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rsync - faster, flexible replacement for rcp
SYNOPSIS
rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
DESCRIPTION
rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that
rcp does, but has many more options and uses the rsync
remote-update protocol to greatly speedup file transfers
when the destination file already exists.
The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer
just the differences between two sets of files across the
network link, using an efficient checksum-search algorithm
described in the technical report that accompanies this
package.
Some of the additional features of rsync are:
o support for copying links, devices, owners, groups
and permissions
o exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
o a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that
CVS would ignore
o can use any transparent remote shell, including rsh
or ssh
o does not require root privileges
o pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency
costs
o support for anonymous or authenticated rsync
servers (ideal for mirroring)
GENERAL
ther source nor destination path contains a : sepa-
rator
o for copying from the local machine to a remote
machine using a remote shell program as the trans-
port (such as rsh or ssh). This is invoked when the
destination path contains a single : separator.
o for copying from a remote machine to the local
machine using a remote shell program. This is
invoked when the source contains a : separator.
o for copying from a remote rsync server to the local
machine. This is invoked when the source path con-
tains a :: separator or a rsync:// URL.
o for copying from the local machine to a remote
rsync server. This is invoked when the destination
path contains a :: separator.
o for listing files on a remote machine. This is done
the same way as rsync transfers except that you
leave off the local destination.
Note that in all cases (other than listing) at least one
of the source and destination paths must be local.
SETUP
See the file README for installation instructions.
Once installed you can use rsync to any machine that you
can use rsh to. rsync uses rsh for its communications,
unless both the source and destination are local.
You can also specify an alternative to rsh, by either
using the -e command line option, or by setting the
RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
One common substitute is to use ssh, which offers a high
degree of security.
Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and
destination machines.
USAGE
remote.
Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is some exam-
ples:
rsync *.c foo:src/
this would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c
from the current directory to the directory src on the
machine foo. If any of the files already exist on the
remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is
used to update the file by sending only the differences.
See the tech report for details.
rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
this would recursively transfer all files from the direc-
tory src/bar on the machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar
directory on the local machine. The files are transferred
in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic links,
devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships etc are pre-
served in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be
used to reduce the size of data portions of the transfer.
rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
a trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to
transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
machine foo into the /data/tmp/. A trailing / on a source
name means "copy the contents of this directory". Without
a trailing slash it means "copy the directory". This dif-
ference becomes particularly important when using the
--delete option.
You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the
source and destination don't have a ':' in the name. In
this case it behaves like an improved copy command.
rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
this would list all the anonymous rsync modules available
on the host somehost.mydomain.com. (See the following
section for more details.)
CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC SERVER
It is also possible to use rsync without using rsh or ssh
as the transport. In this case you will connect to a
remote rsync server running on TCP port 873.
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with rsh
or ssh except that:
to separate the hostname from the path.
o the remote server may print a message of the day
when you connect.
o if you specify no path name on the remote server
then the list of accessible paths on the server
will be shown.
o if you specify no local destination then a listing
of the specified files on the remote server is pro-
vided.
Some paths on the remote server may require authentica-
tion. If so then you will receive a password prompt when
you connect. You can avoid the password prompt by setting
the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to the password
you want to use or using the --password-file option. This
may be useful when scripting rsync.
WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible
to all users. On those systems using --password-file is
recommended.
RUNNING AN RSYNC SERVER
An rsync server is configured using a config file which by
default is called /etc/rsyncd.conf. Please see the
rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more information.
EXAMPLES
Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of
large MS Word files and mail folders, I use a cron job
that runs
rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup
each night over a PPP link to a duplicate directory on my
machine "arvidsjaur".
To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following
Makefile targets:
get:
rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
sync: get put
this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other
end of the link. I then do cvs operations on the remote
machine, which saves a lot of time as the remote cvs pro-
tocol isn't very efficient.
I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites
with the command
rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba/ nim-
bus:"~ftp/pub/tridge/samba"
this is launched from cron every few hours.
OPTIONS SUMMARY
Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync.
Please refer to the detailed description below for a com-
plete description.
Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC
[DEST] SRC on single-colon remote HOST will be expanded by
remote shell SRC on server remote HOST may contain shell
wildcards or multiple
sources separated by space as long as they have same
top-level
Options
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-q, --quiet decrease verbosity
-c, --checksum always checksum
-a, --archive archive mode
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
-b, --backup make backups (default ~ suf-
fix)
--suffix=SUFFIX override backup suffix
-u, --update update only (don't overwrite
newer files)
-l, --links preserve soft links
-L, --copy-links treat soft links like regular
files
--safe-links ignore links outside the des-
tination tree
-H, --hard-links preserve hard links
-p, --perms preserve permissions
-o, --owner preserve owner (root only)
-g, --group preserve group
-D, --devices preserve devices (root only)
-t, --times preserve times
-S, --sparse handle sparse files effi-
ciently
-n, --dry-run show what would have been
transferred
-W, --whole-file copy whole files, no incre-
mental checks
-x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem bound-
aries
-B, --block-size=SIZE checksum blocking size
(default 700)
-e, --rsh=COMMAND specify rsh replacement
--rsync-path=PATH specify path to rsync on the
remote machine
-C, --cvs-exclude auto ignore files in the same
way CVS does
--delete delete files that don't exist
on the sending side
--delete-excluded also delete excluded files on
the receiving side
--partial keep partially transferred
files
--force force deletion of directories
even if not empty
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by
user/group name
--timeout=TIME set IO timeout in seconds
-I, --ignore-times don't exclude files that
match length and time
--size-only only use file size when
determining if a file should be transferred
-T --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in
directory DIR
--compare-dest=DIR also compare destination
files relative to DIR
-z, --compress compress file data
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PAT-
TERN
--exclude-from=FILE exclude patterns listed in
FILE
--include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching
PATTERN
--include-from=FILE don't exclude patterns listed
in FILE
--version print version number
file
--port=PORT specify alternate rsyncd port
number
--stats give some file transfer stats
--progress show progress during transfer
--log-format=FORMAT log file transfers using
specified format
--password-file=FILE get password from FILE
-h, --help show this help screen
OPTIONS
rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the com-
mand line options have two variants, one short and one
long. These are shown below, separated by commas. Some
options only have a long variant. The '=' for options
that take a parameter is optional; whitespace can be used
instead.
-h, --help
Print a short help page describing the options
available in rsync
--version
print the rsync version number and exit
-v, --verbose
This option increases the amount of information you
are given during the transfer. By default, rsync
works silently. A single -v will give you informa-
tion about what files are being transferred and a
brief summary at the end. Two -v flags will give
you information on what files are being skipped and
slightly more information at the end. More than two
-v flags should only be used if you are debugging
rsync.
-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 cron.
-I, --ignore-times
option turns off this behavior.
-I, --size-only
Normally rsync will skip any files that are already
the same length and have the same time-stamp. With
the --size-only option files will be skipped if
they have the same size, regardless of timestamp.
This is useful when starting to use rsync after
using another mirroring system which may not pre-
serve timestamps exactly.
-c, --checksum
This forces the sender to checksum all files using
a 128-bit MD4 checksum before transfer. The check-
sum is then explicitly checked on the receiver and
any files of the same name which already exist and
have the same checksum and size on the receiver are
skipped. This option can be quite slow.
-a, --archive
This is equivalent to -rlptg. It is a quick way of
saying you want recursion and want to preserve
everything.
Note: if the user launching rsync is root then the
-o (preserve uid) and -D (preserve devices) options
are also implied.
-r, --recursive
This tells rsync to copy directories recursively.
If you don't specify this then rsync won't copy
directories at all.
-R, --relative
Use relative paths. This means that the full path
names specified on the command line are sent to the
server rather than just the last parts of the file-
names. This is particularly useful when you want to
send several different directories at the same
time. For example, if you used the command
rsync foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/
rsync -R foo/bar/foo.c remote:/tmp/
then a file called /tmp/foo/bar/foo.c would be cre-
ated on the remote machine. The full path name is
preserved.
-b, --backup
With this option preexisting destination files are
renamed with a ~ extension as each file is trans-
ferred. You can control the backup suffix using
the --suffix option.
--suffix=SUFFIX
This option allows you to override the default
backup suffix used with the -b option. The default
is a ~.
-u, --update
This forces rsync to skip any files for which the
destination file already exists and has a date
later than the source file.
-l, --links
This tells rsync to recreate symbolic links on the
remote system to be the same as the local system.
Without this option, all symbolic links are
skipped.
-L, --copy-links
This tells rsync to treat symbolic links just like
ordinary files.
--copy-unsafe-links
This tells rsync to treat symbolic links that point
outside the source tree like ordinary files. Abso-
lute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
and so are any symlinks in the source path itself
when --relative is used.
--safe-links
symlinks are also ignored. Using this option in
conjunction with --relative may give unexpected
results.
-H, --hard-links
This tells rsync to recreate hard links on the
remote system to be the same as the local system.
Without this option hard links are treated like
regular files.
Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both
parts of the link are in the list of files being
sent.
This option can be quite slow, so only use it if
you need it.
-W, --whole-file
With this option the incremental rsync algorithm is
not used and the whole file is sent as-is
instead. This may be useful when using rsync with a
local machine.
--partial
By default, rsync will delete any partially trans-
ferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some
circumstances it is more desirable to keep par-
tially transferred files. Using the --partial
option tells rsync to keep the partial file which
should make a subsequent transfer of the rest of
the file much faster.
-p, --perms
This option causes rsync to update the remote per-
missions to be the same as the local permissions.
-o, --owner
This option causes rsync to update the remote
owner of the file to be the same as the local
owner. This is only available to the super-user.
Note that if the source system is a daemon using
chroot, the --numeric-ids option is implied because
the source system cannot get access to the user-
names.
-g, --group
group. If the receving system is not running as
the super-user, only groups that the receiver is a
member of will be preserved (by group name, not
group id number).
-D, --devices
This option causes rsync to transfer character and
block device information to the remote system to
recreate these devices. This option is only avail-
able to the super-user.
-t, --times
This tells rsync to transfer modification times
along with the files and update them on the remote
system. Note that if this option is not used, the
optimization that excludes files that have not been
modified cannot be effective; in other words, a
missing -t or -a will cause the next transfer to
behave as if it used -I, and all files will have
their checksums compared and show up in log mes-
sages even if they haven't changed.
-n, --dry-run
This tells rsync to not do any file transfers,
instead it will just report the actions it would
have taken.
-S, --sparse
Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
up less space on the destination.
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.
-x, --one-file-system
This tells rsync not to cross filesystem boundaries
when recursing. This is useful for transferring
the contents of only one filesystem.
--delete
This tells rsync to delete any files on the receiv-
ing side that aren't on the sending side. Files
that are excluded from transfer are excluded from
being deleted unless you use --delete-excluded.
not selected.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly!
It is a very good idea to run first using the dry
run option (-n) to see what files would be deleted
to make sure important files aren't listed.
rsync 1.6.4 changed the behavior of --delete to
make it less dangerous. rsync now only scans
directories on the receiving side that are explic-
itly transferred from the sending side. Only files
in these directories are deleted.
Still, it is probably easy to get burnt with this
option. The moral of the story is to use the -n
option until you get used to the behavior of
--delete.
If the sending side detects any IO errors then the
deletion of any files at the destination will be
automatically disabled. This is to prevent tempo-
rary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on
the sending side causing a massive deletion of
files on the destination.
--delete-excluded
In addition to deleting the files on the receiving
side that are not on the sending side, this tells
rsync to also delete any files on the receiving
side that are excluded (see --exclude).
--force
This options tells rsync to delete directories even
if they are not empty. This applies to both the
--delete option and to cases where rsync tries to
copy a normal file but the destination contains a
directory of the same name.
Since this option was added, deletions were
reordered to be done depth-first so it is hardly
ever needed anymore except in very obscure cases.
-B , --block_size=BLOCKSIZE
This controls the block size used in the rsync
algorithm. See the technical report for details.
-e, --rsh=COMMAND
This option allows you to choose an alternative
default, rsync will use rsh, but you may like to
instead use ssh because of its high security.
You can also choose the remote shell program using
the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
--rsync-path=PATH
Use this to specify the path to the copy of rsync
on the remote machine. Useful when it's not in your
path.
--exclude=PATTERN
This option allows you to selectively exclude cer-
tain files from the list of files to be trans-
ferred. This is most useful in combination with a
recursive transfer.
You may use as many --exclude options on the com-
mand line as you like to build up the list of files
to exclude.
See the section on exclude patterns for information
on the syntax of this option.
--exclude-from=FILE
This option is similar to the --exclude option, but
instead it adds all filenames listed in the file
FILE to the exclude list. Blank lines in FILE and
lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
--include=PATTERN
This option tells rsync to not exclude the speci-
fied pattern of filenames. This is useful as it
allows you to build up quite complex
exclude/include rules.
See the section of exclude patterns for information
on the syntax of this option.
--include-from=FILE
This specifies a list of include patterns from a
file.
-C, --cvs-exclude
This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad
range of files that you often don't want to trans-
ignored.
The exclude list is initialized to:
RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS
.make.state .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* *.old *.bak
*.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-* *.a *.o *.obj *.so *.Z
*.elc *.ln core
then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added
to the list and any files listed in the CVSIGNORE
environment variable (space delimited).
Finally in each directory any files listed in the
.cvsignore file in that directory are added to the
list.
--csum-length=LENGTH
By default the primary checksum used in rsync is a
very strong 16 byte MD4 checksum. In most cases you
will find that a truncated version of this checksum
is quite efficient, and this will decrease the size
of the checksum data sent over the link, making
things faster.
You can choose the number of bytes in the truncated
checksum using the --csum-length option. Any value
less than or equal to 16 is valid.
Note that if you use this option then you run the
risk of ending up with an incorrect target file.
The risk with a value of 16 is microscopic and can
be safely ignored (the universe will probably end
before it fails) but with smaller values the risk
is higher.
Current versions of rsync actually use an adaptive
algorithm for the checksum length by default, using
a 16 byte file checksum to determine if a 2nd pass
is required with a longer block checksum. Only use
this option if you have read the source code and
know what you are doing.
-T, --temp-dir=DIR
This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch
directory when creating temporary copies of the
files transferred on the receiving side. The
default behavior is to create the temporary files
in the receiving directory.
This option instructs rsync to use DIR as an addi-
tional directory to compare destination files
against when doing transfers. This is useful for
doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
existing files intact, and then doing a flash-
cutover when all files have been successfully
transferred (for example by moving directories
around and removing the old directory, although
this requires also doing the transfer with -I to
avoid skipping files that haven't changed). This
option increases the usefulness of --partial
because partially transferred files will remain in
the new temporary destination until they have a
chance to be completed. If DIR is a relative path,
it is relative to the destination directory.
-z, --compress
With this option, rsync compresses any data from
the source file(s) which it sends to the destina-
tion machine. This option is useful on slow links.
The compression method used is the same method that
gzip uses.
Note this this option typically achieves better
compression ratios that can be achieved by using a
compressing remote shell, or a compressing trans-
port, as it takes advantage of the implicit infor-
mation sent for matching data blocks.
--numeric-ids
With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
and user ids rather than using user and group names
and mapping them at both ends.
By default rsync will use the user name and group
name to determine what ownership to give files. The
special uid 0 and the special group 0 are never
mapped via user/group names even if the --numeric-
ids option is not specified.
If the source system is a daemon using chroot, or
if a user or group name does not exist on the des-
tination system, then the numeric id from the
source system is used instead.
--timeout=TIMEOUT
This option allows you to set a maximum IO timeout
in seconds. If no data is transferred for the spec-
ified time then rsync will exit. The default is 0,
This tells rsync that it is to run as a rsync dae-
mon. If standard input is a socket then rsync will
assume that it is being run via inetd, otherwise it
will detach from the current terminal and become a
background daemon. The daemon will read the config
file (/etc/rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a
client and respond to requests accordingly. See the
rsyncd.conf(5) man page for more details.
--config=FILE
This specifies an alternate config file than the
default /etc/rsyncd.conf. This is only relevant
when --daemon is specified.
--port=PORT
This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
rather than the default port 873.
--log-format=FORMAT
This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync
client logs to stdout on a per-file basis. The log
format is specified using the same format conven-
tions as the log format option in rsyncd.conf.
--stats
This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statis-
tics on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how
effective the rsync algorithm is for your data.
--progress
This option tells rsync to print information show-
ing the progress of the transfer. This gives a
bored user something to watch.
--password-file
This option allows you to provide a password in a
file for accessing a remote rsync server. Note that
this option is only useful when accessing a rsync
server using the built in transport, not when using
a remote shell as the transport. The file must not
be world readable.
EXCLUDE PATTERNS
The exclude and include patterns specified to rsync allow
rsync builds a ordered list of include/exclude options as
specified on the command line. When a filename is encoun-
tered, rsync checks the name against each exclude/include
pattern in turn. The first matching pattern is acted on.
If it is an exclude pattern than that file is skipped. If
it is an include pattern then that filename is not
skipped. If no matching include/exclude pattern is found
then the filename is not skipped.
The patterns can take several forms. The rules are:
o if the pattern starts with a / then it is matched
against the start of the filename, otherwise it is
matched against the end of the filename. Thus /foo
would match a file called foo at the base of the
tree whereas foo would match any file called foo
anywhere in the tree.
o if the pattern ends with a / then it will only
match a directory, not a file, link or device.
o if the pattern contains a wildcard character from
the set *?[ then expression matching is applied
using the shell filename matching rules. Otherwise
a simple string match is used.
o if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trail-
ing /) then it is matched against the full file-
name, including any leading directory. If the pat-
tern doesn't contain a / then it is matched only
against the final component of the filename. Fur-
thermore, if the pattern includes a double asterisk
"**" then all wildcards in the pattern will match
slashes, otherwise they will stop at slashes.
o if the pattern starts with "+ " (a plus followed by
a space) then it is always considered an include
pattern, even if specified as part of an exclude
option. The "+ " part is discarded before matching.
o if the pattern starts with "- " (a minus followed
by a space) then it is always considered an exclude
pattern, even if specified as part of an include
option. The "- " part is discarded before matching.
the current exclude list is reset, removing all
previous exclude patterns.
The +/- rules are most useful in exclude lists, allowing
you to have a single exclude list that contains both
include and exclude options.
Here are some examples:
o --exclude "*.o" would exclude all filenames match-
ing *.o
o --exclude "/foo" would exclude a file in the base
directory called foo
o --exclude "foo/" would exclude any directory called
foo
o --exclude "/foo/*/bar" would exclude any file
called bar two levels below a base directory called
foo
o --exclude "/foo/**/bar" would exclude any file
called bar two or more levels below a base direc-
tory called foo
o --include "*/" --include "*.c" --exclude "*" would
include all directories and C source files
o --include "foo/" --include "foo/bar.c" --exclude
"*" would include only foo/bar.c (the foo/ direc-
tory must be explicitly included or it would be
excluded by the "*")
DIAGNOSTICS
rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a
little cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most con-
fusion is "protocol version mismatch - is your shell
clean?".
This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or
remote shell facility producing unwanted garbage on the
stream that rsync is using for its transport. The way to
diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like
this:
rsh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
then out.dat should be a zero length file. If you are get-
ting the above error from rsync then you will probably
find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
contents and try to work out what is producing it. The
most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output
statements for non-interactive logins.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
CVSIGNORE
The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the --cvs-
exclude option for more details.
RSYNC_RSH
The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
override the default shell used as the transport
for rsync. This can be used instead of the -e
option.
RSYNC_PASSWORD
Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password
allows you to run authenticated rsync connections
to a rsync daemon without user intervention. Note
that this does not supply a password to a shell
transport such as ssh.
USER or LOGNAME
The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used
to determine the default username sent to a rsync
server.
HOME The HOME environment variable is used to find the
user's default .cvsignore file.
FILES
/etc/rsyncd.conf
SEE ALSO
rsyncd.conf(5)
DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS
numerical values
see also the comments on the --delete option
Please report bugs! The rsync bug tracking system is
online at http://rsync.samba.org/rsync/
VERSION
This man page is current for version 2.0 of rsync
CREDITS
rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See
the file COPYING for details.
A WEB site is available at http://rsync.samba.org/
The primary ftp site for rsync is
ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync.
We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this
program.
This program uses the excellent zlib compression library
written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
THANKS
Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite,
Stephen Rothwell and David Bell for helpful suggestions
and testing of rsync. I've probably missed some people, my
apologies if I have.
AUTHOR
rsync was written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
They may be contacted via email at tridge@samba.org and
Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au
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