mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
-manpage(rsync)(1)(29 Jun 2008)()()
+manpage(rsync)(1)(24 Dec 2009)()()
manpagename(rsync)(a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool)
manpagesynopsis()
As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
+Rsync refers to the local side as the "client" and the remote side as the
+"server". Don't confuse "server" with an rsync daemon -- a daemon is always a
+server, but a server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
+
manpagesection(SETUP)
See the file README for installation instructions.
dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
-transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) flags will give you
+transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) options will give you
information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
-information at the end. More than two bf(-v) flags should only be used if
+information at the end. More than two bf(-v) options should only be used if
you are debugging rsync.
Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are done using
dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
-from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync from
+from the remote server. This option is useful when invoking rsync from
cron.
dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
-changes this to compare a 128-bit MD4 checksum for each file that has a
+changes this to compare a 128-bit checksum for each file that has a
matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
+For protocol 30 and beyond (first supported in 3.0.0), the checksum used is
+MD5. For older protocols, the checksum used is MD4.
+
dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
everything (with -H being a notable omission).
That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
-(2) For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
+For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
source path. For example, when pushing files:
quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
-(e.g. bf(-f "Pp *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
+(e.g. bf(-f "P *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
the timestamps.
-dit(bf(--inplace)) This option changes how rsync transfers a file when the
-file's data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of creating
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
+dit(bf(--inplace)) This option changes how rsync transfers a file when
+its data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of creating
a new copy of the file and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync
instead writes the updated data directly to the destination file.
WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
-This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-based changes
+This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
bound.
dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
comma-separated "chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the
-transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions
+transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it were the permissions
that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
-being running as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
+being run as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
super-user can use bf(--no-super).
dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris "tmpfs"
-filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions
-correctly and ends up corrupting the files.
+filesystem. It seems to have problems seeking over null regions,
+and ends up corrupting the files.
dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't
make any changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real run). It
The output of bf(--itemize-changes) is supposed to be exactly the same on a
dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
-call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output is the same to the
-extent practical, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
+call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
+unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
send the actual data for file transfers, so bf(--progress) has no effect,
the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
-where no file transfers are needed.
+where no file transfers were needed.
dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
"disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
-the source and destination are specified as local paths.
+the source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
+batch-writing option is in effect.
dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
(which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
-the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are
+the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are
also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
-sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the
+sending side from causing a massive deletion of files on the
destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
--delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
-bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to an rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
+bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
-receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. This is
-a faster method than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm,
-but it is only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4.
+receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. The
+per-directory delete scan is done right before each directory is checked
+for updates, so it behaves like a more efficient bf(--delete-before),
+including doing the deletions prior to any per-directory filter files
+being updated. This option was first added in rsync version 2.6.4.
See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
-side be computed during the transfer, and then removed after the transfer
-completes. If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
+side be computed during the transfer (like bf(--delete-during)), and then
+removed after the transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
+bf(--delay-updates) and/or bf(--fuzzy), and is more efficient than using
+bf(--delete-after) (but can behave differently, since bf(--delete-after)
+computes the deletions in a separate pass after all updates are done).
+If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
incremental scan).
+See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
+This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
+data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
+It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+
The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
"M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
transferring small, junk files.
-See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE.
+See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE and other information.
dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
was located on the remote "src" host.
+If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
+bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
+filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
+receiving host's charset.
+
dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
file are split on whitespace).
-If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
-bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
-filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
-receiving host's charset.
-
-dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and some options to
+dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and most options to
the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
-If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args will also be translated
+If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args related to the remote
+side will also be translated
from the local to the remote character-set. The translation happens before
wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
+If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if some
+attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount option
+that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive with generic
+ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume" option).
+
Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
for an exact match.
outputting them as a verbose message).
dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
-rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text
-string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with
-a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape characters, see
-the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
-
-Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated
-in a significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
-touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
-included in the string, the logging of names increases to mention any
-item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least
-2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes) option for a description of the
-output of "%i".
-
-The bf(--verbose) option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use
-bf(--out-format) without bf(--verbose) if you like, or you can override
-the format of its per-file output using this option.
+rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a
+text string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed
+with a percent (%) character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if
+bf(-v) is specified (which reports the name
+of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full list
+of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting in the
+rsyncd.conf manpage.
+
+Specifying the bf(--out-format) option
+will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
+way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
+directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
+the string (e.g. if the bf(--itemize-changes) option was used), the logging
+of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
+as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes)
+option for a description of the output of "%i".
Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+The default FORMAT used if bf(--log-file) is specified and this option is not
+is '%i %n%L'.
+
dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer
algorithm is for your data.
recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
rules.
+Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the bf(--min-size) option, does
+not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave directories
+empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the transfer rule.
+
Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
-being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects
-destination files).
+being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
+destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
+this.
You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
is the case.
-dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer
+dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the checksum seed to the integer
NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file
-MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
+checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated
by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This option
is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
applications that want repeatable block and file checksums, or
in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed.
-Note that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
+Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of code(time())
for checksum seed.
enddit()
it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
- it() a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at slashes).
+ it() a '*' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
)
+The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
+
+itemization(
+ it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
+ against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
+ "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
+ was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
+ would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
+ if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
+ it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
+ the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
+ non-directories.
+ it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
+ should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
+ follow.
+ it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
+ side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
+ being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
+ unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
+ become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
+ which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
+ it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
+ side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
+ being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
+ protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
+ specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
+ it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
+ ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
+ option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
+ marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
+ on the source from being deleted on the destination.
+)
+
manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
"- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
also disabled).
it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
- (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
+ (above) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
default to having that modifier set. For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
per-directory rules apply only on the sending side.
)
-The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
-
-itemization(
- it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
- against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
- "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
- was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
- would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
- if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
- it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
- the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
- non-directories.
- it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
- should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
- follow.
- it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
- side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
- being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
- unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
- become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
- which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
- it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
- side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
- being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
- protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
- specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
- it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
- ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
- option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
- marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
- on the source from being deleted on the destination.
-)
-
Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
this operation against other, identical destination trees.
-To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
-with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
-file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
-using the information stored in the batch file.
-
-For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
-option is used. This file's name is created by appending
-".sh" to the batch filename. The .sh file contains
-a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree using that
-batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell,
-optionally
-passing in an alternate destination tree pathname which is then used
-instead of the original path. This is useful when the destination tree
-path differs from the original destination tree path.
-
Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
+To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
+with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
+file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
+using the information stored in the batch file.
+
+For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch
+option is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh"
+appended. This script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
+destination tree using the associated batch file. It can be executed using
+a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
+destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
+destination path. This is useful when the destination tree path on the
+current host differs from the one used to create the batch file.
+
Examples:
quote(
If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
-rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
-example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes
-ensure the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
+Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
+example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to
+ensure that the rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to
bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
manpagesection(VERSION)
-This man page is current for version 3.0.3 of rsync.
+This man page is current for version 3.0.7pre2 of rsync.
manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
manpagesection(THANKS)
-Especial thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
+Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
git.samba.org / rsync.git / blobdiff