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
1621 where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
1622 subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
1623 from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
1624 inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
1625 the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
1626 dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
1627 rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
1628 file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
1630 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
1631 anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
1632 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
1633 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
1636 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
1639 tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
1641 tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
1646 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
1647 start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
1648 filter file. All rules read-in prior to the start of the directory scan
1649 follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
1652 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
1653 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
1654 dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
1655 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
1657 quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
1659 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
1660 directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
1661 transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
1662 the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
1663 rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
1665 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
1668 tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1669 tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1670 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
1673 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
1674 "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
1675 and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
1676 and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
1677 a part of the transfer.
1679 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
1680 you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
1681 file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
1682 use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
1683 per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
1684 ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
1685 add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
1686 rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
1690 tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
1695 tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
1698 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
1699 the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
1700 at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
1701 that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
1702 affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
1703 the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
1704 omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
1705 your filter rules; e.g. "--filter=-C".
1707 manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
1709 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
1710 rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
1711 list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
1712 parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
1713 inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
1714 out the parent's rules).
1716 manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1718 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
1719 "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
1720 anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
1721 a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
1722 transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
1723 directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
1725 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1726 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
1727 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1728 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1729 host). The following examples demonstrate this.
1731 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1732 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1733 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1736 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
1737 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
1738 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
1739 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1740 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1744 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
1745 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
1746 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
1747 Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
1748 Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
1752 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
1753 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
1754 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1755 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
1756 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
1760 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
1761 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
1762 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
1763 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
1764 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
1767 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
1768 look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
1769 (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1771 manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
1773 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
1774 sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
1775 without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
1776 this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
1779 tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1780 tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
1783 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
1784 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
1785 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
1786 the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
1787 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
1788 rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
1790 quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
1792 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
1793 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
1794 line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
1795 the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
1796 remote .rules files exclude themselves):
1798 verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
1799 --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1801 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
1802 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
1803 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
1804 per-directory merge rule.
1806 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
1807 files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
1808 to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
1809 specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
1810 deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
1811 should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
1813 verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
1815 rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
1817 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1819 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1820 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1821 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1822 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1823 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1824 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1825 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1826 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1827 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1829 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1830 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1831 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1832 using the information stored in the batch file.
1834 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1835 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1836 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1837 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1838 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1839 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1840 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1841 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1843 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1844 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1845 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1846 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1847 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1852 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1853 tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
1854 tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
1858 tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
1859 tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
1862 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1863 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1864 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1865 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1866 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1869 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1870 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1871 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1872 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1873 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1874 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1875 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1876 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1877 bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1878 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1879 standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
1884 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1885 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1886 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1887 is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
1888 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1889 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1890 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1891 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1892 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
1893 option (when reading the batch).
1894 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1895 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1896 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1899 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1900 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1901 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1902 to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
1903 creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
1904 (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
1905 older than that with newer versions will not work.)
1907 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1908 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1909 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1910 For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
1911 bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
1912 bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
1913 one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
1915 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
1916 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1917 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1918 list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
1919 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1920 to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
1922 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1923 version uses a new implementation.
1925 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1927 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1928 link in the source directory.
1930 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1931 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1933 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1934 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1937 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1938 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1940 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1941 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1942 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1943 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1944 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1945 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1946 unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
1947 bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
1949 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1950 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1951 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1953 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
1954 in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
1955 use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
1957 dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
1958 symlinks for any other options to affect).
1960 dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
1961 and duplicate all safe symlinks.
1963 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
1964 skip all safe symlinks.
1966 dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
1969 dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
1971 manpagediagnostics()
1973 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1974 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1975 version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
1977 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1978 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1979 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1980 remote shell like this:
1982 quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
1984 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1985 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1986 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1987 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1988 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1989 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1990 for non-interactive logins.
1992 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
1993 try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1994 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1996 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
2000 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
2001 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
2002 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
2003 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
2004 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
2005 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
2007 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
2008 dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
2009 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
2010 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
2011 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
2012 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
2013 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
2014 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
2015 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
2016 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
2017 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
2018 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2019 dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
2020 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
2023 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
2026 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
2027 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
2029 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
2030 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
2031 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
2032 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
2033 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
2034 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
2035 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
2036 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
2037 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
2038 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
2039 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
2040 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
2041 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
2042 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
2043 default .cvsignore file.
2048 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
2056 times are transferred as unix time_t values
2058 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
2060 See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
2062 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
2065 see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
2067 Please report bugs! See the website at
2068 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
2070 manpagesection(VERSION)
2072 This man page is current for version 2.6.6pre1 of rsync.
2074 manpagesection(CREDITS)
2076 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
2077 COPYING for details.
2079 A WEB site is available at
2080 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
2081 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
2084 The primary ftp site for rsync is
2085 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
2087 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
2089 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
2090 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
2092 manpagesection(THANKS)
2094 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
2095 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
2096 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
2098 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
2099 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
2103 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
2104 Many people have later contributed to it.
2106 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
2107 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)