1 mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2 manpage(rsync)(1)(30 Sep 2004)()()
3 manpagename(rsync)(faster, flexible replacement for rcp)
6 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
8 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
10 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
12 rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
14 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16 rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
18 rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
22 rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does,
23 but has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to
24 greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being
27 The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the
28 differences between two sets of files across the network connection, using
29 an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical
30 report that accompanies this package.
32 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
35 it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
36 it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
37 it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
38 it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
39 it() does not require root privileges
40 it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
41 it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync servers (ideal for
45 manpagesection(GENERAL)
47 There are eight different ways of using rsync. They are:
50 it() for copying local files. This is invoked when neither
51 source nor destination path contains a : separator
53 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine using
54 a remote shell program as the transport (such as ssh or
55 rsh). This is invoked when the destination path contains a
58 it() for copying from a remote machine to the local machine
59 using a remote shell program. This is invoked when the source
60 contains a : separator.
62 it() for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
63 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
64 separator or an rsync:// URL.
66 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote rsync
67 server. This is invoked when the destination path contains a ::
68 separator or an rsync:// URL.
70 it() for copying from a remote machine using a remote shell
71 program as the transport, using rsync server on the remote
72 machine. This is invoked when the source path contains a ::
73 separator and the --rsh=COMMAND (aka "-e COMMAND") option is
76 it() for copying from the local machine to a remote machine
77 using a remote shell program as the transport, using rsync
78 server on the remote machine. This is invoked when the
79 destination path contains a :: separator and the
80 --rsh=COMMAND option is also provided.
82 it() for listing files on a remote machine. This is done the
83 same way as rsync transfers except that you leave off the
87 Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one of the source
88 and destination paths must be local.
92 See the file README for installation instructions.
94 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
95 a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
96 daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
97 for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
98 different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
100 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -e
101 command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103 One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high degree of
106 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
109 manpagesection(USAGE)
111 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
112 and a destination, one of which may be remote.
114 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
116 quote(rsync -t *.c foo:src/)
118 This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
119 current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
120 the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
121 remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
122 differences. See the tech report for details.
124 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp)
126 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
127 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
128 files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
129 links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
130 in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
131 size of data portions of the transfer.
133 quote(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp)
135 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
136 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
137 / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
138 to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
139 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
140 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
141 files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
144 quote(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)
145 quote(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)
147 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
148 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
149 an improved copy command.
151 quote(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::)
153 This would list all the anonymous rsync modules available on the host
154 somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following section for more details.)
157 manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
159 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using
160 quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:
162 quote(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest)
164 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each
165 additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one,
166 and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed
167 to be a part of the filenames.
169 quote(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)
171 This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This
172 word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it means
173 that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on
174 whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer
175 a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the
176 whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards
177 in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:
179 quote(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest)
180 quote(rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest)
182 This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched
183 wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes.
186 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER)
188 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the
189 transport. In this case you will connect to a remote rsync server
190 running on TCP port 873.
192 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
193 environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
194 your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
195 proxy connections to port 873.
197 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
201 it() you use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
202 separate the hostname from the path or an rsync:// URL.
204 it() the remote server may print a message of the day when you
207 it() if you specify no path name on the remote server then the
208 list of accessible paths on the server will be shown.
210 it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
211 specified files on the remote server is provided.
214 Some paths on the remote server may require authentication. If so then
215 you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
216 password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
217 the password you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
218 may be useful when scripting rsync.
220 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
221 users. On those systems using --password-file is recommended.
223 manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
225 It is sometimes useful to be able to set up file transfers using rsync
226 server capabilities on the remote machine, while still using ssh or
227 rsh for transport. This is especially useful when you want to connect
228 to a remote machine via ssh (for encryption or to get through a
229 firewall), but you still want to have access to the rsync server
230 features (see RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM,
233 From the user's perspective, using rsync in this way is the same as
234 using it to connect to an rsync server, except that you must
235 explicitly set the remote shell program on the command line with
236 --rsh=COMMAND. (Setting RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on
239 In order to distinguish between the remote-shell user and the rsync
240 server user, you can use '-l user' on your remote-shell command:
242 quote(rsync -av --rsh="ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module[/path] local-path)
244 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
245 used to check against the rsyncd.conf on the remote host.
247 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER)
249 An rsync server is configured using a configuration file. Please see the
250 rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information. By default the configuration
251 file is called /etc/rsyncd.conf, unless rsync is running over a remote
252 shell program and is not running as root; in that case, the default name
253 is rsyncd.conf in the current directory on the remote computer
256 manpagesection(RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM)
258 See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for full information on the rsync
259 server configuration file.
261 Several configuration options will not be available unless the remote
262 user is root (e.g. chroot, setuid/setgid, etc.). There is no need to
263 configure inetd or the services map to include the rsync server port
264 if you run an rsync server only via a remote shell program.
266 To run an rsync server out of a single-use ssh key, see this section
267 in the rsyncd.conf(5) man page.
269 manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
271 Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
273 To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
274 files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
276 quote(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup)
278 each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
281 To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
285 rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
288 rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
292 this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
293 connection. I then do cvs operations on the remote machine, which saves a
294 lot of time as the remote cvs protocol isn't very efficient.
296 I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
299 quote(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba")
301 this is launched from cron every few hours.
303 manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
305 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
306 to the detailed description below for a complete description.
309 -v, --verbose increase verbosity
310 -q, --quiet decrease verbosity
311 -c, --checksum always checksum
312 -a, --archive archive mode, equivalent to -rlptgoD
313 -r, --recursive recurse into directories
314 -R, --relative use relative path names
315 --no-relative turn off --relative
316 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -R
317 -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
318 --backup-dir make backups into this directory
319 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
320 -u, --update update only (don't overwrite newer files)
321 --inplace update the destination files in-place
322 -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
323 -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
324 -L, --copy-links copy the referent of all symlinks
325 --copy-unsafe-links copy the referent of "unsafe" symlinks
326 --safe-links ignore "unsafe" symlinks
327 -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
328 -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
329 -p, --perms preserve permissions
330 -o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
331 -g, --group preserve group
332 -D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
333 -t, --times preserve times
334 -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times
335 -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
336 -n, --dry-run show what would have been transferred
337 -W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incremental checks
338 --no-whole-file turn off --whole-file
339 -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
340 -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
341 -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell
342 --rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the remote machine
343 --existing only update files that already exist
344 --ignore-existing ignore files that already exist on receiver
345 --delete delete files that don't exist on sender
346 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
347 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
348 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files on receiver
349 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
350 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
351 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
352 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
353 --partial keep partially transferred files
354 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
355 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
356 --timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds
357 -I, --ignore-times turn off mod time & file size quick check
358 --size-only ignore mod time for quick check (use size)
359 --modify-window=NUM compare mod times with reduced accuracy
360 -T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
361 --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
362 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
363 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
364 -P equivalent to --partial --progress
365 -z, --compress compress file data
366 -C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same way CVS does
367 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
368 --exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in FILE
369 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
370 --include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed in FILE
371 --files-from=FILE read FILE for list of source-file names
372 -0 --from0 all file lists are delimited by nulls
373 --version print version number
374 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
375 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
376 --no-blocking-io turn off --blocking-io
377 --stats give some file transfer stats
378 --progress show progress during transfer
379 --log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using specified format
380 --password-file=FILE get password from FILE
381 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
382 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
383 --write-batch=FILE write a batch to FILE
384 --read-batch=FILE read a batch from FILE
385 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed
386 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
387 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
388 -h, --help show this help screen
391 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:
394 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
395 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
396 --bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth, KBytes per second
397 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
398 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
399 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
400 -4 --ipv4 prefer IPv4
401 -6 --ipv6 prefer IPv6
402 -h, --help show this help screen
407 rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line
408 options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown
409 below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant.
410 The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace
414 dit(bf(-h, --help)) Print a short help page describing the options
417 dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
419 dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
420 are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
421 single -v will give you information about what files are being
422 transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give you
423 information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
424 information at the end. More than two -v flags should only be used if
425 you are debugging rsync.
427 dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
428 are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
429 from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
432 dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
433 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp.
434 This option turns off this "quick check" behavior.
436 dit(bf(--size-only)) Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are
437 already the same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the
438 --size-only option, files will not be transferred if they have the same size,
439 regardless of timestamp. This is useful when starting to use rsync
440 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
443 dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps rsync treats
444 the timestamps as being equal if they are within the value of
445 modify_window. This is normally zero, but you may find it useful to
446 set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
447 transferring to Windows FAT filesystems which cannot represent times
448 with a 1 second resolution --modify-window=1 is useful.
450 dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This forces the sender to checksum all files using
451 a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The checksum is then
452 explicitly checked on the receiver and any files of the same name
453 which already exist and have the same checksum and size on the
454 receiver are not transferred. This option can be quite slow.
456 dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to -rlptgoD. It is a quick
457 way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
460 Note however 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 --dirs (-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 verb(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 verb(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:
485 rsync -R bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/)
487 That would create /tmp/bar/foo.c on the remote machine.
489 dit(bf(--no-relative)) Turn off the --relative option. This is only
490 needed if you want to use --files-from without its implied --relative
493 dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the --relative option, the
494 implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
495 of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
496 the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
497 path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with -R,
498 the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
499 destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
500 the --no-implied-dirs option would omit both of these implied dirs,
501 which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
502 symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
504 dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
505 renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
506 backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
507 --backup-dir and --suffix options.
509 dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the --backup option, this
510 tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory. This is
511 very useful for incremental backups. You can additionally
512 specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option
513 (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
514 will keep their original filenames).
515 If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory
516 (which changes in a recursive transfer).
518 dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
519 backup suffix used with the --backup (-b) option. The default suffix is a ~
520 if no --backup-dir was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
522 dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
523 the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
524 file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal to the
525 source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
527 In the current implementation of --update, a difference of file format
528 between the sender and receiver is always
529 considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date
530 is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a
531 symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
532 regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel
533 free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).
535 dit(bf(--inplace)) This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file
536 and then move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing
537 file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full amount of
538 network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try
539 to sort data matches). One exception to this is if you combine the option
540 with --backup, since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the
541 basis file for the transfer.
543 This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
544 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
547 The option implies --partial (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
548 the file), but conflicts with --partial-dir. Prior to rsync 2.6.4
549 --inplace was also incompatible with --compare-dest, --copy-dest, and
552 WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the
553 transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets interrupted), so you
554 should not use this option to update files that are in use. Also note that
555 rsync will be unable to update a file in-place that is not writable by the
558 dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
559 are encountered. Unlike --recursive, a directory's contents are not copied
560 unless the directory was specified on the command-line as either "." or a
561 name with a trailing slash (e.g. "foo/"). Without this option or the
562 --recursive option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
563 output a message to that effect for each one).
565 dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
566 symlink on the destination.
568 dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the file that
569 they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
570 versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
571 receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
572 modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify --keep-dirlinks (-K)
573 to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
574 an rsync that is too old to understand -K -- in that case, the -L option
575 will still have the side-effect of -K on that older receiving rsync.
577 dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
578 symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
579 are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
580 source path itself when --relative is used.
582 dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
583 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
584 also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with --relative may
585 give unexpected results.
587 dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to recreate hard links on
588 the remote system to be the same as the local system. Without this
589 option hard links are treated like regular files.
591 Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the link
592 are in the list of files being sent.
594 This option can be quite slow, so only use it if you need it.
596 dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) On the receiving side, if a symlink is
597 pointing to a directory, it will be treated as matching a directory
600 dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option the incremental rsync algorithm
601 is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
602 faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
603 destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
604 "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
605 the source and destination are specified as local paths.
607 dit(bf(--no-whole-file)) Turn off --whole-file, for use when it is the
610 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
611 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
613 Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
614 source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
615 other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
616 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
618 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
619 destination file to be the same as the source file. On most systems,
620 only the super-user can set file ownership. By default, the preservation
621 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
622 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
624 dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
625 destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
626 program is not running as the super-user, only groups that the
627 receiver is a member of will be preserved. By default, the preservation
628 is done by name, but may fall back to using the ID number in some
629 circumstances. See the --numeric-ids option for a full discussion.
631 dit(bf(-D, --devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
632 block device information to the remote system to recreate these
633 devices. This option is only available to the super-user.
635 dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
636 with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
637 option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
638 modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing -t or -a will
639 cause the next transfer to behave as if it used -I, causing all files to be
640 updated (though the rsync algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
641 if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using -t).
643 dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
644 it is preserving modification times (see --times). If NFS is sharing
645 the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use -O.
647 dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
648 instead it will just report the actions it would have taken.
650 dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
651 up less space on the destination.
653 NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
654 filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
655 correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
657 dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync not to cross filesystem
658 boundaries when recursing. This is useful for transferring the
659 contents of only one filesystem.
661 dit(bf(--existing)) This tells rsync not to create any new files -
662 only update files that already exist on the destination.
664 dit(bf(--ignore-existing))
665 This tells rsync not to update files that already exist on
668 dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
669 files or directories. This is useful when mirroring very large trees
670 to prevent disasters.
672 dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
673 file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
674 suffixed with a letter to indicate a size multiplier (K, M, or G) and
675 may be a fractional value (e.g. "--max-size=1.5m").
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 those files, not
683 the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
684 excluded from being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
686 This option has no effect unless directory recursion is enabled.
688 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea
689 to run first using the --dry-run option (-n) to see what files would be
690 deleted to make sure important files aren't listed.
692 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
693 files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
694 prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
695 sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
696 destination. You can override this with the --ignore-errors option.
698 Beginning with 2.6.4, rsync does file deletions on the receiving side
699 incrementally as each directory is being transferred (which makes the
700 transfer more efficient than a separate delete pass before or after the
701 transfer). If you are sending files to an older rsync, --delete will
702 behave as --delete-before (see below). See also --delete-after.
704 dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receving
705 side be done prior to starting the transfer, not incrementally as the
706 transfer happens. Implies --delete.
708 One reason to use --delete-before is if the filesystem is tight for space
709 and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
710 However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer (while
711 the receiving side is being scanned for deletions) and this delay might
712 cause the transfer to timeout.
714 dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receving
715 side be done after the transfer has completed, not incrementally as the
716 transfer happens. Implies --delete.
718 dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
719 receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
720 delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --exclude).
723 dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells --delete to go ahead and delete files
724 even when there are I/O errors.
726 dit(bf(--force)) This options tells rsync to delete directories even if
727 they are not empty when they are to be replaced by non-directories. This
728 is only relevant without --delete because deletions are now done depth-first.
729 Requires the --recursive option (which is implied by -a) to have any effect.
731 dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
732 the rsync algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
733 the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
735 dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
736 remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
737 remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
738 default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
740 If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
741 remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync server on the
742 remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
743 shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
744 running rsync server on the remote host. See the section "CONNECTING
745 TO AN RSYNC SERVER OVER A REMOTE SHELL PROGRAM" above.
747 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
748 presented to rsync as a single argument. For example:
750 quote(-e "ssh -p 2234")
752 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
753 options in their .ssh/config file.)
755 You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
756 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as -e.
758 See also the --blocking-io option which is affected by this option.
760 dit(bf(--rsync-path=PATH)) Use this to specify the path to the copy of
761 rsync on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your path. Note
762 that this is the full path to the binary, not just the directory that
765 dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
766 broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
767 systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if
768 a file should be ignored.
770 The exclude list is initialized to:
772 quote(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
773 .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej
774 .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/)
776 then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
777 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
778 are delimited by whitespace).
780 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
781 .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.
782 See the bf(cvs(1)) manual for more information.
784 dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option allows you to selectively exclude
785 certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most
786 useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
788 You may use as many --exclude options on the command line as you like
789 to build up the list of files to exclude.
791 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
793 dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is similar to the --exclude
794 option, but instead it adds all exclude patterns listed in the file
795 FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and lines starting with
796 ';' or '#' are ignored.
797 If em(FILE) is bf(-) the list will be read from standard input.
799 dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option tells rsync to not exclude the
800 specified pattern of filenames. This is useful as it allows you to
801 build up quite complex exclude/include rules.
803 See the EXCLUDE PATTERNS section for detailed information on this option.
805 dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This specifies a list of include patterns
807 If em(FILE) is "-" the list will be read from standard input.
809 dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
810 exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or "-"
811 for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
812 transferring just the specified files and directories easier. For
813 instance, the --relative option is enabled by default when this option
814 is used (use --no-relative if you want to turn that off), all
815 directories specified in the list are created on the destination (rather
816 than being noisily skipped without -r), and the -a (--archive) option's
817 behavior does not imply -r (--recursive) -- specify it explicitly, if
820 The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
821 source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
822 allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
825 quote(rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup)
827 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
828 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host (but the
829 contents of the /usr/bin dir would not be sent unless you specified -r
830 or the names were explicitly listed in /tmp/foo). Also keep in mind
831 that the effect of the (enabled by default) --relative option is to
832 duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
833 force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
835 In addition, the --files-from file can be read from the remote host
836 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
837 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
838 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
839 transfer". For example:
841 quote(rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy)
843 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
844 was located on the remote "src" host.
846 dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the filenames it reads from a
847 file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
848 This affects --exclude-from, --include-from, and --files-from.
849 It does not affect --cvs-exclude (since all names read from a .cvsignore
850 file are split on whitespace).
852 dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
853 scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files
854 transferred on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create
855 the temporary files in the receiving directory.
857 dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
858 the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
859 files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
860 directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
861 sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
862 directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
863 have changed from an earlier backup.
865 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --compare-dest directories may be
866 provided and rsync will search the list in the order specified until it
867 finds an existing file. That first discovery is used as the basis file,
868 and also determines if the transfer needs to happen.
870 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
871 See also --copy-dest and --link-dest.
873 dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
874 rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
875 directory (using the data in the em(DIR) for an efficient copy). This is
876 useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing
877 files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have been
878 successfully transferred.
880 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
881 See also --compare-dest and --link-dest.
883 dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
884 unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
885 The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
886 possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
890 rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
893 Beginning with version 2.6.4, if more than one --link-dest option is
894 specified, rsync will try to find an exact match to link with (searching
895 the list in the order specified), and if not found, a basis file from one
896 of the em(DIR)s will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
898 If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
899 See also --compare-dest and --copy-dest.
901 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
902 --link-dest from working properly for a non-root user when -o was specified
903 (or implied by -a). You can work-around this bug by avoiding the -o option
904 when sending to an old rsync.
906 dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses any data from
907 the files that it sends to the destination machine. This
908 option is useful on slow connections. The compression method used is the
909 same method that gzip uses.
911 Note this this option typically achieves better compression ratios
912 that can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell, or a
913 compressing transport, as it takes advantage of the implicit
914 information sent for matching data blocks.
916 dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
917 and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
920 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
921 what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
922 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-ids
923 option is not specified.
925 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
926 on the destination system, then the numeric ID
927 from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
928 "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
929 the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
930 users and groups and what you can do about it.
932 dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
933 timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
934 then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
936 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
937 rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
938 double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
939 syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
940 option in the --daemon mode section.
942 dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
943 a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
944 rsync defaults to using
945 blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
946 ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
948 dit(bf(--no-blocking-io)) Turn off --blocking-io, for use when it is the
951 dit(bf(--log-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
952 rsync client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log format is
953 specified using the same format conventions as the log format option in
956 dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
957 on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync
958 algorithm is for your data.
960 dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
961 transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
962 it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
963 --partial option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
964 make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
966 dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) Turns on --partial mode, but tells rsync to
967 put a partially transferred file into em(DIR) instead of writing out the
968 file to the destination dir. Rsync will also use a file found in this
969 dir as data to speed up the transfer (i.e. when you redo the send after
970 rsync creates a partial file) and delete such a file after it has served
971 its purpose. Note that if --whole-file is specified (or implied) that an
972 existing partial-dir file will not be used to speedup the transfer (since
973 rsync is sending files without using the incremental rsync algorithm).
975 Rsync will create the dir if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
976 whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
977 "--partial-dir=.rsync-partial") to have rsync create the partial-directory
978 in the destination file's directory (rsync will also try to remove the em(DIR)
979 if a partial file was found to exist at the start of the transfer and the
980 DIR was specified as a relative path).
982 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will also add an
983 --exclude of this value at the end of all your existing excludes. This
984 will prevent partial-dir files from being transferred and also prevent the
985 untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example:
986 the above --partial-dir option would add an "--exclude=.rsync-partial/"
987 rule at the end of any other include/exclude rules. Note that if you are
988 supplying your own include/exclude rules, you may need to manually insert a
989 rule for this directory exclusion somewhere higher up in the list so that
990 it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify
991 a trailing --exclude=* rule, the auto-added rule will be ineffective).
993 IMPORTANT: the --partial-dir should not be writable by other users or it
994 is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
996 You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
997 variable. Setting this in the environment does not force --partial to be
998 enabled, but rather it effects where partial files go when --partial (or
999 -P) is used. For instance, instead of specifying --partial-dir=.rsync-tmp
1000 along with --progress, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
1001 environment and then just use the -P option to turn on the use of the
1002 .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only time the --partial option
1003 does not look for this environment value is when --inplace was also
1004 specified (since --inplace conflicts with --partial-dir).
1006 dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
1007 showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
1009 Implies --verbose without incrementing verbosity.
1011 When the file is transferring, the data looks like this:
1014 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
1017 This tells you the current file size, the percentage of the transfer that
1018 is complete, the current calculated file-completion rate (including both
1019 data over the wire and data being matched locally), and the estimated time
1020 remaining in this transfer.
1022 After a file is complete, the data looks like this:
1025 1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (5, 57.1% of 396)
1028 This tells you the final file size, that it's 100% complete, the final
1029 transfer rate for the file, the amount of elapsed time it took to transfer
1030 the file, and the addition of a total-transfer summary in parentheses.
1031 These additional numbers tell you how many files have been updated, and
1032 what percent of the total number of files has been scanned.
1034 dit(bf(-P)) The -P option is equivalent to --partial --progress. Its
1035 purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
1036 transfer that may be interrupted.
1038 dit(bf(--password-file)) This option allows you to provide a password
1039 in a file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that this option
1040 is only useful when accessing an rsync server using the built in
1041 transport, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file
1042 must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a
1045 dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
1046 instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is no destination
1047 specified, so you don't usually need to use it explicitly. However, it can
1048 come in handy for a power user that wants to avoid the "-r --exclude="/*/*"
1049 options that rsync might use as a compatibility kluge when generating a
1050 non-recursive listing.
1052 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1053 transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when
1054 using rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the nature
1055 of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if rsync determines the
1056 transfer was too fast, it will wait before sending the next data block. The
1057 result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value
1058 of zero specifies no limit.
1060 dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
1061 another identical destination with --read-batch. See the "BATCH MODE"
1062 section for details.
1064 dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
1065 file previously generated by --write-batch.
1066 If em(FILE) is "-" the batch data will be read from standard input.
1067 See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
1069 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1070 when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
1071 control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
1072 rsync daemon. See also these options in the --daemon mode section.
1074 dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
1075 NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
1076 MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
1077 by the server and defaults to the current time(). This option
1078 is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
1079 applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
1080 in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
1081 Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()
1086 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
1090 dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
1091 daemon may be accessed using the bf(host::module) or
1092 bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
1094 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
1095 run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
1096 become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
1097 (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
1098 requests accordingly. See the rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more
1101 dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address
1102 when run as a daemon with the --daemon option or when connecting to a
1103 rsync server. The --address option allows you to specify a specific IP
1104 address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible
1105 in conjunction with the --config option. See also the "address" global
1106 option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1108 dit(bf(--bwlimit=KBPS)) This option allows you to specify a maximum
1109 transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends.
1110 The client can still specify a smaller --bwlimit value, but their
1111 requested value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the
1112 client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
1114 dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
1115 the default. This is only relevant when --daemon is specified.
1116 The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
1117 a remote shell program and the remote user is not root; in that case
1118 the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
1120 dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
1121 rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
1122 option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
1123 be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
1124 bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
1125 bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
1126 debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
1129 dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
1130 daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
1131 global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
1133 dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
1134 when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
1135 listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
1136 versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
1137 an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
1138 try specifying --ipv6 or --ipv4 when starting the daemon).
1140 dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after --daemon, print a short help
1141 page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
1145 manpagesection(EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
1147 The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow for flexible
1148 selection of which files to transfer and which files to skip.
1150 Rsync builds an ordered list of include/exclude options as specified on
1151 the command line. Rsync checks each file and directory
1152 name against each exclude/include pattern in turn. The first matching
1153 pattern is acted on. If it is an exclude pattern, then that file is
1154 skipped. If it is an include pattern then that filename is not
1155 skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found then the
1156 filename is not skipped.
1158 The filenames matched against the exclude/include patterns are relative
1159 to the "root of the transfer". If you think of the transfer as a
1160 subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the root
1161 is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory.
1162 This root governs where patterns that start with a / match (see below).
1164 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
1165 trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --relative
1166 option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
1167 changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
1168 system). The following examples demonstrate this.
1170 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
1171 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
1172 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
1175 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
1176 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
1177 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
1178 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1179 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1181 Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
1182 +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
1183 +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
1184 Target file: /dest/foo/bar
1185 Target file: /dest/bar/baz
1187 Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
1188 +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
1189 +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
1190 Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
1191 Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
1193 Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
1194 +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
1195 +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
1196 Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
1197 Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
1200 The easiest way to see what name you should include/exclude is to just
1201 look at the output when using --verbose and put a / in front of the name
1202 (use the --dry-run option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
1204 Note that, when using the --recursive (-r) option (which is implied by -a),
1205 every subcomponent of
1206 every path is visited from the top down, so include/exclude patterns get
1207 applied recursively to each subcomponent's full name (e.g. to include
1208 "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
1209 The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
1210 when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
1211 parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
1212 because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
1215 Note also that the --include and --exclude options take one pattern
1216 each. To add multiple patterns use the --include-from and
1217 --exclude-from options or multiple --include and --exclude options.
1219 The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
1223 it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched against the
1224 start of the filename, otherwise it is matched against the end of
1226 This is the equivalent of a leading ^ in regular expressions.
1227 Thus "/foo" would match a file called "foo" at the transfer-root
1228 (see above for how this is different from the filesystem-root).
1229 On the other hand, "foo" would match any file called "foo"
1230 anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from
1231 top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
1232 end of the file name.
1234 it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
1235 directory, not a file, link, or device.
1237 it() if the pattern contains a wildcard character from the set
1238 *?[ then expression matching is applied using the shell filename
1239 matching rules. Otherwise a simple string match is used.
1241 it() the double asterisk pattern "**" will match slashes while a
1242 single asterisk pattern "*" will stop at slashes.
1244 it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**"
1245 then it is matched against the full filename, including any leading
1246 directory. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
1247 matched only against the final component of the filename. Again,
1248 remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can
1249 actually be any portion of a path below the starting directory.
1251 it() if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by a space)
1252 then it is always considered an include pattern, even if specified as
1253 part of an exclude option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1255 it() if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed by a space)
1256 then it is always considered an exclude pattern, even if specified as
1257 part of an include option. The prefix is discarded before matching.
1259 it() if the pattern is a single exclamation mark ! then the current
1260 include/exclude list is reset, removing all previously defined patterns.
1263 The +/- rules are most useful in a list that was read from a file, allowing
1264 you to have a single exclude list that contains both include and exclude
1265 options in the proper order.
1267 Remember that the matching occurs at every step in the traversal of the
1268 directory hierarchy, so you must be sure that all the parent directories of
1269 the files you want to include are not excluded. This is particularly
1270 important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:
1273 + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
1278 This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*' rule,
1279 so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
1280 directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
1281 to be included by using a single rule: --include='*/' (put it somewhere
1282 before the --exclude='*' rule). Another solution is to add specific
1283 include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
1284 instance, this set of rules works fine:
1289 + /some/path/this-file-is-found
1290 + /file-also-included
1294 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
1297 it() --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o
1298 it() --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file called foo in the transfer-root directory
1299 it() --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called foo
1300 it() --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1301 levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1302 it() --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file called bar two
1303 or more levels below a directory called foo in the transfer-root directory
1304 it() --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would include all
1305 directories and C source files
1306 it() --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude "*" would include
1307 only foo/bar.c (the foo/ directory must be explicitly included or
1308 it would be excluded by the "*")
1311 manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
1313 bf(Note:) Batch mode should be considered experimental in this version
1314 of rsync. The interface and behavior have now stabilized, though, so
1315 feel free to try this out.
1317 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
1318 identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
1319 number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
1320 source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
1321 hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
1322 write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
1323 of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
1324 client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
1325 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
1327 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
1328 with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
1329 file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
1330 using the information stored in the batch file.
1332 For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
1333 option is used. This file's name is created by appending
1334 ".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
1335 a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
1336 batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne(-like) shell, optionally
1337 passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
1338 instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
1339 path differs from the original destination tree path.
1341 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
1342 status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
1343 updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
1344 be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
1345 at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
1350 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1352 $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
1356 $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
1357 $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
1360 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
1361 and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
1362 "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
1363 into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
1364 reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
1368 it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
1369 local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
1370 remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
1372 it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
1373 rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
1375 it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
1376 the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
1377 This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
1378 --read-batch option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
1379 make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
1380 standard input, such as the "--exclude-from=-" option).
1386 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
1387 to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
1388 batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
1389 is encountered the update might be discarded with no error (if the file
1390 appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
1391 and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
1392 error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
1393 if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
1394 always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the -I
1395 option (when reading the batch).
1396 If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
1397 partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
1398 be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
1401 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
1402 one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
1403 protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
1406 The --dry-run (-n) option does not work in batch mode and yields a runtime
1409 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
1410 to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
1411 as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
1413 --write-batch changes to --read-batch, --files-from is dropped, and the
1414 --include/--exclude options are not needed unless --delete is specified
1415 without --delete-excluded.
1417 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any include/exclude
1418 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
1419 shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
1420 list if a change in what gets deleted by --delete is desired. A normal
1421 user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
1422 to run the appropriate --read-batch command for the batched data.
1424 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
1425 version uses a new implementation.
1427 manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
1429 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
1430 link in the source directory.
1432 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
1433 "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
1435 If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
1436 target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
1439 If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
1440 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
1442 rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
1443 example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
1444 ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
1445 bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
1446 bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
1447 they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
1448 unsafe links to be omitted altogether.
1450 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
1451 (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough bf("..")
1452 components to ascend from the directory being copied.
1454 manpagesection(DIAGNOSTICS)
1456 rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
1457 cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
1458 version mismatch - is your shell clean?".
1460 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
1461 facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
1462 for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
1463 remote shell like this:
1466 ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
1469 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
1470 should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
1471 rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
1472 data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
1473 it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
1474 scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
1475 for non-interactive logins.
1477 If you are having trouble debugging include and exclude patterns, then
1478 try specifying the -vv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
1479 show why each individual file is included or excluded.
1481 manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
1485 dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
1486 dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
1487 dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
1488 dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
1489 was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
1490 them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
1492 dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
1493 dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
1494 dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
1495 dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
1496 dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
1497 dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
1498 dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
1499 dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by waitpid()
1500 dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
1501 dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
1502 dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
1503 dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
1506 manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
1510 dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
1511 ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-exclude option for
1514 dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
1515 override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
1516 options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -e option.
1518 dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
1519 redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
1520 rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
1522 dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
1523 password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
1524 daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
1525 password to a shell transport such as ssh.
1527 dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
1528 are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync server.
1529 If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
1531 dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
1532 default .cvsignore file.
1538 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
1544 manpagediagnostics()
1548 times are transferred as unix time_t values
1550 When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
1552 See the comments on the --modify-window option.
1554 file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
1557 see also the comments on the --delete option
1559 Please report bugs! See the website at
1560 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
1562 manpagesection(CREDITS)
1564 rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file
1565 COPYING for details.
1567 A WEB site is available at
1568 url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
1569 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
1572 The primary ftp site for rsync is
1573 url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
1575 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
1577 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
1578 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
1580 manpagesection(THANKS)
1582 Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
1583 and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
1584 I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
1586 Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer,
1587 Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz.
1591 rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
1592 Many people have later contributed to it.
1594 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
1595 url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)