# NAME
rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
# SYNOPSIS
```
Local:
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
Access via remote shell:
Pull:
rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
Push:
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
Access via rsync daemon:
Pull:
rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
Push:
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
```
Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
of copying.
# DESCRIPTION
Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
use.
Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
(by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
the file's data does not need to be updated.
Some of the additional features of rsync are:
- support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
- exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
- a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
- can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
- does not require super-user privileges
- pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
- support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
# GENERAL
Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the "USING
RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for an exception
to this latter rule).
As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
the copy occurs locally (see also the `--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.
# SETUP
See the file README.md for installation instructions.
Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
by default, such as rsh or remsh.
You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the `-e`
command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
# USAGE
You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
destination, one of which may be remote.
Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
> rsync -t *.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 in the data. Note that the
expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
same as all other Posix-style programs).
> rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
This would recursively transfer all files from the directory 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 preserved 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 avoid creating an
additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
"copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
> rsync -av /src/foo /dest
> rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
> rsync -av host: /dest
> rsync -av host::module /dest
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.
Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
> rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
And, if Service Location Protocol is available, the following will list the
available rsync servers:
> rsync rsync://
See the following section for even more usage details.
One more thing, if Service Location Protocol is available, the following will
list the available rsync servers:
> rsync rsync://
See the following section for even more usage details.
# ADVANCED USAGE
The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
> rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
> rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/
> rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}
Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
examples:
> rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest
> rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest
This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is not as
easy to use as the first method.
If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
specify the `--protect-args` (`-s`) option, or you'll need to escape the
whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For instance:
> rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest
# CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS section
below for information on that.)
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
that:
- you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
- the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
- the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
- if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
paths on the daemon will be shown.
- if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
the remote daemon is provided.
- you must not specify the `--rsh` (`-e`) option (since that overrides the
daemon connection to use ssh -- see USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION below).
An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
> rsync -av host::src /dest
Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, 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.
You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy. Note
that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port 873.
You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you wish to
run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may contain the
escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync command (so use
"%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
> export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
> rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
> rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
Note also that if the RSYNC_SHELL environment variable is set, that program
will be used to run the RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG command instead of using the default
shell of the **system()** call.
# USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
program on the command-line with the `--rsh=COMMAND` option. (Setting the
RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
> rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
example that uses the short version of the `--rsh` option:
> rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
log-in to the "module".
# STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
connections, see the **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page -- that is the config file for
the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the daemon
(including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
# SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse
someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what was given
on the command-line.
If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
`--delay-updates` (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but does
make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
# 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 connection 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/ .
> put:
> rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
> sync: get put
This allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the connection.
I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot of time as
the remote CVS protocol 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 nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge"
This is launched from cron every few hours.
# OPTION SUMMARY
Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer to the
detailed description below for a complete description.
[comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
[comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
```
--verbose, -v increase verbosity
--info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
--debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
--stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
--quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
--no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
--checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
--sumfiles=MODE use .rsyncsums to speedup --checksum mode
--archive, -a archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
--no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
--recursive, -r recurse into directories
--relative, -R use relative path names
--no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
--backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
--backup-deleted make backups only of deleted files
--backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
--backup-dir-dels=DIR backup removed files into hierarchy based in DIR
--suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
--suffix-dels=SUFFIX set removed-files suffix (def. --suffix w/o b-d-d)
--update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
--downdate, -w skip files that are older on the receiver
--inplace update destination files in-place
--append append data onto shorter files
--append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
--dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
--mkpath create the destination's path component
--links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
--copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
--copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
--safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
--munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
--copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
--keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
--hard-links, -H preserve hard links
--perms, -p preserve permissions
--fileflags preserve file-flags (aka chflags)
--executability, -E preserve executability
--chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
--acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
--xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
--hfs-compression preserve HFS compression if supported
--protect-decmpfs preserve HFS compression as xattrs
--owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
--group, -g preserve group
--devices preserve device files (super-user only)
--copy-devices copy device contents as regular file
--specials preserve special files
-D same as --devices --specials
--times, -t preserve modification times
--atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
--open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
--crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
--omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
--omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
--omit-dir-changes omit directories from any attribute changes
--super receiver attempts super-user activities
--fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
--sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
--sparse-block=SIZE set block size used to handle sparse files
--preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
--write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
--dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
--whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
--checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
--db=CONFIG_FILE specify a CONFIG_FILE for DB checksums
--db-only=CONFIG_FILE behave like rsyncdb
--db-lax ignore ctime changes (use with CAUTION)
--one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
--block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
--rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
--rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
--existing skip creating new files on receiver
--ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
--remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
--source-backup ... and backs up those files
--del an alias for --delete-during
--delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
--delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
--delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
--delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
--delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
--delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
--ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
--delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
--ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
--force-delete force deletion of directories even if not empty
--force-change affect user-/system-immutable files/dirs
--force-uchange affect user-immutable files/dirs
--force-schange affect system-immutable files/dirs
--max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
--max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
--min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
--max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
--partial keep partially transferred files
--partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
--delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
--direct-io don't use buffer cache for xfer file I/O
--prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
--fsync fsync every written file
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
--usermap=STRING custom username mapping
--groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
--chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
--timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
--contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
--ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
--size-only skip files that match in size
--date-only skip files that match in mod-time
--modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
--temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
--fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
--detect-renamed try to find renamed files to speed the xfer
--compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
--copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
--link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
--clone-dest=DIR clone (reflink) files from DIR when unchanged
--compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
--compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
--compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
--skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
--cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
--filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
-F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
--exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
--include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
--include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
--files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
--from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
--protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
--copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
--ignore-case ignore case when comparing filenames
--address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
--port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
--sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
--diffserv=[0-63] specify diffserv setting
--congestion-alg=STRING choose a congestion algo
--blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
--outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
--stats give some file-transfer stats
--8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
--human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
--progress show progress during transfer
-P same as --partial --progress
--itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
--remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
--out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
--log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
--log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
--password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
--early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
--list-only list the files instead of copying them
--bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
--slow-down=USECs sleep N usec while creating the filelist
--stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
--write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
--only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
--read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
--source-filter=COMMAND filter file through COMMAND at source
--dest-filter=COMMAND filter file through COMMAND at destination
--protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
--tr=BAD/GOOD transliterate filenames
--checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
--ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
--ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
--version, -V print the version + other info and exit
--help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
```
Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
accepted:
[comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
```
--daemon run as an rsync daemon
--address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
--bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
--config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
--dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
--no-detach do not detach from the parent
--port=PORT listen on alternate port number
--log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
--log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
--sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
--verbose, -v increase verbosity
--ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
--ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
--help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
```
# OPTIONS
Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
Some options only have a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a
parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though it
must also be specified for the short. When specifying a parameter, you can
either use the form `--option=param` or replace the '=' with whitespace. The
parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the shell's
command-line parsing. Keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in a filename is
substituted by your shell, so `--option=~/foo` will not change the tilde into
your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
[comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
0. `--help`, `-h` `(*)`
Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
(*) The `-h` short option will only invoke `--help` when used without other
options since it normally means `--human-readable`.
0. `--version`, `-V`
Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
0. `--verbose`, `-v`
This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
of `--info` and `--debug` options. You can choose to use these newer
options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as any
fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both `--info`
and `--debug` have a way to ask for help that tells you exactly what flags
are set for each increase in verbosity.
However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
0. `--info=FLAGS`
This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
> rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
> rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the `--out-format` and
`--itemize-changes` (`-i`) options. See those options for more information
on what is output and when.
This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
0. `--debug=FLAGS`
This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
the verbose level. Some examples:
> rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
> rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
Note that some debug messages will only be output when `--stderr=all` is
specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
typing. This works in zsh and bash:
> rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
- `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
stream.
- `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also enables the outputting of some
I/O related debug messages.
- `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
been around for several releases.
This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
0. `--quiet`, `-q`
This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
0. `--no-motd`
This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
from the daemon.
0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
behavior, causing all files to be updated.
0. `--size-only`
This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
exactly.
0. `--date-only`
Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
the same modification time-stamp. With the --date-only option, files will
be skipped if they have the same timestamp, regardless of size. This may be
useful when the remote files have passed through a size-changing filter,
e.g. for encryption.
0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
(allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
> rsync alias -a -a@-1
> rsync alias -t -t@-1
With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
`-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
0. `--checksum`, `-c`
This changes the way rsync checks if the files have 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 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, so this can slow things down
significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
transfer changed files)
The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
See also the `--sumfiles` option for a way to use cached checksum data.
Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
can be overridden using either the `--checksum-choice` (`--cc`) option or an
environment variable that is discussed in that option's section.
0. `--sumfiles=MODE`
This option tells rsync to make use of any cached checksum information it
finds in per-directory .rsyncsums files when the current transfer is using
the `--checksum` option. If the checksum data is up-to-date, it is used
instead of recomputing it, saving both disk I/O and CPU time. If the
checksum data is missing or outdated, the checksum is computed just as it
would be if `--sumfiles` was not specified.
The MODE value is either "lax", for relaxed checking (which compares size
and mtime), "strict" (which also compares ctime and inode), or "none" to
ignore any .rsyncsums files ("none" is the default).
If you want rsync to create and/or update these files, specify a prefixed
plus ("+lax" or "+strict"). Adding a second prefixed '+' causes the
checksum-file updates to happen even when the transfer is in `--dry-run`
mode ("++lax" or "++strict"). There is also a perl script in the support
directory named "rsyncsums" that can be used to update the .rsyncsums
files.
This option has no effect unless `--checksum`, `-c` was also specified. It
also only affects the current side of the transfer, so if you want the
remote side to parse its own .rsyncsums files, specify the option via
`--remote-option` (`-M`) (e.g. "`-M--sumfiles=lax`").
To avoid transferring the system's checksum files, you can use an exclude
(e.g. `--exclude=.rsyncsums`). To make this easier to type, you can use a
popt alias. For instance, adding the following line in your ~/.popt file
defines a `--cs` option that enables lax checksum files and excludes the
checksum files:
> rsync alias --cs -c --sumfiles=lax -M--sumfiles=lax -f-_.rsyncsums
An rsync daemon does not allow the client to control this setting, so see
the "checksum files" daemon parameter for information on how to make a
daemon use cached checksum data.
0. `--archive`, `-a`
This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
recursion and want to preserve almost everything (with `-H` being a notable
omission). The only exception to the above equivalence is when
`--files-from` is specified, in which case `-r` is not implied.
Note that `-a` **does not preserve hardlinks**, because finding
multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately specify `-H`.
Note also that for backward compatibility, `-a` currently does **not**
imply the `--fileflags` option.
0. `--no-OPTION`
You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-": only options that
are implied by other options (e.g. `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have
different defaults in various circumstances (e.g. `--no-whole-file`,
`--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). You may specify either the short or the
long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as
`--no-relative`).
For example: if you want to use `-a` (`--archive`) but don't want `-o`
(`--owner`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you could specify
`-a --no-o` (or `-a --no-owner`).
The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the
`-r` option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`.
Note also that the side-effects of the `--files-from` option are NOT
positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
changes the meaning of `-a` (see the `--files-from` option for more
details).
0. `--recursive`, `-r`
This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also `--dirs` (`-d`).
Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: `--delete-before`,
`--delete-after`, `--prune-empty-dirs`, and `--delay-updates`. Because of
this, the default delete mode when you specify `--delete` is now
`--delete-during` when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0 (use
`--del` or `--delete-during` to request this improved deletion mode
explicitly). See also the `--delete-delay` option that is a better choice
than using `--delete-after`.
Incremental recursion can be disabled using the `--no-inc-recursive` option
or its shorter `--no-i-r` alias.
0. `--relative`, `-R`
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
filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
command:
> rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
you used
> rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
"implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
above example).
Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
the `--no-implied-dirs` option.
It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
the source path, like this:
> rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
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.) For
older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
path. For example, when pushing files:
> (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
"cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
non-daemon transfer):
> rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
> remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
0. `--no-implied-dirs`
This option affects the default behavior of the `--relative` option. When
it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
are implied when `--relative` is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
"path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
preservation is to use the `--keep-dirlinks` option (which will also affect
symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
0. `--backup`, `-b`
With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
what (if any) suffix gets appended using the `--backup-dir` and `--suffix`
options.
Note that if you don't specify `--backup-dir`, (1) the `--omit-dir-times`
option will be forced on, and (2) if `--delete` is also in effect (without
`--delete-excluded`), rsync will add a "protect" filter-rule for the backup
suffix to the end of all your existing excludes (e.g. `-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 your rules specify a
trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule would never be
reached).
0. --backup-deleted
With this option, deleted destination files are renamed, while modified
destination files are not. Otherwise, this option behaves the same as
`--backup`, described above. Note that if `--backup` is also specified,
whichever option is specified last takes precedence.
0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
This implies the `--backup` option, and tells rsync to store all
backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
using the `--suffix` option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified
directory will keep their original filenames).
Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
0. `--suffix=SUFFIX`
This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
`--backup` (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no `--backup-dir`
was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
0. `--update`, `-u`
This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
will be updated if the sizes are different.)
Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
regardless of the timestamps.
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.
0. `--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.
This has several effects:
- Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
forth.
- In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
or crash).
- The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
fails.
- A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
- The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
position later in the file. This does not apply if you use `--backup`,
since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
the transfer.
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 transferring large files with block-based changes
or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
The option implies `--partial` (since an interrupted transfer does not
delete the file), but conflicts with `--partial-dir` and `--delay-updates`.
Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also incompatible with
`--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
0. `--append`
This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
`--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
that new files are trasnferred).
This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
non-regular files.
0. `--append-verify`
This special copy mode works like `--append` except that all the data in
the file is included in the checksum verification (making it much less
efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
files. See the `--append` option for more details.
Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the `--append` option worked like
`--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
0. `--dirs`, `-d`
Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
Unlike `--recursive`, a directory's contents are not copied unless the
directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".",
"dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the `--recursive` option,
rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and output a message to that
effect for each one). If you specify both `--dirs` and `--recursive`,
`--recursive` takes precedence.
The `--dirs` option is implied by the `--files-from` option or the
`--list-only` option (including an implied `--list-only` usage) if
`--recursive` wasn't specified (so that directories are seen in the
listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to turn this off.
There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs` (or
`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
0. `--mkpath`
Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
existed).
For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
> rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
sub/dir/bar directory:
> rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
0. `--links`, `-l`
When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination.
0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
When symlinks are encountered, the item that they point to (the referent)
is copied, rather than the symlink. In older versions of rsync, this
option also had the side-effect of telling the receiving side to follow
symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a modern rsync such as this
one, you'll need to specify `--keep-dirlinks` (`-K`) to get this extra
behavior. The only exception is when sending files to an rsync that is too
old to understand `-K` -- in that case, the `-L` option will still have the
side-effect of `-K` on that older receiving rsync.
0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when `--relative` is
used. This option has no additional effect if `--copy-links` was also
specified.
Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
"/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
/dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
of "subdir".
0. `--safe-links`
This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point outside the
copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also ignored. Using this option in
conjunction with `--relative` may give unexpected results.
0. `--munge-links`
This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on the receiving side in
a way that makes them unusable but recoverable (see below), or (2) to
unmunge symlinks on the sending side that had been stored in a munged
state. This is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data to
not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with the
string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used as long
as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will
refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a directory.
The option only affects the client side of the transfer, so if you need it
to affect the server, specify it via `--remote-option`. (Note that in a
local transfer, the client side is the sender.)
This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon configures whether
it wants munged symlinks via its "`munge symlinks`" parameter. See also the
"munge-symlinks" perl script in the support directory of the source code.
0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using `--copy-links`.
Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
`--force-delete` or `--delete` is in effect).
See also `--keep-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the receiving side.
`--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
`--relative` to make the paths match up right. For example:
> rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
scan of "src/./".
0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
deleted and replaced with a real directory.
For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
"file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
`--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
`--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
"bar".
One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create
their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
your receiving hierarchy.
See also `--copy-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the sending side.
0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
files.
This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
- If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
(unless you are using the `--inplace` option).
- If you specify a `--link-dest` directory that contains hard links, the
linking of the destination files against the `--link-dest` files can
cause some paths in the destination to become linked together due to the
`--link-dest` associations.
Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
you are tempted to use the `--inplace` option to avoid this breakage, be
very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
see the `--inplace` option for more caveats).
If incremental recursion is active (see `--recursive`), rsync may transfer
a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that
contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the
accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together), just
its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
`--no-inc-recursive` option.
0. `--perms`, `-p`
This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the `--chmod` option
for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source permissions.)
When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
- Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
permissions, though the `--executability` option might change just the
execute permission for the file.
- New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
(either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
bit from its parent directory.
Thus, when `--perms` and `--executability` are both disabled, rsync's
behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
and **tar**(1).
In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
`--perms` option is off and use `--chmod=ugo=rwX` (which ensures that all
non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter behavior
easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as putting this
line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z` option, and
includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination dir):
> rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
> rsync -avZ src/ dest/
(Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
(Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
these behaviors.)
0. `--executability`, `-E`
This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
non-executability) of regular files when `--perms` is not enabled. A
regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
destination file's permissions as follows:
- To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
- To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
If `--perms` is enabled, this option is ignored.
0. `--acls`, `-A`
This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
the source ACLs. The option also implies `--perms`.
The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
this option to work properly. See the `--fake-super` option for a way to
backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
0. `--xattrs`, `-X`
This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
be the same as the source ones.
For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
namespaces as a normal user, see the `--fake-super` option.
The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
namespace, you could specify:
> --filter='-x system.*'
To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
negated-user match:
> --filter='-x! user.*'
To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
> --filter='-xr *'
Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
those used by `--fake-super`) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with `--fake-super`.
0. `--fileflags` This option causes rsync to update the file-flags to be the
same as the source files and directories (if your OS supports the
**chflags**(2) system call). Some flags can only be altered by the
super-user and some might only be unset below a certain secure-level
(usually single-user mode). It will not make files alterable that are set
to immutable on the receiver. To do that, see `--force-change`,
`--force-uchange`, and `--force-schange`.
0. `--force-change` This option causes rsync to disable both user-immutable
and system-immutable flags on files and directories that are being updated
or deleted on the receiving side. This option overrides `--force-uchange`
and `--force-schange`.
0. `--force-uchange` This option causes rsync to disable user-immutable flags
on files and directories that are being updated or deleted on the receiving
side. It does not try to affect system flags. This option overrides
`--force-change` and `--force-schange`.
0. `--force-schange` This option causes rsync to disable system-immutable
flags on files and directories that are being updated or deleted on the
receiving side. It does not try to affect user flags. This option
overrides `--force-change` and `--force-uchange`.
0. `--hfs-compression`
This option causes rsync to preserve HFS+ compression if the destination
filesystem supports it. If the destination does not support it, rsync will
exit with an error.
Filesystem compression was introduced to HFS+ in Mac OS 10.6. A file that
is compressed has no data in its data fork. Rather, the compressed data is
stored in an extended attribute named com.apple.decmpfs and a file flag is
set to indicate that the file is compressed (UF_COMPRESSED). HFS+
decompresses this data "on-the-fly" and presents it to the operating system
as a normal file. Normal attempts to copy compressed files (e.g. in the
Finder, via cp, ditto, etc.) will copy the file's decompressed contents,
remove the UF_COMPRESSED file flag, and discard the com.apple.decmpfs
extended attribute. This option will preserve the data in the
com.apple.decmpfs extended attribute and ignore the synthesized data in the
file contents.
This option implies both `--fileflags` and (--xattrs).
0. `--protect-decmpfs`
The com.apple.decmpfs extended attribute is hidden by default from list/get
xattr calls, therefore normal attempts to copy compressed files will
functionally decompress those files. While this is desirable behavior when
copying files to filesystems that do not support HFS+ compression, it has
serious performance and capacity impacts when backing up or restoring the
Mac OS X filesystem.
This option will transfer the com.apple.decmpfs extended attribute
regardless of support on the destination. If a source file is compressed
and an existing file on the destination is not compressed, the data fork of
the destination file will be truncated and the com.apple.decmpfs xattr will
be transferred instead. Note that compressed files will not be readable to
the operating system of the destination if that operating system does not
support HFS+ compression. Once restored (with or without this option) to an
operating system that supports HFS+ compression, however, these files will
be accessible as usual.
This option implies `--fileflags` and `--xattrs`.
0. `--chmod=CHMOD`
This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
to the permission of the files in the 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 `--perms` is not enabled.
In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
consistent executability across all bits:
> --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
> --chmod=D2775,F664
It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
option is just appended to the list of changes to make. To change
permissions of files matching a pattern, use an include filter with the `m`
modifier, which takes effect before any `--chmod` options.
See the `--perms` and `--executability` options for how the resulting
permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
0. `--owner`, `-o`
This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
the super-user (see also the `--super` and `--fake-super` options). Without
this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to the
invoking user on the receiving side.
The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
`--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
0. `--group`, `-g`
This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
user on the receiving side.
The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
(see also the `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
0. `--devices`
This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
the remote system to recreate these devices. This option has no effect if
the receiving rsync is not run as the super-user (see also the `--super`
and `--fake-super` options).
0. `--specials`
This option causes rsync to transfer special files such as named sockets
and fifos.
0. `-D`
The `-D` option is equivalent to `--devices --specials`.
0. `--write-devices`
This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
allowing the writing of file data into a device.
This option implies the `--inplace` option.
Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
receiving side of the transfer, especially if running rsync as root.
This option is refused by an rsync daemon.
0. `--times`, `-t`
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`, causing all files to be updated
(though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly
efficient if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off
using `-t`).
0. `--atimes`, `-U`
This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
the same value as the source files.
If repeated, it also sets the `--open-noatime` option, which can help you
to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
is transferred.
Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply `--open-noatime`
when this option is repeated.
0. `--open-noatime`
This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
O_NOATIME flag being set.
0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
files to the same value as the source files.
0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification
times (see `--times`). If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
`--backup` without `--backup-dir`.
This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of
directories in incremental recursion copies. The default `--inc-recursive`
copying normally does an early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a
parent directory in order for it to be able to then set the modify time of
the parent directory right away (without having to delay that until a bunch
of recursive copying has finished). This early-create idiom is not
necessary if directory modify times are not being preserved, so it is
skipped. Since early-create directories don't have accurate mode, mtime,
or ownership, the use of this option can help when someone wants to avoid
these partially-finished directories.
0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification times
(see `--times`).
0. `--omit-dir-changes`
This tells rsync to omit directories when applying any preserved attributes
(owner, group, times, permissions) to already existing directories.
0. `--super`
This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
preserving users via the `--owner` option, preserving all groups (not just
the current user's groups) via the `--groups` option, and copying devices
via the `--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 run as the super-user.
To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can use `--no-super`.
0. `--fake-super`
When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
ACLs (if `--acls` was specified) and non-user extended attributes (if
`--xattrs` was specified).
This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
ACLs from incompatible systems.
The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
`--remote-option` (`-M`) option:
> rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
This option is overridden by both `--super` and `--no-super`.
See also the "`fake super`" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
0. `--sparse`, `-S`
Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
destination. If combined with `--inplace` the file created might not end
up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version and/or
filesystem type. If `--whole-file` is in effect (e.g. for a local copy)
then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior to writing
out the updated version.
Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
`--sparse` and `--inplace`.
0. `--preallocate`
This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
If combined with `--sparse`, the file will only have sparse blocks (as
opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
0. `--sparse-block=SIZE`
Change the block size used to handle sparse files to SIZE bytes. This
option only has an effect if the `--sparse` (`-S`) option was also
specified. The default block size used by rsync to detect a file hole is
1024 bytes; when the receiver writes data to the destination file and
option `--sparse` is used, rsync checks every 1024-bytes chunk to detect if
they are actually filled with data or not. With certain filesystems,
optimized to receive data streams for example, enlarging this block size
can strongly increase performance. The option can be used to tune this
block size.
0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
in combination with the `--verbose`, `-v` and/or `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
options to see what an rsync command is going to do before one actually
runs it.
The output of `--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 should be mostly
unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not send
the actual data for file transfers, so `--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 were needed.
0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
transferred files to be sent whole. 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, but only if no
batch-writing option is in effect.
0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
`--checksum` is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
- `auto` (the default automatic choice)
- `xxh128`
- `xxh3`
- `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
- `md5`
- `md4`
- `none`
Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
version (which may differ from the list above).
If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the `--whole-file`
option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
the `--checksum` option cannot be used.
The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum names.
If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the "client
string & server string", otherwise the same string
applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
non-whitespace characters, the default checksum list is used. This method
does not allow you to specify the transfer checksum separately from the
pre-transfer checksum, and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum
names. A list with only invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
"bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via `--copy-links` or
`--copy-unsafe-links`), a symlink to a directory on another device is
treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected by
this option.
0. `--existing`, `--ignore-non-existing`
This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
`--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.
0. `--ignore-existing`
This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
get done). See also `--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 `--link-dest`
option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
a `--link-dest` run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
used properly), using `--ignore-existing` will ensure that the
already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option is
only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
0. `--remove-source-files`
This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
duplicated on the receiving side.
Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
"foo" when it is done, and then use the option `--exclude='*.new'` for the
rsync transfer).
Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
0. `--source-backup`
Makes the sender back up the source files it removes due to
`--remove-source-files`. This option is independent of `--backup` but uses
the same `--backup-dir` and `--suffix` settings, if any. With
`--backup-dir`, rsync looks for each file's backup dir relative to the
source argument the file came from. Consequently, if the `--backup-dir`
path is relative, each source argument gets a separate backup dir at that
path relative to the argument.
0. `--delete`
This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to 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 the transfer are also
excluded from being deleted unless you use the `--delete-excluded` option
or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless `--recursive`
was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when `--dirs`
(`-d`) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being
copied.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
first try a run using the `--dry-run` option (`-n`) to see what files are
going to be deleted.
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 from
causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
this with the `--ignore-errors` option.
The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
without conflict, as well as `--delete-excluded`. However, if none of the
`--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
`--delete-during` algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and the
`--delete-before` algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
`--delete-delay` and `--delete-after`.
0. `--delete-before`
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
transfer starts. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
file-deletion.
Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
`--timeout` was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
files in the transfer into memory at once (see `--recursive`).
0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
Request that the file-deletions on the 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 `--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 `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
file-deletion.
0. `--delete-delay`
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
the transfer (like `--delete-during`), and then removed after the transfer
completes. This is useful when combined with `--delay-updates` and/or
`--fuzzy`, and is more efficient than using `--delete-after` (but can
behave differently, since `--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 `--delete-after` (which it
cannot do if `--recursive` is doing an incremental scan). See `--delete`
(which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
0. `--delete-after`
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
(see `--recursive`). See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
file-deletion.
0. `--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`). See the FILTER RULES section for
a way to make individual exclusions behave this way on the receiver, and
for a way to protect files from `--delete-excluded`. See `--delete` (which
is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
0. `--ignore-missing-args`
When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
command-line arguments or `--files-from` entries), it is normally an error
if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error, and does
not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
is no longer there.
0. `--delete-missing-args`
This option takes the behavior of (the implied) `--ignore-missing-args`
option a step farther: each missing arg will become a deletion request of
the corresponding destination file on the receiving side (should it exist).
If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will only be
successfully deleted if `--force-delete` or `--delete` are in effect. Other than
that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
display as a "`*missing`" entry in the `--list-only` output.
0. `--ignore-errors`
Tells `--delete` to go ahead and delete files even when there are I/O
errors.
0. `--force-delete`
This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
active (see `--delete` for details).
This option can be abbreviated `--force` for backward compatibility. Note
that some older rsync versions used to still require `--force` when using
`--delete-after`, and it used to be non-functional unless the `--recursive`
option was also enabled.
0. `--max-delete=NUM`
This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
important error condition also occurred).
Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
0. `--max-size=SIZE`
This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
fractional value along with the units, such as `--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 first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
(mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
(e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
`8192P-1`.
Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
2147483649 bytes.
Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
0. `--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 `--max-size` option for a description of SIZE and other information.
Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
consume more memory.
Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
See the `--max-size` option for a description of how SIZE can be specified.
The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
You can set a default value using the environment variable RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC
using the same SIZE values as supported by this option. If the remote
rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option, you can override an
environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`, which will make rsync
avoid sending the option to the remote side (because "1G" is the default).
0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
updated. See the technical report for details.
Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
the `--max-size` option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
a local network.
If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
remote host. See the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the RSYNC_PORT environment variable will be set
when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell connection. It
is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or it is set to
the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the `--port`
option or a non-empty port value in an rsync:// URL. This allows the
script to discern if a non-default port is being requested, allowing for
things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a default or
alternate port.
Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
> -e 'ssh -p 2234'
> -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
options in their .ssh/config file.)
You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
See also the `--blocking-io` option which is affected by this option.
0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
& standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
machine for use with the `--relative` option. For instance:
> rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
you want to pass `--log-file=FILE` and `--fake-super` to the remote system,
specify it like this:
> rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
this:
> rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
Note that it is best to use a separate `--remote-option` for each option
you want to pass. This makes your usage compatible with the
`--protect-args` option. If that option is off, any spaces in your remote
options will be split by the remote shell unless you take steps to protect
them.
When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
"remote" side is the receiver.
Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
rsync.
0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
[comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
> `RCS`
> `SCCS`
> `CVS`
> `CVS.adm`
> `RCSLOG`
> `cvslog.*`
> `tags`
> `TAGS`
> `.make.state`
> `.nse_depinfo`
> `*~`
> `#*`
> `.#*`
> `,*`
> `_$*`
> `*$`
> `*.old`
> `*.bak`
> `*.BAK`
> `*.orig`
> `*.rej`
> `.del-*`
> `*.a`
> `*.olb`
> `*.o`
> `*.obj`
> `*.so`
> `*.exe`
> `*.Z`
> `*.elc`
> `*.ln`
> `core`
> `.svn/`
> `.git/`
> `.hg/`
> `.bzr/`
then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
delimited by whitespace).
Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
**cvs**(1) manual for more information.
If you're combining `-C` with your own `--filter` rules, you should note
that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
`--filter=:C` and `--filter=-C` (either on your command-line or by putting
the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules). The
first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore file.
The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes mentioned
above.
0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
combination with a recursive transfer.
You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
0. `-F`
The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two `--filter` rules to your
command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
> --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
rule:
> --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
work.
0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
filter rules.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
This option is related to the `--exclude` option, but it specifies a FILE
that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
lines starting with '`;`' or '`#`' are ignored. If _FILE_ is '`-`', the
list will be read from standard input.
0. `--include=PATTERN`
This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
filter rules.
See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
0. `--include-from=FILE`
This option is related to the `--include` option, but it specifies a FILE
that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
lines starting with '`;`' or '`#`' are ignored. If _FILE_ is '`-`', the
list will be read from standard input.
0. `--files-from=FILE`
Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
(as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
specified files and directories easier:
- The `--relative` (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the path
information that is specified for each item in the file (use
`--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
- The `--dirs` (`-d`) option is implied, which will create directories
specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
- The `--archive` (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply `--recursive`
(`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
- These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
options are parsed (e.g. `-a` works the same before or after
`--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
> rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the `-r`
option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be transferred
(keep in mind that `-r` needs to be specified explicitly with
`--files-from`, since it is not implied by `-a`). Also note that the
effect of the (enabled by default) `--relative` option is to duplicate only
the path info that is read from the file -- it does not force the
duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
(the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
For example:
> rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
was located on the remote "src" host.
If the `--iconv` and `--protect-args` options are specified and the
`--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.
NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
elements.
0. `--from0`, `-0`
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 `--exclude-from`, `--include-from`, `--files-from`, and any merged
files specified in a `--filter` rule. It does not affect `--cvs-exclude`
(since all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
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 `--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
`--files-from` option.
You may also control this option via the RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment
variable. If this variable has a non-zero value, this option will be
enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
versions). Since this option was first introduced in 3.0.0, you'll need to
make sure it's disabled if you ever need to interact with a remote rsync
that is older than that.
Rsync can also be configured (at build time) to have this option enabled by
default (with is overridden by both the environment and the command-line).
Run `rsync --version` to check if this is the case, as it will display
"default protect-args" or "optional protect-args" depending on how it was
compiled.
This option will eventually become a new default setting at some
as-yet-undetermined point in the future.
0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
specified then the user's default groups are used.
This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the `--remote-option` to
affect the remote side, such as `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer,
the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file provides a local-shell helper script that
can be used to allow a "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified
without needing to setup any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote
options that affect the side of the transfer that is using the host-spec
(and using hostname "lh" avoids the overriding of the remote directory to
the user's home dir).
For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
> sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
has no permissions to change.
The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
(assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
> sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
0. `--ignore-case`
This option tells rsync to ignore upper-/lower-case differences when
comparing filenames. This can avoid problems when sending files to a
filesystem that ignores these differences.
0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
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 each temporary file in the same directory as
the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
(though they will still have a random suffix added).
This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
new version on the disk at the same time.
If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
space, you may wish to combine it with the `--delay-updates` option, which
will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't have
enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about
disk space is to use the `--partial-dir` option with a relative path;
because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a single file
in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the partial-dir as
a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then rename it into place
from there. (Specifying a `--partial-dir` with an absolute path does not
have this side-effect.)
0. `--fuzzy`, `-y`
This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
alternate destination directories that are specified via `--compare-dest`,
`--copy-dest`, or `--link-dest`.
Note that the use of the `--delete` option might get rid of any potential
fuzzy-match files, so either use `--delete-after` or specify some filename
exclusions if you need to prevent this.
0. ``--detect-renamed-lax` This version of `--detect-renamed` makes rsync
hard-link `dest/D` to `dest/S` without verifying that `src/S` and
`dest/S` have the same data. This poses a significant risk of corrupting
the destination by representing a new source file by an unrelated
destination file that coincidentally passes the quick check with the source
file. Use this option only if you accept the risk and disk I/O is a
bottleneck.
0. ``--detect-moved`` A less risky variant of `--detect-renamed-lax` that only
uses a destination file that has the same basename as the new source file.
0. `--detect-renamed`
With this option, for each new source file (call it `src/S`), rsync looks
for a file `dest/D` anywhere in the destination that passes the quick check
with `src/S`. If such a `dest/D` is found, rsync uses it as an alternate
basis for transferring `S`. The idea is that if `src/S` was renamed from
`src/D` (as opposed to `src/S` passing the quick check with `dest/D` by
coincidence), the delta-transfer algorithm will find that all the data
matches between `src/S` and `dest/D`, and the transfer will be really fast.
By default, alternate-basis files are hard-linked into a directory named
".~tmp~" in each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
`--partial-dir` option, that directory will be used instead. These
otential alternate-basis files will be removed as the transfer progresses.
This option conflicts with `--inplace` and `--append`.
0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
(if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
directory.
Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
transfer.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also `--copy-dest` and `--link-dest`.
NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
copy).
0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
This option behaves like `--compare-dest`, but rsync will also copy
unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
copy. 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.
Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
try to speed up the transfer.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
0. `--link-dest=DIR`
This option behaves like `--copy-dest`, but unchanged files are hard linked
from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be identical in
all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order
for the files to be linked together. An example:
> 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 `--link-dest` directories may be
provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
_DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
destination) when a destination file already exists.
Note that if you combine this option with `--ignore-times`, rsync will not
link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
the file is updated.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also `--compare-dest` and `--copy-dest`.
Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
`--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when `-o` was
specified (or implied by `-a`). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
the `-o` option when sending to an old rsync.
0. `--clone-dest=DIR`
This option behaves like `--link-dest`, but unchanged files are reflinked
from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files do not need to match
in attributes, as the data is cloned separately from the attributes.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
See also `--compare-dest` and `--copy-dest`.
All non-regular files are hard-linked (when possible).
0. `--link-by-hash=DIR`
This option hard links the destination files into `DIR`, a link farm
arranged by MD5 file hash. The result is that the system will only store
(usually) one copy of the unique contents of each file, regardless of the
file's name (it will use extra files if the links overflow the available
maximum).
This patch does not take into account file permissions, extended
attributes, or ACLs when linking things together, so you should only use
this if you don't care about preserving those extra file attributes (or if
they are always the same for identical files).
The DIR is relative to the destination directory, so either specify a full
path to the hash hierarchy, or specify a relative path that puts the links
outside the destination (e.g. "../links").
Keep in mind that the hierarchy is never pruned, so if you need to reclaim
space, you should remove any files that have just one link (since they are
not linked into any destination dirs anymore):
> find $DIR -links 1 -delete
The link farm's directory hierarchy is determined by the file's (32-char)
MD5 hash and the file-length. The hash is split up into directory shards.
For example, if a file is 54321 bytes long, it could be stored like this:
> $DIR/123/456/789/01234567890123456789012.54321.0
Note that the directory layout in this patch was modified for version
3.1.0, so anyone using an older version of this patch should move their
existing link hierarchy out of the way and then use the newer rsync to copy
the saved hierarchy into its new layout. Assuming that no files have
overflowed their link limits, this would work:
> mv $DIR $DIR.old
> rsync -aiv --link-by-hash=$DIR $DIR.old/ $DIR.tmp/
> rm -rf $DIR.tmp
> rm -rf $DIR.old
If some of your files are at their link limit, you'd be better of using a
script to calculate the md5 sum of each file in the hierarchy and move it
to its new location.
0. `--compress`, `-z`
With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
something that is useful over a slow connection.
Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
unless you force the choice using the `--compress-choice` (`--zc`) option.
Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
version.
When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
its list is assumed to be "zlib".
The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable compression
names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
"client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
If the string (or string portion) contains no
non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
names results in a failed negotiation.
There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
specify `-zz`.
See also the `--skip-compress` option for the default list of file suffixes
that will be transferred with no (or minimal) compression.
0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
compression algorithm that occurs when `--compress` is used. The option
implies `--compress` unless "none" was specified, which instead implies
`--no-compress`.
The compression options that you may be able to use are:
- `zstd`
- `lz4`
- `zlibx`
- `zlib`
- `none`
Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
version (which may differ from the list above).
Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
`--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
Explicitly set the compression level to use (see `--compress`, `-z`)
instead of letting it default. The `--compress` option is implied as long
as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the compression
algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level 0 as
"off").
The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
enough), it can be good to combine this option with a `--compress-choice`
(`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the choice in effect. For example:
> rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
the default. Specifying 0 turns compression off, and specifying -1 chooses
the default of 6.
For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
`--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
`--debug=nstr` to see the "negotiated string" results. This will report
something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the checksum
choice in effect).
0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level (such
as zlib/zlibx) then no compression occurs for those files. Other
algorithms that support changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have
the level minimized to reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a
matching file. At this time, only zlib & zlibx compression support this
changing of levels on a per-file basis.
The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
should be skipped.
Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
"[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
matches 2 suffixes):
> --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
rsync are:
[comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
> 3g2
> 3gp
> 7z
> aac
> ace
> apk
> avi
> bz2
> deb
> dmg
> ear
> f4v
> flac
> flv
> gpg
> gz
> iso
> jar
> jpeg
> jpg
> lrz
> lz
> lz4
> lzma
> lzo
> m1a
> m1v
> m2a
> m2ts
> m2v
> m4a
> m4b
> m4p
> m4r
> m4v
> mka
> mkv
> mov
> mp1
> mp2
> mp3
> mp4
> mpa
> mpeg
> mpg
> mpv
> mts
> odb
> odf
> odg
> odi
> odm
> odp
> ods
> odt
> oga
> ogg
> ogm
> ogv
> ogx
> opus
> otg
> oth
> otp
> ots
> ott
> oxt
> png
> qt
> rar
> rpm
> rz
> rzip
> spx
> squashfs
> sxc
> sxd
> sxg
> sxm
> sxw
> sz
> tbz
> tbz2
> tgz
> tlz
> ts
> txz
> tzo
> vob
> war
> webm
> webp
> xz
> z
> zip
> zst
This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
different default).
0. `--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 username and groupname 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 a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
instead. See also the comments on the "`use chroot`" setting in the
rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how the chroot setting affects
rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and what you
can do about it.
0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
**FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
For example:
> --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
**FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
match those in use on the receiving side.
Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
> --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
When the `--numeric-ids` option is used, the sender does not send any
names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
nameless IDs to different values.
For the `--usermap` option to have any effect, the `-o` (`--owner`) option
must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running as a
super-user (see also the `--fake-super` option). For the `--groupmap`
option to have any effect, the `-g` (`--groups`) option must be used (or
implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that group.
If your shell complains about the wildcards, use `--protect-args` (`-s`).
0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
a simpler interface than using `--usermap` and `--groupmap` directly, but
it is implemented using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the omitted user/group
will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may be omitted, but if
USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
"`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier. If your shell complains
about the wildcards, use `--protect-args` (`-s`).
To change ownership of files matching a pattern, use an include filter with
a `o` or `g` modifier, which take effect before uid/gid mapping and
therefore *can* be mixed with `--usermap` and `--groupmap`.
0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
0, which means no timeout.
0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
rsync exits with an error.
0. `--address=ADDRESS`
By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this option in the `--daemon`
mode section.
0. `--port=PORT`
This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
the port as a part of the URL). See also this option in the `--daemon`
mode section.
0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the man page for the
`setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
This option also exists in the `--daemon` mode section.
0. `--blocking-io`
This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
0. `--outbuf=MODE`
This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
`--out-format='%i %n%L'`. If you repeat the option, unchanged files will
also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7
(you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the
output of other verbose messages).
The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
format is like the string `YXcstpoguaxf`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
- A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
- A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
(received).
- A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
- A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
`--hard-links`).
- A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
attributes that are being modified).
- A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
(e.g. "deleting").
The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
have changed, as follows:
- "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
- "`+`" - the file is newly created.
- "` `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
- "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
- A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
- A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
`--checksum`) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a changed
value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1,
this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular
files.
- A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
by the file transfer.
- A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
the sender's value (requires `--times`). An alternate value of `T` means
that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which
happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without `--times` and when
a symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time. (Note: when
using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the `s` flag combined with `t`
instead of the proper `T` flag for this time-setting failure.)
- A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
sender's value (requires `--perms`).
- An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
value (requires `--owner` and super-user privileges).
- A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
value (requires `--group` and the authority to set the group).
- A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information: `u` means the access
(use) time is different and is being updated to the sender's value
(requires `--atimes`); `n` means the create time (newness) is different
and is being updated to the sender's value (requires `--crtimes`); `b`
means that both the access and create times are being updated.
- The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
- The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
outputting them as a verbose message).
0. `--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. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either `--info=name`
or `-v` is specified (this tells you just 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 `--out-format` option implies the `--info=name` option,
which 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 `--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 `--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
logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
is in effect and `--progress` is also specified, rsync will also output the
name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
(followed, of course, by the out-format output).
0. `--log-file=FILE`
This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
of "%i %n%L". See the `--log-file-format` option if you wish to override
this.
Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
happening:
> rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
unexpectedly.
0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
file specified by the `--log-file` option (which must also be specified for
this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty string, updated
files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the possible
escape characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
The default FORMAT used if `--log-file` is specified and this option is not
is '%i %n%L'.
0. `--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. This option is equivalent to `--info=stats2` if combined with 0
or 1 `-v` options, or `--info=stats3` if combined with 2 or more `-v`
options.
The current statistics are as follows:
- `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
- `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
- `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
- `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
this heading.
- `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
include the size of symlinks.
- `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
just the transferred files.
- `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
- `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
the updated files.
- `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
list.
- `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
sending side for this to be present.
- `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
sending the file list to the receiver.
- `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
client side to the server side.
- `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
(`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible
levels: (1) output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits
(either a comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is
represented by a period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
(with a character suffix for larger units -- see below); (3) output
numbers in units of 1024.
The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
(mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
decimal point).
Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
to one or more `-h` options. See the `--list-only` option for one
difference.
0. `--partial`
By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
keep partially 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.
0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
A better way to keep partial files than the `--partial` option is to
specify a _DIR_ that will be used to hold the partial data (instead of
writing it out to the destination file). On the next transfer, rsync will
use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
Note that if `--whole-file` is specified (or implied), any partial-dir file
that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
(since rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer
algorithm).
Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
"`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that the directory
is only removed if it is a relative pathname, as it is expected that an
absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir work.
If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
equivalent of "`-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`" at the end of any other filter
rules.
If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
should specify `--delete-after` and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
`-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. (Avoid using `--delete-before` or
`--delete-during` unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over
partial-dir data during the current run.)
IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
variable. Setting this in the environment does not force `--partial` to be
enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when `--partial` is
specified. For instance, instead of using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along
with `--progress`, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
environment and then just use the `-P` option to turn on the use of the
.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the `--partial`
option does not look for this environment value are (1) when `--inplace`
was specified (since `--inplace` conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and (2)
when `--delay-updates` was specified (see below).
When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3.2.0.
For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
`--partial-dir` does _not_ imply `--partial`. This is so that a refusal of
the `--partial` option can be used to disallow the overwriting of
destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the safer
idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
0. `--delay-updates`
This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
you've specified the `--partial-dir` option, that directory will be used
instead. See the comments in the `--partial-dir` section for a discussion
of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you
can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that might be lying
around. Conflicts with `--inplace` and `--append`.
This option implies `--no-inc-recursive` since it needs the full file list
in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
should not use an absolute path to `--partial-dir` unless (1) there is no
chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
absolute) and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses `--link-dest` and a
parallel hierarchy of files).
0. `--direct-io`
This option opens files with a direct-I/O flag that makes the file I/O
avoid the buffer cache. The option only affects one side of the transfer
(unless the transfer is local). If you want it to affect both sides, use
the `--remote-option` (`-M`) option to specify it for the remote side. For
instance, this specifies it for both sides:
> rsync -av {,-M}--direct-io /src/ host:/dest/
0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
files using include/exclude/filter rules.
Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the `--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 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
that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
> --filter 'protect emptydir/'
Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
(note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
> rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
0. `--progress`
This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
this is the same as specifying `--info=flist2,name,progress`, but any
user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
"`--info=flist0 --progress`").
While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
looks like this:
> 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
is maintained until the end.
These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
was finishing the matched part of the file.
When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
summary line that looks like this:
> 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
of the files added to the list).
0. `-P`
The `-P` option is equivalent to `--partial --progress`. Its purpose is
to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer
that may be interrupted.
There is also a `--info=progress2` option that outputs statistics based on
the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without
outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify `--info=name0`) if you
want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a
lot of names. (You don't need to specify the `--progress` option in order
to use `--info=progress2`.)
Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
output a single progress report which is output when the current file
transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
followed by the `--info=progress2` format of progress info. If you don't
know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
0. `--password-file=FILE`
This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
config file).
0. `--early-input=FILE`
This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
0. `--list-only`
This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command
that includes a destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be
able to specify more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the
destination). Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is
expanded by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to
list such an arg without using this option. For example:
> rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
by the `--human-readable` option. By default they will contain digit
separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes with
unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output has
increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
`--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
11 characters.
Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the `--dirs`
option w/o `--recursive`, and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs` option (if you don't
need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude the
content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
0. `--bwlimit=RATE`
This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
fractional value (e.g. "`--bwlimit=1.5m`"). If no suffix is specified, the
value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
been appended). See the `--max-size` option for a description of all the
available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
possible.
Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
into compliance.
Due to the internal buffering of data, the `--progress` option may not be
an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because
some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly
buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the
output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
0. `--stop-after=MINS
This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
minutes has elapsed.
Rsync also accepts an earlier version of this option: `--time-limit=MINS`.
For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
limit using `--remote-option` (`-M`), should the need arise.
0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m
This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
instead of dashes.
The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
time, rsync exits with an error.
For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
limit using `--remote-option` (`-M`), should the need arise. Do keep in
mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone than your
local host.
0. `--write-batch=FILE`
Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
with `--read-batch`. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and also
the `--only-write-batch` option.
This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
a more modern choice, use the `--checksum-choice` (`--cc`) and/or
`--compress-choice` (`--zc`) options.
0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
Works like `--write-batch`, except that no updates are made on the
destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
changes via `--read-batch`.
Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
happening).
Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
0. `--read-batch=FILE`
Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
`--write-batch`. If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read from
standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
0. `--source-filter=COMMAND`
This option allows the user to specify a filter program that will be
applied to the contents of all transferred regular files before the data is
sent to destination. COMMAND will receive the data on its standard input
and it should write the filtered data to standard output. COMMAND should
exit non-zero if it cannot process the data or if it encounters an error
when writing the data to stdout.
Example: `--source-filter="gzip -9"` will cause remote files to be
compressed. Use of `--source-filter` automatically enables `--whole-file`.
If your filter does not output the same number of bytes that it received on
input, you should use `--times-only` to disable size and content checks on
subsequent rsync runs.
0. `--dest-filter=COMMAND`
This option allows you to specify a filter program that will be applied to
the contents of all transferred regular files before the data is written to
disk. COMMAND will receive the data on its standard input and it should
write the filtered data to standard output. COMMAND should exit non-zero
if it cannot process the data or if it encounters an error when writing the
data to stdout.
Example: --dest-filter="gzip -9" will cause remote files to be compressed.
Use of --dest-filter automatically enables --whole-file. If your filter
does not output the same number of bytes that it received on input, you
should use --times-only to disable size and content checks on subsequent
rsync runs.
0. `--protocol=NUM`
Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the `--write-batch` option, but
rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the `--read-batch` option, you
should use "--protocol=28" when creating the batch file to force the older
protocol version to be used in the batch file (assuming you can't upgrade
the rsync on the reading system).
0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the RSYNC_ICONV
environment variable.
For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
run "`iconv --list`".
If you specify the `--protect-args` option (`-s`), rsync will translate the
filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the remote
host. See also the `--files-from` option.
Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
(including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
`--iconv=utf8`).
0. `--tr=BAD/GOOD`
Transliterates filenames on the receiver, after the iconv conversion (if
any). This can be used to remove characters illegal on the destination
filesystem. If you use this option, consider saving a "find . -ls" listing
of the source in the destination to help you determine the original
filenames in case of need.
The argument consists of a string of characters to remove, optionally
followed by a slash and a string of corresponding characters with which to
replace them. The second string may be shorter, in which case any leftover
characters in the first string are simply deleted. For example,
`--tr=':\/!'` replaces colons with exclamation marks and deletes
backslashes. Slashes cannot be transliterated because it would cause
havoc.
If the receiver is invoked over a remote shell, use `--protect-args` to
stop the shell from interpreting any nasty characters in the argument.
0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever ipv4/ipv6 hint options
it uses).
These options also exist in the `--daemon` mode section.
If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
is the case.
0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
# DAEMON OPTIONS
The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
0. `--daemon`
This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
`rsync://host/module/` syntax.
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 (rsyncd.conf) on
each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly. See the
**rsyncd.conf**(5) man page for more details.
0. `--address=ADDRESS`
By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
possible in conjunction with the `--config` option. See also the "address"
global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
0. `--bwlimit=RATE`
This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
`--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed. See the client
version of this option (above) for some extra details.
0. `--config=FILE`
This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
relevant when `--daemon` is specified. The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf
unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program and the remote
user is not the super-user; in that case the default is rsyncd.conf in the
current directory (typically $HOME).
0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
instance:
> rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
0. `--no-detach`
When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
`--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
0. `--port=PORT`
This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
rather than the default of 873. See also the "port" global option in the
rsyncd.conf manpage.
0. `--log-file=FILE`
This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
"`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
logging is turned off.
0. `--sockopts`
This overrides the `socket options` setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has
the same syntax.
0. `--verbose`, `-v`
This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
"`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
daemon).
These options also exist in the regular rsync options section.
If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
is the case.
0. `--help`, `-h`
When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
options available for starting an rsync daemon.
# FILTER RULES
The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify
include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude
patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name
to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the
first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file
is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if
no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.
Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line.
Filter rules have the following syntax:
> RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
> RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Here are the
available rule prefixes:
0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern.
0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern.
0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file.
0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden.
0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected.
0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are comment
lines that start with a "#".
[comment]: # (Remember that markdown strips spaces from start/end of ` ... ` sequences!)
[comment]: # (Thus, the `x ` sequences below use a literal non-breakable space!)
Note that the `--include` & `--exclude` command-line options do not allow the
full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "`!`" token to clear the
list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a
pattern does not begin with "`- `" (dash, space) or "`+ `" (plus, space), then
the rule will be interpreted as if "`+ `" (for an include option) or "`- `"
(for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A `--filter` option, on
the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
start of the rule.
Note also that the `--filter`, `--include`, and `--exclude` options take one
rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on the
command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the `--filter` option, or the
`--include-from` / `--exclude-from` options.
# INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES
You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+", "-",
etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The
include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against the names
of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several
forms:
- if the pattern starts with a `/` then it is anchored to a particular spot in
the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the
pathname. This is similar to a leading `^` in regular expressions. Thus
`/foo` would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for
a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule).
An unqualified `foo` would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because
the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each
path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the
unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo"
was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING
INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern
that matches at the root of the transfer.
- if the pattern ends with a `/` then it will only match a directory, not a
regular file, symlink, or device.
- rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters:
'`*`', '`?`', and '`[`' .
- a '`*`' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
- use '`**`' to match anything, including slashes.
- a '`?`' matches any character except a slash (`/`).
- a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`.
- in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. This
means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a pattern
contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none. e.g. if
you add a wildcard to "`foo\bar`" (which matches the backslash) you would
need to use "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
- if the pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing /) or a "`**`", then it
is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If
the pattern doesn't contain a `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched only against
the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied
recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the
starting directory on down.)
- a trailing "`dir_name/***`" will match both the directory (as if "dir_name/"
had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
had been specified). This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.
Note that, when using the `--recursive` (`-r`) option (which is implied by
`-a`), every subdir component of every path is visited left to right, with each
directory having a chance for exclusion before its content. In this way
include/exclude patterns are applied recursively to the pathname of each node
in the filesystem's tree (those inside the transfer). The exclude patterns
short-circuit the directory traversal stage as rsync finds the files to send.
For instance, to include "`/foo/bar/baz`", the directories "`/foo`" and "`/foo/bar`"
must not be excluded. Excluding one of those parent directories prevents the
examination of its content, cutting off rsync's recursion into those paths and
rendering the include for "`/foo/bar/baz`" ineffectual (since rsync can't match
something it never sees in the cut-off section of the directory hierarchy).
The concept path exclusion is particularly important when using a trailing '`*`'
rule. For instance, this won't work:
> + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
> + /file-is-included
> - *
This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '`*`' rule, so
rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" directories.
One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by
using a single rule: "`+ */`" (put it somewhere before the "`- *`" rule), and
perhaps use the `--prune-empty-dirs` option. Another solution is to add
specific include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
instance, this set of rules works fine:
> + /some/
> + /some/path/
> + /some/path/this-file-is-found
> + /file-also-included
> - *
Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
- "`- *.o`" would exclude all names matching `*.o`
- "`- /foo`" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root
directory
- "`- foo/`" would exclude any directory named foo
- "`- /foo/*/bar`" would exclude any file named bar which is at two levels
below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
- "`- /foo/**/bar`" would exclude any file named bar two or more levels below a
directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
- The combination of "`+ */`", "`+ *.c`", and "`- *`" would include all
directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
`--prune-empty-dirs` option)
- The combination of "`+ foo/`", "`+ foo/bar.c`", and "`- *`" would include
only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly
included or it would be excluded by the "`*`")
The following modifiers are accepted after a "`+`" or "`-`":
- A `/` 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.
- A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
fails to match. For instance, "`-! */`" would exclude all non-directories.
- A `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.
- An `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 `--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.
- An `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 `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.
- A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
directories that are being deleted. For instance, the `-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.
- An `m(CHMOD)` on an include rule tweaks the permissions of matching
source files in the same way as `--chmod`. This happens before any tweaks
requested via `--chmod` options.
- An `o(USER)` on an include rule pretends that matching source files are
owned by `USER` (a name or numeric uid). This happens before any uid mapping
by name or `--usermap`.
- A `g(GROUP)` on an include rule pretends that matching source files are
owned by `GROUP` (a name or numeric gid). This happens before any gid
mapping by name or `--groupmap`.
- An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
(see the `--xattrs` option).
# MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
(.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
above).
There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
(':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
(see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE below).
Some examples:
> merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
> . /etc/rsync/default.rules
> dir-merge .per-dir-filter
> dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
> :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
- A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
- A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
- A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
assumed.
- A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
.rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
- An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
- A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
- You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). 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. If the merge rule
specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
such as `hide`).
The attribute-affecting modifiers `m`, `o`, and `g` work only in client filters
(not in daemon filters), and only the modifiers of the first matching rule are
applied. As an example, assuming `--super` is enabled, the rule
"`+o(root),g(root),m(go=) *~`" would ensure that all "backup"
files belong to root and are not accessible to anyone else.
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 from its parents, which
gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
the current merge file.
Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
file was found.
Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
> merge /home/user/.global-filter
> - *.gz
> dir-merge .rules
> + *.[ch]
> - *.o
> - foo*
This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
transfer).
If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see `-F`):
> --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
same as the module's "path".)
Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
> rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
> rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
> rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
`--cvs-exclude` (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory .cvsignore file
gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you like in your
filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule for the
.cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower priority
than your command-line rules). For example:
> ```
> cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
> + foo.o
> :C
> - *.old
> EOT
> rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
> ```
Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
$HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
"`--filter=-C`".
# LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current" list is either
the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
# ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
governs where patterns that start with a / match.
Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
slash on a source path or changing your use of the `--relative` option affects
the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of
the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following examples
demonstrate this.
Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
> ```
> Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
> +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
> +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
> Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
> Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
> ```
> ```
> Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
> +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
> +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
> Target file: /dest/foo/bar
> Target file: /dest/bar/baz
> ```
> ```
> Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
> +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
> +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
> Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
> Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
> ```
> ```
> Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
> +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
> +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
> Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
> Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
> ```
The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
look at the output when using `--verbose` and put a / in front of the name
(use the `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
# PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
> rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
> rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
per-directory merge files in the transfer and use `--delete-after`, because
this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as the
sending side before it tries to delete anything:
> rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
exclude themselves):
> rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
> --delete host:src/dir /dest
In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
per-directory merge rule.
In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
one of these commands:
> ```
> rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
> host:src/dir /dest
> rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
> ```
# BATCH MODE
Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
this operation against other, identical destination trees.
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:
> $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
> $ scp foo* remote:
> $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
> $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
> $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
/bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
- The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
- The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
- The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified `--read-batch`
option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to make use of it
(just be sure that no other option is trying to use standard input, such as
the "`--exclude-from=-`" option).
Caveats:
The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
size and date, use the `-I` option (when reading the batch). If an error
occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated state. In
that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to
fix up the destination tree.
The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
See also the `--protocol` option for a way to have the creating rsync generate
a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch files
changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with newer
versions will not work.)
When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
instance `--write-batch` changes to `--read-batch`, `--files-from` is dropped,
and the `--filter` / `--include` / `--exclude` options are not needed unless
one of the `--delete` options is specified.
The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
change in what gets deleted by `--delete` is desired. A normal user can ignore
this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the appropriate
`--read-batch` command for the batched data.
The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
version uses a new implementation.
# SYMBOLIC LINKS
Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
link in the source directory.
By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
If `--links` is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same target on
the destination. Note that `--archive` implies `--links`.
If `--copy-links` is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
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 `/etc/passwd` in
the public section of the site. Using `--copy-unsafe-links` will cause any
links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
`--safe-links` will cause unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you
must specify `--links` for `--safe-links` to have any effect.)
Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
(start with `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
components to ascend from the directory being copied.
Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
first line that is a complete subset of your options:
0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no symlinks for
any other options to affect).
0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and
duplicate all safe symlinks.
0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily skip all
safe symlinks.
0. `--links --safe-links` Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.
0. `--links` Duplicate all symlinks.
# DIAGNOSTICS
rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
one that seems to cause the most confusion 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:
> ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
be a zero length file. If you are getting 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.
If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
`-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
file is included or excluded.
# EXIT VALUES
0. **0** Success
0. **1** Syntax or usage error
0. **2** Protocol incompatibility
0. **3** Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
0. **4** Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipulate
64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an option was
specified that is supported by the client and not by the server.
0. **5** Error starting client-server protocol
0. **6** Daemon unable to append to log-file
0. **10** Error in socket I/O
0. **11** Error in file I/O
0. **12** Error in rsync protocol data stream
0. **13** Errors with program diagnostics
0. **14** Error in IPC code
0. **20** Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
0. **21** Some error returned by **waitpid()**
0. **22** Error allocating core memory buffers
0. **23** Partial transfer due to error
0. **24** Partial transfer due to vanished source files
0. **25** The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
0. **30** Timeout in data send/receive
0. **35** Timeout waiting for daemon connection
# ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
0. `CVSIGNORE`
The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
.cvsignore files. See the `--cvs-exclude` option for more details.
0. `RSYNC_ICONV`
Specify a default `--iconv` setting using this environment variable. (First
supported in 3.0.0.)
0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the `--protect-args` option to
be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is disabled by
default. (First supported in 3.1.0.)
0. `RSYNC_RSH`
The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to override the default shell
used as the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after
the command name, just as in the `-e` option.
0. `RSYNC_PROXY`
The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync daemon. You should
set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
0. `RSYNC_PASSWORD`
Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password allows you to run
authenticated rsync connections to an rsync daemon without user
intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to a remote shell
transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's
documentation.
0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
to "nobody".
0. `HOME`
The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
file.
# FILES
/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
# SEE ALSO
**rsync-ssl**(1), **rsyncd.conf**(5)
# BUGS
times are transferred as \*nix time_t values
When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
unmodified files.
See the comments on the `--modify-window` option.
file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
values
see also the comments on the `--delete` option
Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
# VERSION
This man page is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
# INTERNAL OPTIONS
The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
# CREDITS
rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
COPYING for details.
A web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site includes an
FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual page.
We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
Gailly and Mark Adler.
# THANKS
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.
Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
# AUTHOR
rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
Davison.
Mailing lists for support and development are available at
<https://lists.samba.org/>.
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