1: .TH "rsync" "1" "06 Aug 2020" "rsync 3.2.3" "User Commands"
2: .P
3: .SH "NAME"
4: .P
5: rsync \- a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
6: .P
7: .SH "SYNOPSIS"
8: .P
9: .nf
10: Local:
11: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
12:
13: Access via remote shell:
14: Pull:
15: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
16: Push:
17: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
18:
19: Access via rsync daemon:
20: Pull:
21: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
22: rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
23: Push:
24: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
25: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26: .fi
27: .P
28: Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
29: of copying.
30: .P
31: .SH "DESCRIPTION"
32: .P
33: Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
34: locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
35: daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
36: behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
37: copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
38: amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
39: the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
40: used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
41: use.
42: .P
43: Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
44: (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
45: time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
46: are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
47: the file's data does not need to be updated.
48: .P
49: Some of the additional features of rsync are:
50: .P
51: .IP o
52: support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
53: .IP o
54: exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
55: .IP o
56: a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
57: .IP o
58: can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
59: .IP o
60: does not require super-user privileges
61: .IP o
62: pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
63: .IP o
64: support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
65: .P
66: .SH "GENERAL"
67: .P
68: Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
69: host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
70: .P
71: There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
72: remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
73: rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
74: source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
75: specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
76: destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
77: specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the "USING
78: RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for an exception
79: to this latter rule).
80: .P
81: As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
82: the files are listed in an output format similar to "\fBls\ \-l\fP".
83: .P
84: As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
85: the copy occurs locally (see also the \fB\-\-list-only\fP option).
86: .P
87: Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
88: Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
89: server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
90: .P
91: .SH "SETUP"
92: .P
93: See the file README.md for installation instructions.
94: .P
95: Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
96: remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
97: protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
98: communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
99: by default, such as rsh or remsh.
100: .P
101: You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the \fB\-e\fP
102: command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
103: .P
104: Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
105: .P
106: .SH "USAGE"
107: .P
108: You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
109: destination, one of which may be remote.
110: .P
111: Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
112: .RS 4
113: .P
114: .nf
115: rsync -t *.c foo:src/
116: .fi
117: .RE
118: .P
119: This would transfer all files matching the pattern \fB*.c\fP from the current
120: directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
121: exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
122: update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
123: expansion of wildcards on the command-line (\fB*.c\fP) into a list of files is
124: handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
125: same as all other Posix-style programs).
126: .RS 4
127: .P
128: .nf
129: rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
130: .fi
131: .RE
132: .P
133: This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
134: machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
135: are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
136: attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
137: Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
138: the transfer.
139: .RS 4
140: .P
141: .nf
142: rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
143: .fi
144: .RE
145: .P
146: A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
147: additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
148: on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
149: "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
150: containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
151: destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
152: in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
153: .RS 4
154: .P
155: .nf
156: rsync -av /src/foo /dest
157: rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
158: .fi
159: .RE
160: .P
161: Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
162: copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
163: the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
164: .RS 4
165: .P
166: .nf
167: rsync -av host: /dest
168: rsync -av host::module /dest
169: .fi
170: .RE
171: .P
172: You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
173: destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
174: improved copy command.
175: .P
176: Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
177: rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
178: .RS 4
179: .P
180: .nf
181: rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
182: .fi
183: .RE
184: .P
185: And, if Service Location Protocol is available, the following will list the
186: available rsync servers:
187: .RS 4
188: .P
189: .nf
190: rsync rsync://
191: .fi
192: .RE
193: .P
194: See the following section for even more usage details.
195: .P
196: One more thing, if Service Location Protocol is available, the following will
197: list the available rsync servers:
198: .RS 4
199: .P
200: .nf
201: rsync rsync://
202: .fi
203: .RE
204: .P
205: See the following section for even more usage details.
206: .P
207: .SH "ADVANCED USAGE"
208: .P
209: The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
210: specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
211: the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
212: .RS 4
213: .P
214: .nf
215: rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
216: rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/
217: rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}
218: .fi
219: .RE
220: .P
221: Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
222: examples:
223: .RS 4
224: .P
225: .nf
226: rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest
227: rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest
228: .fi
229: .RE
230: .P
231: This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is not as
232: easy to use as the first method.
233: .P
234: If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
235: specify the \fB\-\-protect-args\fP (\fB\-s\fP) option, or you'll need to escape the
236: whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For instance:
237: .RS 4
238: .P
239: .nf
240: rsync -av host:'file\\ name\\ with\\ spaces' /dest
241: .fi
242: .RE
243: .P
244: .SH "CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON"
245: .P
246: It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
247: this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
248: TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
249: system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS section
250: below for information on that.)
251: .P
252: Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
253: that:
254: .P
255: .IP o
256: you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to separate the
257: hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
258: .IP o
259: the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
260: .IP o
261: the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you connect.
262: .IP o
263: if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible
264: paths on the daemon will be shown.
265: .IP o
266: if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
267: the remote daemon is provided.
268: .IP o
269: you must not specify the \fB\-\-rsh\fP (\fB\-e\fP) option (since that overrides the
270: daemon connection to use ssh\ \-\- see USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
271: REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION below).
272: .P
273: An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
274: .RS 4
275: .P
276: .nf
277: rsync -av host::src /dest
278: .fi
279: .RE
280: .P
281: Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
282: receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
283: by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to the password you want to
284: use or using the \fB\-\-password-file\fP option. This may be useful when scripting
285: rsync.
286: .P
287: WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
288: those systems using \fB\-\-password-file\fP is recommended.
289: .P
290: You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
291: variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy. Note
292: that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port 873.
293: .P
294: You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
295: setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you wish to
296: run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may contain the
297: escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync command (so use
298: "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
299: .RS 4
300: .P
301: .nf
302: export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
303: rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
304: rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
305: .fi
306: .RE
307: .P
308: The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
309: forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
310: .P
311: Note also that if the RSYNC_SHELL environment variable is set, that program
312: will be used to run the RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG command instead of using the default
313: shell of the \fBsystem()\fP call.
314: .P
315: .SH "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION"
316: .P
317: It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
318: named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
319: system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
320: Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
321: single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
322: of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
323: transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
324: you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
325: the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
326: to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
327: on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
328: .P
329: From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
330: uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
331: with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
332: program on the command-line with the \fB\-\-rsh=COMMAND\fP option. (Setting the
333: RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
334: .RS 4
335: .P
336: .nf
337: rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
338: .fi
339: .RE
340: .P
341: If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
342: user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
343: module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
344: the '\-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
345: example that uses the short version of the \fB\-\-rsh\fP option:
346: .RS 4
347: .P
348: .nf
349: rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
350: .fi
351: .RE
352: .P
353: The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
354: log-in to the "module".
355: .P
356: .SH "STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS"
357: .P
358: In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
359: daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
360: spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
361: information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
362: connections, see the \fBrsyncd.conf\fP(5) man page\ \-\- that is the config file for
363: the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the daemon
364: (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
365: .P
366: If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
367: no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
368: .P
369: .SH "SORTED TRANSFER ORDER"
370: .P
371: Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
372: This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
373: directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse
374: someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what was given
375: on the command-line.
376: .P
377: If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
378: separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
379: \fB\-\-delay-updates\fP (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but does
380: make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
381: .P
382: .SH "EXAMPLES"
383: .P
384: Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
385: .P
386: To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and
387: mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
388: .RS 4
389: .P
390: .nf
391: rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup
392: .fi
393: .RE
394: .P
395: each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
396: "arvidsjaur".
397: .P
398: To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile targets:
399: .RS 4
400: .P
401: .nf
402: get:
403: rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
404: put:
405: rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
406: sync: get put
407: .fi
408: .RE
409: .P
410: This allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the connection.
411: I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot of time as
412: the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
413: .P
414: I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the command:
415: .RS 4
416: .P
417: .nf
418: rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge"
419: .fi
420: .RE
421: .P
422: This is launched from cron every few hours.
423: .P
424: .SH "OPTION SUMMARY"
425: .P
426: Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer to the
427: detailed description below for a complete description.
428: .P
429: .nf
430: --verbose, -v increase verbosity
431: --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
432: --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
433: --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
434: --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
435: --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
436: --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
437: --sumfiles=MODE use .rsyncsums to speedup --checksum mode
438: --archive, -a archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
439: --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
440: --recursive, -r recurse into directories
441: --relative, -R use relative path names
442: --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
443: --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
444: --backup-deleted make backups only of deleted files
445: --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
446: --backup-dir-dels=DIR backup removed files into hierarchy based in DIR
447: --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
448: --suffix-dels=SUFFIX set removed-files suffix (def. --suffix w/o b-d-d)
449: --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
450: --downdate, -w skip files that are older on the receiver
451: --inplace update destination files in-place
452: --append append data onto shorter files
453: --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
454: --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
455: --mkpath create the destination's path component
456: --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
457: --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
458: --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
459: --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
460: --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
461: --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
462: --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
463: --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
464: --perms, -p preserve permissions
465: --fileflags preserve file-flags (aka chflags)
466: --executability, -E preserve executability
467: --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
468: --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
469: --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
470: --hfs-compression preserve HFS compression if supported
471: --protect-decmpfs preserve HFS compression as xattrs
472: --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
473: --group, -g preserve group
474: --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
475: --copy-devices copy device contents as regular file
476: --specials preserve special files
477: -D same as --devices --specials
478: --times, -t preserve modification times
479: --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
480: --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
481: --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
482: --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
483: --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
484: --omit-dir-changes omit directories from any attribute changes
485: --super receiver attempts super-user activities
486: --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
487: --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
488: --sparse-block=SIZE set block size used to handle sparse files
489: --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
490: --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
491: --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
492: --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
493: --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
494: --db=CONFIG_FILE specify a CONFIG_FILE for DB checksums
495: --db-only=CONFIG_FILE behave like rsyncdb
496: --db-lax ignore ctime changes (use with CAUTION)
497: --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
498: --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
499: --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
500: --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
501: --existing skip creating new files on receiver
502: --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
503: --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
504: --source-backup ... and backs up those files
505: --del an alias for --delete-during
506: --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
507: --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
508: --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
509: --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
510: --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
511: --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
512: --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
513: --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
514: --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
515: --force-delete force deletion of directories even if not empty
516: --force-change affect user-/system-immutable files/dirs
517: --force-uchange affect user-immutable files/dirs
518: --force-schange affect system-immutable files/dirs
519: --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
520: --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
521: --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
522: --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
523: --partial keep partially transferred files
524: --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
525: --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
526: --direct-io don't use buffer cache for xfer file I/O
527: --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
528: --fsync fsync every written file
529: --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
530: --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
531: --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
532: --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
533: --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
534: --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
535: --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
536: --size-only skip files that match in size
537: --date-only skip files that match in mod-time
538: --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
539: --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
540: --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
541: --detect-renamed try to find renamed files to speed the xfer
542: --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
543: --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
544: --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
545: --clone-dest=DIR clone (reflink) files from DIR when unchanged
546: --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
547: --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
548: --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
549: --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
550: --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
551: --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
552: -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
553: repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
554: --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
555: --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
556: --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
557: --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
558: --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
559: --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
560: --protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
561: --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
562: --ignore-case ignore case when comparing filenames
563: --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
564: --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
565: --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
566: --diffserv=[0-63] specify diffserv setting
567: --congestion-alg=STRING choose a congestion algo
568: --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
569: --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
570: --stats give some file-transfer stats
571: --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
572: --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
573: --progress show progress during transfer
574: -P same as --partial --progress
575: --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
576: --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
577: --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
578: --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
579: --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
580: --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
581: --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
582: --list-only list the files instead of copying them
583: --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
584: --slow-down=USECs sleep N usec while creating the filelist
585: --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
586: --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
587: --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
588: --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
589: --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
590: --source-filter=COMMAND filter file through COMMAND at source
591: --dest-filter=COMMAND filter file through COMMAND at destination
592: --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
593: --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
594: --tr=BAD/GOOD transliterate filenames
595: --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
596: --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
597: --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
598: --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
599: --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
600: .fi
601: .P
602: Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
603: accepted:
604: .P
605: .nf
606: --daemon run as an rsync daemon
607: --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
608: --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
609: --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
610: --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
611: --no-detach do not detach from the parent
612: --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
613: --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
614: --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
615: --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
616: --verbose, -v increase verbosity
617: --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
618: --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
619: --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
620: .fi
621: .P
622: .SH "OPTIONS"
623: .P
624: Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
625: options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
626: option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
627: Some options only have a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a
628: parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though it
629: must also be specified for the short. When specifying a parameter, you can
630: either use the form \fB\-\-option=param\fP or replace the '=' with whitespace. The
631: parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the shell's
632: command-line parsing. Keep in mind that a leading tilde (\fB~\fP) in a filename is
633: substituted by your shell, so \fB\-\-option=~/foo\fP will not change the tilde into
634: your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
635: .P
636: .IP "\fB\-\-help\fP, \fB\-h\fP \fB(*)\fP"
637: Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
638: (*) The \fB\-h\fP short option will only invoke \fB\-\-help\fP when used without other
639: options since it normally means \fB\-\-human-readable\fP.
640: .IP "\fB\-\-version\fP, \fB\-V\fP"
641: Print the rsync version plus other info and exit.
642: .IP
643: The output includes the default list of checksum algorithms, the default
644: list of compression algorithms, a list of compiled-in capabilities, a link
645: to the rsync web site, and some license/copyright info.
646: .IP "\fB\-\-verbose\fP, \fB\-v\fP"
647: This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
648: transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single \fB\-v\fP will give you
649: information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
650: the end. Two \fB\-v\fP options will give you information on what files are
651: being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two \fB\-v\fP
652: options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
653: .IP
654: In a modern rsync, the \fB\-v\fP option is equivalent to the setting of groups
655: of \fB\-\-info\fP and \fB\-\-debug\fP options. You can choose to use these newer
656: options in addition to, or in place of using \fB\-\-verbose\fP, as any
657: fine-grained settings override the implied settings of \fB\-v\fP. Both \fB\-\-info\fP
658: and \fB\-\-debug\fP have a way to ask for help that tells you exactly what flags
659: are set for each increase in verbosity.
660: .IP
661: However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "\fBmax\ verbosity\fP" setting will limit
662: how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
663: side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
664: is set to a higher value than what would be set by \fB\-vv\fP will be downgraded
665: to the \fB\-vv\fP level in the daemon's logging.
666: .IP "\fB\-\-info=FLAGS\fP"
667: This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
668: you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
669: number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
670: level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
671: that support higher levels). Use \fB\-\-info=help\fP to see all the available
672: flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
673: increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
674: .RS 4
675: .IP
676: .nf
677: rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
678: rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
679: .fi
680: .RE
681: .IP
682: Note that \fB\-\-info=name\fP's output is affected by the \fB\-\-out-format\fP and
683: \fB\-\-itemize-changes\fP (\fB\-i\fP) options. See those options for more information
684: on what is output and when.
685: .IP
686: This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
687: reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
688: to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
689: See also the "\fBmax\ verbosity\fP" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
690: .IP "\fB\-\-debug=FLAGS\fP"
691: This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
692: want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
693: with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
694: and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
695: support higher levels). Use \fB\-\-debug=help\fP to see all the available flag
696: names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
697: the verbose level. Some examples:
698: .RS 4
699: .IP
700: .nf
701: rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
702: rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
703: .fi
704: .RE
705: .IP
706: Note that some debug messages will only be output when \fB\-\-stderr=all\fP is
707: specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
708: .IP
709: Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
710: side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
711: of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
712: present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
713: option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
714: typing. This works in zsh and bash:
715: .RS 4
716: .IP
717: .nf
718: rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
719: .fi
720: .RE
721: .IP "\fB\-\-stderr=errors|all|client\fP"
722: This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
723: are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
724: free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
725: .IP
726: .RS
727: .IP o
728: \fBerrors\fP \- (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
729: error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
730: the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
731: stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
732: daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
733: stream.
734: .IP o
735: \fBall\fP \- causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
736: directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
737: become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
738: divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
739: debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
740: avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
741: a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also enables the outputting of some
742: I/O related debug messages.
743: .IP o
744: \fBclient\fP \- causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
745: via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
746: errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This \fBwas\fP the default
747: in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
748: transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
749: older rsync, you may want to use \fB\-\-stderr=all\fP since that idiom has
750: been around for several releases.
751: .RE
752: .IP
753: This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
754: forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
755: the backward-compatible options \fB\-\-msgs2stderr\fP and \fB\-\-no-msgs2stderr\fP to
756: represent the \fBall\fP and \fBclient\fP settings, respectively. A newer rsync
757: will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
758: .IP "\fB\-\-quiet\fP, \fB\-q\fP"
759: This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
760: transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
761: This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
762: .IP "\fB\-\-no-motd\fP"
763: This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
764: start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
765: text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
766: response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
767: protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
768: from the daemon.
769: .IP "\fB\-\-ignore-times\fP, \fB\-I\fP"
770: Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
771: the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
772: behavior, causing all files to be updated.
773: .IP "\fB\-\-size-only\fP"
774: This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
775: to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
776: either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
777: files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
778: after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
779: exactly.
780: .IP "\fB\-\-date-only\fP"
781: Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
782: the same modification time-stamp. With the \-\-date-only option, files will
783: be skipped if they have the same timestamp, regardless of size. This may be
784: useful when the remote files have passed through a size-changing filter,
785: e.g. for encryption.
786: .IP "\fB\-\-modify-window=NUM\fP, \fB\-@\fP"
787: When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
788: if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
789: which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
790: the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
791: into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
792: filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
793: (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
794: .IP
795: If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
796: create a \fB~/.popt\fP file and put these lines in it:
797: .RS 4
798: .IP
799: .nf
800: rsync alias -a -a@-1
801: rsync alias -t -t@-1
802: .fi
803: .RE
804: .IP
805: With that as the default, you'd need to specify \fB\-\-modify-window=0\fP (aka
806: \fB\-@0\fP) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
807: between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
808: .IP "\fB\-\-checksum\fP, \fB\-c\fP"
809: This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
810: need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
811: (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
812: between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
813: 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
814: checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
815: the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
816: significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
817: transfer changed files)
818: .IP
819: The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
820: scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
821: its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
822: file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
823: either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
824: .IP
825: See also the \fB\-\-sumfiles\fP option for a way to use cached checksum data.
826: .IP
827: Note that rsync always verifies that each \fItransferred\fP file was correctly
828: reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
829: is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
830: after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
831: before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
832: .IP
833: The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
834: can be overridden using either the \fB\-\-checksum-choice\fP (\fB\-\-cc\fP) option or an
835: environment variable that is discussed in that option's section.
836: .IP "\fB\-\-sumfiles=MODE\fP"
837: This option tells rsync to make use of any cached checksum information it
838: finds in per-directory .rsyncsums files when the current transfer is using
839: the \fB\-\-checksum\fP option. If the checksum data is up-to-date, it is used
840: instead of recomputing it, saving both disk I/O and CPU time. If the
841: checksum data is missing or outdated, the checksum is computed just as it
842: would be if \fB\-\-sumfiles\fP was not specified.
843: .IP
844: The MODE value is either "lax", for relaxed checking (which compares size
845: and mtime), "strict" (which also compares ctime and inode), or "none" to
846: ignore any .rsyncsums files ("none" is the default).
847: If you want rsync to create and/or update these files, specify a prefixed
848: plus ("+lax" or "+strict"). Adding a second prefixed '+' causes the
849: checksum-file updates to happen even when the transfer is in \fB\-\-dry-run\fP
850: mode ("++lax" or "++strict"). There is also a perl script in the support
851: directory named "rsyncsums" that can be used to update the .rsyncsums
852: files.
853: .IP
854: This option has no effect unless \fB\-\-checksum\fP, \fB\-c\fP was also specified. It
855: also only affects the current side of the transfer, so if you want the
856: remote side to parse its own .rsyncsums files, specify the option via
857: \fB\-\-remote-option\fP (\fB\-M\fP) (e.g. "\fB\-M\-\-sumfiles=lax\fP").
858: .IP
859: To avoid transferring the system's checksum files, you can use an exclude
860: (e.g. \fB\-\-exclude=.rsyncsums\fP). To make this easier to type, you can use a
861: popt alias. For instance, adding the following line in your ~/.popt file
862: defines a \fB\-\-cs\fP option that enables lax checksum files and excludes the
863: checksum files:
864: .RS 4
865: .IP
866: .nf
867: rsync alias --cs -c --sumfiles=lax -M--sumfiles=lax -f-_.rsyncsums
868: .fi
869: .RE
870: .IP
871: An rsync daemon does not allow the client to control this setting, so see
872: the "checksum files" daemon parameter for information on how to make a
873: daemon use cached checksum data.
874: .IP "\fB\-\-archive\fP, \fB\-a\fP"
875: This is equivalent to \fB\-rlptgoD\fP. It is a quick way of saying you want
876: recursion and want to preserve almost everything (with \fB\-H\fP being a notable
877: omission). The only exception to the above equivalence is when
878: \fB\-\-files-from\fP is specified, in which case \fB\-r\fP is not implied.
879: .IP
880: Note that \fB\-a\fP \fBdoes not preserve hardlinks\fP, because finding
881: multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately specify \fB\-H\fP.
882: Note also that for backward compatibility, \fB\-a\fP currently does \fBnot\fP
883: imply the \fB\-\-fileflags\fP option.
884: .IP "\fB\-\-no-OPTION\fP"
885: You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
886: with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-": only options that
887: are implied by other options (e.g. \fB\-\-no-D\fP, \fB\-\-no-perms\fP) or have
888: different defaults in various circumstances (e.g. \fB\-\-no-whole-file\fP,
889: \fB\-\-no-blocking-io\fP, \fB\-\-no-dirs\fP). You may specify either the short or the
890: long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g. \fB\-\-no-R\fP is the same as
891: \fB\-\-no-relative\fP).
892: .IP
893: For example: if you want to use \fB\-a\fP (\fB\-\-archive\fP) but don't want \fB\-o\fP
894: (\fB\-\-owner\fP), instead of converting \fB\-a\fP into \fB\-rlptgD\fP, you could specify
895: \fB\-a\ \-\-no-o\fP (or \fB\-a\ \-\-no-owner\fP).
896: .IP
897: The order of the options is important: if you specify \fB\-\-no-r\ \-a\fP, the
898: \fB\-r\fP option would end up being turned on, the opposite of \fB\-a\ \-\-no-r\fP.
899: Note also that the side-effects of the \fB\-\-files-from\fP option are NOT
900: positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
901: changes the meaning of \fB\-a\fP (see the \fB\-\-files-from\fP option for more
902: details).
903: .IP "\fB\-\-recursive\fP, \fB\-r\fP"
904: This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also \fB\-\-dirs\fP (\fB\-d\fP).
905: .IP
906: Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
907: incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
908: transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
909: completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
910: does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
911: both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
912: .IP
913: Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
914: disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: \fB\-\-delete-before\fP,
915: \fB\-\-delete-after\fP, \fB\-\-prune-empty-dirs\fP, and \fB\-\-delay-updates\fP. Because of
916: this, the default delete mode when you specify \fB\-\-delete\fP is now
917: \fB\-\-delete-during\fP when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0 (use
918: \fB\-\-del\fP or \fB\-\-delete-during\fP to request this improved deletion mode
919: explicitly). See also the \fB\-\-delete-delay\fP option that is a better choice
920: than using \fB\-\-delete-after\fP.
921: .IP
922: Incremental recursion can be disabled using the \fB\-\-no-inc-recursive\fP option
923: or its shorter \fB\-\-no-i-r\fP alias.
924: .IP "\fB\-\-relative\fP, \fB\-R\fP"
925: Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
926: command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
927: filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
928: different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
929: command:
930: .RS 4
931: .IP
932: .nf
933: rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
934: .fi
935: .RE
936: .IP
937: would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
938: you used
939: .RS 4
940: .IP
941: .nf
942: rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
943: .fi
944: .RE
945: .IP
946: then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
947: machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
948: "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
949: above example).
950: .IP
951: Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
952: real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
953: symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
954: when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
955: in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
956: the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
957: you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
958: the \fB\-\-no-implied-dirs\fP option.
959: .IP
960: It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
961: implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
962: sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
963: the source path, like this:
964: .RS 4
965: .IP
966: .nf
967: rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
968: .fi
969: .RE
970: .IP
971: That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
972: must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
973: older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
974: path. For example, when pushing files:
975: .RS 4
976: .IP
977: .nf
978: (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
979: .fi
980: .RE
981: .IP
982: (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
983: "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
984: pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
985: non-daemon transfer):
986: .RS 4
987: .IP
988: .nf
989: rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \\
990: remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
991: .fi
992: .RE
993: .IP "\fB\-\-no-implied-dirs\fP"
994: This option affects the default behavior of the \fB\-\-relative\fP option. When
995: it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
996: names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
997: path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
998: and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
999: This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
1000: as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
1001: .IP
1002: For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
1003: transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
1004: are implied when \fB\-\-relative\fP is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
1005: on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
1006: "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
1007: directory. With \fB\-\-no-implied-dirs\fP, the receiving rsync updates
1008: "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
1009: ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
1010: preservation is to use the \fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP option (which will also affect
1011: symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
1012: .IP
1013: When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
1014: option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
1015: wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
1016: .IP "\fB\-\-backup\fP, \fB\-b\fP"
1017: With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
1018: transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
1019: what (if any) suffix gets appended using the \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP and \fB\-\-suffix\fP
1020: options.
1021: .IP
1022: Note that if you don't specify \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP, (1) the \fB\-\-omit-dir-times\fP
1023: option will be forced on, and (2) if \fB\-\-delete\fP is also in effect (without
1024: \fB\-\-delete-excluded\fP), rsync will add a "protect" filter-rule for the backup
1025: suffix to the end of all your existing excludes (e.g. \fB\-f\ "P\ *~"\fP). This
1026: will prevent previously backed-up files from being deleted. Note that if
1027: you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert
1028: your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that it
1029: has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify a
1030: trailing inclusion/exclusion of \fB*\fP, the auto-added rule would never be
1031: reached).
1032: .IP "\-\-backup-deleted"
1033: With this option, deleted destination files are renamed, while modified
1034: destination files are not. Otherwise, this option behaves the same as
1035: \fB\-\-backup\fP, described above. Note that if \fB\-\-backup\fP is also specified,
1036: whichever option is specified last takes precedence.
1037: .IP "\fB\-\-backup-dir=DIR\fP"
1038: This implies the \fB\-\-backup\fP option, and tells rsync to store all
1039: backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
1040: for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
1041: using the \fB\-\-suffix\fP option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified
1042: directory will keep their original filenames).
1043: .IP
1044: Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
1045: relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
1046: either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
1047: daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
1048: hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
1049: .IP "\fB\-\-suffix=SUFFIX\fP"
1050: This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
1051: \fB\-\-backup\fP (\fB\-b\fP) option. The default suffix is a \fB~\fP if no \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP
1052: was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
1053: .IP "\fB\-\-update\fP, \fB\-u\fP"
1054: This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
1055: a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
1056: destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
1057: will be updated if the sizes are different.)
1058: .IP
1059: Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
1060: special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
1061: receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
1062: matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
1063: directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
1064: regardless of the timestamps.
1065: .IP
1066: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1067: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1068: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1069: .IP "\fB\-\-inplace\fP"
1070: This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
1071: updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
1072: and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
1073: updated data directly to the destination file.
1074: .IP
1075: This has several effects:
1076: .IP
1077: .RS
1078: .IP o
1079: Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
1080: through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
1081: copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
1082: result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
1083: forth.
1084: .IP o
1085: In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
1086: happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
1087: or crash).
1088: .IP o
1089: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
1090: will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
1091: fails.
1092: .IP o
1093: A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
1094: can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
1095: for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
1096: .IP o
1097: The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
1098: data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
1099: position later in the file. This does not apply if you use \fB\-\-backup\fP,
1100: since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
1101: the transfer.
1102: .RE
1103: .IP
1104: WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
1105: accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
1106: .IP
1107: This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
1108: or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
1109: bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
1110: diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
1111: .IP
1112: The option implies \fB\-\-partial\fP (since an interrupted transfer does not
1113: delete the file), but conflicts with \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP and \fB\-\-delay-updates\fP.
1114: Prior to rsync 2.6.4 \fB\-\-inplace\fP was also incompatible with
1115: \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP and \fB\-\-link-dest\fP.
1116: .IP "\fB\-\-append\fP"
1117: This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
1118: known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
1119: is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
1120: \fB\-\-append\fP \fBcan be dangerous\fP if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
1121: in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
1122: rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
1123: .IP
1124: Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
1125: existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
1126: appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
1127: are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
1128: that new files are trasnferred).
1129: .IP
1130: This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
1131: attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
1132: to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
1133: non-regular files.
1134: .IP "\fB\-\-append-verify\fP"
1135: This special copy mode works like \fB\-\-append\fP except that all the data in
1136: the file is included in the checksum verification (making it much less
1137: efficient but also potentially safer). This option \fBcan be dangerous\fP if
1138: you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
1139: files. See the \fB\-\-append\fP option for more details.
1140: .IP
1141: Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the \fB\-\-append\fP option worked like
1142: \fB\-\-append-verify\fP, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
1143: transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
1144: will initiate an \fB\-\-append-verify\fP transfer.
1145: .IP "\fB\-\-dirs\fP, \fB\-d\fP"
1146: Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
1147: Unlike \fB\-\-recursive\fP, a directory's contents are not copied unless the
1148: directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".",
1149: "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the \fB\-\-recursive\fP option,
1150: rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and output a message to that
1151: effect for each one). If you specify both \fB\-\-dirs\fP and \fB\-\-recursive\fP,
1152: \fB\-\-recursive\fP takes precedence.
1153: .IP
1154: The \fB\-\-dirs\fP option is implied by the \fB\-\-files-from\fP option or the
1155: \fB\-\-list-only\fP option (including an implied \fB\-\-list-only\fP usage) if
1156: \fB\-\-recursive\fP wasn't specified (so that directories are seen in the
1157: listing). Specify \fB\-\-no-dirs\fP (or \fB\-\-no-d\fP) if you want to turn this off.
1158: .IP
1159: There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, \fB\-\-old-dirs\fP (or
1160: \fB\-\-old-d\fP) that tells rsync to use a hack of \fB\-r\ \-\-exclude='/*/*'\fP to get
1161: an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1162: .IP "\fB\-\-mkpath\fP"
1163: Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1164: to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1165: in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1166: supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1167: treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1168: same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1169: existed).
1170: .IP
1171: For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1172: directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1173: .RS 4
1174: .IP
1175: .nf
1176: rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1177: .fi
1178: .RE
1179: .IP
1180: If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1181: sub/dir/bar directory:
1182: .RS 4
1183: .IP
1184: .nf
1185: rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1186: .fi
1187: .RE
1188: .IP "\fB\-\-links\fP, \fB\-l\fP"
1189: When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination.
1190: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-links\fP, \fB\-L\fP"
1191: When symlinks are encountered, the item that they point to (the referent)
1192: is copied, rather than the symlink. In older versions of rsync, this
1193: option also had the side-effect of telling the receiving side to follow
1194: symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a modern rsync such as this
1195: one, you'll need to specify \fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP (\fB\-K\fP) to get this extra
1196: behavior. The only exception is when sending files to an rsync that is too
1197: old to understand \fB\-K\fP\ \-\- in that case, the \fB\-L\fP option will still have the
1198: side-effect of \fB\-K\fP on that older receiving rsync.
1199: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-unsafe-links\fP"
1200: This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1201: the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1202: and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when \fB\-\-relative\fP is
1203: used. This option has no additional effect if \fB\-\-copy-links\fP was also
1204: specified.
1205: .IP
1206: Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1207: of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1208: "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1209: transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1210: for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1211: /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1212: slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1213: of "subdir".
1214: .IP "\fB\-\-safe-links\fP"
1215: This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point outside the
1216: copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also ignored. Using this option in
1217: conjunction with \fB\-\-relative\fP may give unexpected results.
1218: .IP "\fB\-\-munge-links\fP"
1219: This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on the receiving side in
1220: a way that makes them unusable but recoverable (see below), or (2) to
1221: unmunge symlinks on the sending side that had been stored in a munged
1222: state. This is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data to
1223: not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
1224: .IP
1225: The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with the
1226: string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used as long
1227: as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will
1228: refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a directory.
1229: .IP
1230: The option only affects the client side of the transfer, so if you need it
1231: to affect the server, specify it via \fB\-\-remote-option\fP. (Note that in a
1232: local transfer, the client side is the sender.)
1233: .IP
1234: This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon configures whether
1235: it wants munged symlinks via its "\fBmunge\ symlinks\fP" parameter. See also the
1236: "munge-symlinks" perl script in the support directory of the source code.
1237: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-dirlinks\fP, \fB\-k\fP"
1238: This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1239: though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1240: to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using \fB\-\-copy-links\fP.
1241: .IP
1242: Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1243: symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1244: the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1245: \fB\-\-force-delete\fP or \fB\-\-delete\fP is in effect).
1246: .IP
1247: See also \fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP for an analogous option for the receiving side.
1248: .IP
1249: \fB\-\-copy-dirlinks\fP applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1250: you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1251: pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1252: \fB\-\-relative\fP to make the paths match up right. For example:
1253: .RS 4
1254: .IP
1255: .nf
1256: rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1257: .fi
1258: .RE
1259: .IP
1260: This works because rsync calls \fBlstat\fP(2) on the source arg as given, and
1261: the trailing slash makes \fBlstat\fP(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1262: directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1263: scan of "src/./".
1264: .IP "\fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP, \fB\-K\fP"
1265: This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1266: though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1267: from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1268: deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1269: .IP
1270: For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1271: "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1272: \fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1273: directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1274: \fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1275: "bar".
1276: .IP
1277: One note of caution: if you use \fB\-\-keep-dirlinks\fP, you must trust all the
1278: symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create
1279: their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1280: copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1281: whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1282: better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1283: your receiving hierarchy.
1284: .IP
1285: See also \fB\-\-copy-dirlinks\fP for an analogous option for the sending side.
1286: .IP "\fB\-\-hard-links\fP, \fB\-H\fP"
1287: This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1288: together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1289: hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1290: files.
1291: .IP
1292: This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1293: the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1294: destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1295: .IP
1296: .RS
1297: .IP o
1298: If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1299: is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1300: them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1301: differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1302: (unless you are using the \fB\-\-inplace\fP option).
1303: .IP o
1304: If you specify a \fB\-\-link-dest\fP directory that contains hard links, the
1305: linking of the destination files against the \fB\-\-link-dest\fP files can
1306: cause some paths in the destination to become linked together due to the
1307: \fB\-\-link-dest\fP associations.
1308: .RE
1309: .IP
1310: Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1311: the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1312: connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1313: you are tempted to use the \fB\-\-inplace\fP option to avoid this breakage, be
1314: very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1315: certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1316: see the \fB\-\-inplace\fP option for more caveats).
1317: .IP
1318: If incremental recursion is active (see \fB\-\-recursive\fP), rsync may transfer
1319: a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that
1320: contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the
1321: accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together), just
1322: its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1323: hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1324: another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1325: inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1326: \fB\-\-no-inc-recursive\fP option.
1327: .IP "\fB\-\-perms\fP, \fB\-p\fP"
1328: This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1329: to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the \fB\-\-chmod\fP option
1330: for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source permissions.)
1331: .IP
1332: When this option is \fIoff\fP, permissions are set as follows:
1333: .IP
1334: .RS
1335: .IP o
1336: Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1337: permissions, though the \fB\-\-executability\fP option might change just the
1338: execute permission for the file.
1339: .IP o
1340: New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1341: permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1342: (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1343: the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1344: bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1345: bit from its parent directory.
1346: .RE
1347: .IP
1348: Thus, when \fB\-\-perms\fP and \fB\-\-executability\fP are both disabled, rsync's
1349: behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as \fBcp\fP(1)
1350: and \fBtar\fP(1).
1351: .IP
1352: In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1353: permissions, use \fB\-\-perms\fP. To give new files the destination-default
1354: permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1355: \fB\-\-perms\fP option is off and use \fB\-\-chmod=ugo=rwX\fP (which ensures that all
1356: non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter behavior
1357: easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as putting this
1358: line in the file \fB~/.popt\fP (the following defines the \fB\-Z\fP option, and
1359: includes \fB\-\-no-g\fP to use the default group of the destination dir):
1360: .RS 4
1361: .IP
1362: .nf
1363: rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1364: .fi
1365: .RE
1366: .IP
1367: You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1368: .RS 4
1369: .IP
1370: .nf
1371: rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1372: .fi
1373: .RE
1374: .IP
1375: (Caveat: make sure that \fB\-a\fP does not follow \fB\-Z\fP, or it will re-enable the
1376: two \fB\-\-no-*\fP options mentioned above.)
1377: .IP
1378: The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1379: directories when \fB\-\-perms\fP is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1380: versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1381: newly-created files when \fB\-\-perms\fP was off, while overriding the
1382: destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1383: observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1384: non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1385: (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1386: these behaviors.)
1387: .IP "\fB\-\-executability\fP, \fB\-E\fP"
1388: This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1389: non-executability) of regular files when \fB\-\-perms\fP is not enabled. A
1390: regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1391: on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1392: differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1393: destination file's permissions as follows:
1394: .IP
1395: .RS
1396: .IP o
1397: To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1398: .IP o
1399: To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1400: corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1401: .RE
1402: .IP
1403: If \fB\-\-perms\fP is enabled, this option is ignored.
1404: .IP "\fB\-\-acls\fP, \fB\-A\fP"
1405: This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1406: the source ACLs. The option also implies \fB\-\-perms\fP.
1407: .IP
1408: The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1409: this option to work properly. See the \fB\-\-fake-super\fP option for a way to
1410: backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1411: .IP "\fB\-\-xattrs\fP, \fB\-X\fP"
1412: This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1413: be the same as the source ones.
1414: .IP
1415: For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1416: by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.*. A normal user only
1417: copies the user.* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1418: namespaces as a normal user, see the \fB\-\-fake-super\fP option.
1419: .IP
1420: The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1421: options with the \fBx\fP modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1422: filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1423: well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1424: names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1425: namespace, you could specify:
1426: .RS 4
1427: .IP
1428: .nf
1429: --filter='-x system.*'
1430: .fi
1431: .RE
1432: .IP
1433: To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1434: negated-user match:
1435: .RS 4
1436: .IP
1437: .nf
1438: --filter='-x! user.*'
1439: .fi
1440: .RE
1441: .IP
1442: To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1443: receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1444: .RS 4
1445: .IP
1446: .nf
1447: --filter='-xr *'
1448: .fi
1449: .RE
1450: .IP
1451: Note that the \fB\-X\fP option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1452: those used by \fB\-\-fake-super\fP) unless you repeat the option (e.g. \fB\-XX\fP).
1453: This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with \fB\-\-fake-super\fP.
1454: .IP "\fB\-\-fileflags\fP This option causes rsync to update the file-flags to be the
1455: same as the source files and directories (if your OS supports the
1456: \fBchflags\fP(2) system call). Some flags can only be altered by the
1457: super-user and some might only be unset below a certain secure-level
1458: (usually single-user mode). It will not make files alterable that are set
1459: to immutable on the receiver. To do that, see \fB\-\-force-change\fP,
1460: \fB\-\-force-uchange\fP, and \fB\-\-force-schange\fP."
1461: .IP "\fB\-\-force-change\fP This option causes rsync to disable both user-immutable
1462: and system-immutable flags on files and directories that are being updated
1463: or deleted on the receiving side. This option overrides \fB\-\-force-uchange\fP
1464: and \fB\-\-force-schange\fP."
1465: .IP "\fB\-\-force-uchange\fP This option causes rsync to disable user-immutable flags
1466: on files and directories that are being updated or deleted on the receiving
1467: side. It does not try to affect system flags. This option overrides
1468: \fB\-\-force-change\fP and \fB\-\-force-schange\fP."
1469: .IP "\fB\-\-force-schange\fP This option causes rsync to disable system-immutable
1470: flags on files and directories that are being updated or deleted on the
1471: receiving side. It does not try to affect user flags. This option
1472: overrides \fB\-\-force-change\fP and \fB\-\-force-uchange\fP."
1473: .IP "\fB\-\-hfs-compression\fP"
1474: This option causes rsync to preserve HFS+ compression if the destination
1475: filesystem supports it. If the destination does not support it, rsync will
1476: exit with an error.
1477: .IP
1478: Filesystem compression was introduced to HFS+ in Mac OS 10.6. A file that
1479: is compressed has no data in its data fork. Rather, the compressed data is
1480: stored in an extended attribute named com.apple.decmpfs and a file flag is
1481: set to indicate that the file is compressed (UF_COMPRESSED). HFS+
1482: decompresses this data "on-the-fly" and presents it to the operating system
1483: as a normal file. Normal attempts to copy compressed files (e.g. in the
1484: Finder, via cp, ditto, etc.) will copy the file's decompressed contents,
1485: remove the UF_COMPRESSED file flag, and discard the com.apple.decmpfs
1486: extended attribute. This option will preserve the data in the
1487: com.apple.decmpfs extended attribute and ignore the synthesized data in the
1488: file contents.
1489: .IP
1490: This option implies both \fB\-\-fileflags\fP and (\-\-xattrs).
1491: .IP "\fB\-\-protect-decmpfs\fP"
1492: The com.apple.decmpfs extended attribute is hidden by default from list/get
1493: xattr calls, therefore normal attempts to copy compressed files will
1494: functionally decompress those files. While this is desirable behavior when
1495: copying files to filesystems that do not support HFS+ compression, it has
1496: serious performance and capacity impacts when backing up or restoring the
1497: Mac OS X filesystem.
1498: .IP
1499: This option will transfer the com.apple.decmpfs extended attribute
1500: regardless of support on the destination. If a source file is compressed
1501: and an existing file on the destination is not compressed, the data fork of
1502: the destination file will be truncated and the com.apple.decmpfs xattr will
1503: be transferred instead. Note that compressed files will not be readable to
1504: the operating system of the destination if that operating system does not
1505: support HFS+ compression. Once restored (with or without this option) to an
1506: operating system that supports HFS+ compression, however, these files will
1507: be accessible as usual.
1508: .IP
1509: This option implies \fB\-\-fileflags\fP and \fB\-\-xattrs\fP.
1510: .IP "\fB\-\-chmod=CHMOD\fP"
1511: This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1512: to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1513: treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1514: for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1515: existing files if \fB\-\-perms\fP is not enabled.
1516: .IP
1517: In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the \fBchmod\fP(1)
1518: manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1519: prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1520: file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1521: that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1522: that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1523: consistent executability across all bits:
1524: .RS 4
1525: .IP
1526: .nf
1527: --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1528: .fi
1529: .RE
1530: .IP
1531: Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1532: .RS 4
1533: .IP
1534: .nf
1535: --chmod=D2775,F664
1536: .fi
1537: .RE
1538: .IP
1539: It is also legal to specify multiple \fB\-\-chmod\fP options, as each additional
1540: option is just appended to the list of changes to make. To change
1541: permissions of files matching a pattern, use an include filter with the \fBm\fP
1542: modifier, which takes effect before any \fB\-\-chmod\fP options.
1543: .IP
1544: See the \fB\-\-perms\fP and \fB\-\-executability\fP options for how the resulting
1545: permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1546: .IP "\fB\-\-owner\fP, \fB\-o\fP"
1547: This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1548: same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1549: the super-user (see also the \fB\-\-super\fP and \fB\-\-fake-super\fP options). Without
1550: this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to the
1551: invoking user on the receiving side.
1552: .IP
1553: The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1554: may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1555: \fB\-\-numeric-ids\fP option for a full discussion).
1556: .IP "\fB\-\-group\fP, \fB\-g\fP"
1557: This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1558: same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1559: super-user (or if \fB\-\-no-super\fP was specified), only groups that the
1560: invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1561: Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1562: user on the receiving side.
1563: .IP
1564: The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1565: default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1566: (see also the \fB\-\-numeric-ids\fP option for a full discussion).
1567: .IP "\fB\-\-devices\fP"
1568: This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1569: the remote system to recreate these devices. This option has no effect if
1570: the receiving rsync is not run as the super-user (see also the \fB\-\-super\fP
1571: and \fB\-\-fake-super\fP options).
1572: .IP "\fB\-\-specials\fP"
1573: This option causes rsync to transfer special files such as named sockets
1574: and fifos.
1575: .IP "\fB\-D\fP"
1576: The \fB\-D\fP option is equivalent to \fB\-\-devices\ \-\-specials\fP.
1577: .IP "\fB\-\-write-devices\fP"
1578: This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1579: allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1580: .IP
1581: This option implies the \fB\-\-inplace\fP option.
1582: .IP
1583: Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1584: receiving side of the transfer, especially if running rsync as root.
1585: .IP
1586: This option is refused by an rsync daemon.
1587: .IP "\fB\-\-times\fP, \fB\-t\fP"
1588: This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1589: update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1590: the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1591: effective; in other words, a missing \fB\-t\fP or \fB\-a\fP will cause the next
1592: transfer to behave as if it used \fB\-I\fP, causing all files to be updated
1593: (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly
1594: efficient if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off
1595: using \fB\-t\fP).
1596: .IP "\fB\-\-atimes\fP, \fB\-U\fP"
1597: This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1598: the same value as the source files.
1599: .IP
1600: If repeated, it also sets the \fB\-\-open-noatime\fP option, which can help you
1601: to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1602: transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1603: is transferred.
1604: .IP
1605: Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1606: with a pre-release \fB\-\-atimes\fP patch that does not imply \fB\-\-open-noatime\fP
1607: when this option is repeated.
1608: .IP "\fB\-\-open-noatime\fP"
1609: This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1610: support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1611: transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1612: will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1613: mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1614: O_NOATIME flag being set.
1615: .IP "\fB\-\-crtimes\fP, \fB\-N,\fP"
1616: This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1617: files to the same value as the source files.
1618: .IP "\fB\-\-omit-dir-times\fP, \fB\-O\fP"
1619: This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification
1620: times (see \fB\-\-times\fP). If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1621: side, it is a good idea to use \fB\-O\fP. This option is inferred if you use
1622: \fB\-\-backup\fP without \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP.
1623: .IP
1624: This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of
1625: directories in incremental recursion copies. The default \fB\-\-inc-recursive\fP
1626: copying normally does an early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a
1627: parent directory in order for it to be able to then set the modify time of
1628: the parent directory right away (without having to delay that until a bunch
1629: of recursive copying has finished). This early-create idiom is not
1630: necessary if directory modify times are not being preserved, so it is
1631: skipped. Since early-create directories don't have accurate mode, mtime,
1632: or ownership, the use of this option can help when someone wants to avoid
1633: these partially-finished directories.
1634: .IP "\fB\-\-omit-link-times\fP, \fB\-J\fP"
1635: This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification times
1636: (see \fB\-\-times\fP).
1637: .IP "\fB\-\-omit-dir-changes\fP"
1638: This tells rsync to omit directories when applying any preserved attributes
1639: (owner, group, times, permissions) to already existing directories.
1640: .IP "\fB\-\-super\fP"
1641: This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1642: receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1643: preserving users via the \fB\-\-owner\fP option, preserving all groups (not just
1644: the current user's groups) via the \fB\-\-groups\fP option, and copying devices
1645: via the \fB\-\-devices\fP option. This is useful for systems that allow such
1646: activities without being the super-user, and also for ensuring that you
1647: will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run as the super-user.
1648: To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can use \fB\-\-no-super\fP.
1649: .IP "\fB\-\-fake-super\fP"
1650: When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1651: saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1652: that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1653: and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1654: special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1655: that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1656: u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1657: real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1658: always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1659: ACLs (if \fB\-\-acls\fP was specified) and non-user extended attributes (if
1660: \fB\-\-xattrs\fP was specified).
1661: .IP
1662: This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1663: ACLs from incompatible systems.
1664: .IP
1665: The \fB\-\-fake-super\fP option only affects the side where the option is used.
1666: To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1667: \fB\-\-remote-option\fP (\fB\-M\fP) option:
1668: .RS 4
1669: .IP
1670: .nf
1671: rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1672: .fi
1673: .RE
1674: .IP
1675: For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1676: If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1677: files, specify \fB\-M\-\-fake-super\fP. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1678: option just for the source files, combine \fB\-\-fake-super\fP with \fB\-M\-\-super\fP.
1679: .IP
1680: This option is overridden by both \fB\-\-super\fP and \fB\-\-no-super\fP.
1681: .IP
1682: See also the "\fBfake\ super\fP" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1683: .IP "\fB\-\-sparse\fP, \fB\-S\fP"
1684: Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1685: destination. If combined with \fB\-\-inplace\fP the file created might not end
1686: up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version and/or
1687: filesystem type. If \fB\-\-whole-file\fP is in effect (e.g. for a local copy)
1688: then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior to writing
1689: out the updated version.
1690: .IP
1691: Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1692: \fB\-\-sparse\fP and \fB\-\-inplace\fP.
1693: .IP "\fB\-\-preallocate\fP"
1694: This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1695: size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1696: filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's \fBfallocate\fP(2)
1697: system call or Cygwin's \fBposix_fallocate\fP(3), not the slow glibc
1698: implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1699: .IP
1700: Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1701: filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1702: the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1703: NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1704: .IP
1705: If combined with \fB\-\-sparse\fP, the file will only have sparse blocks (as
1706: opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1707: filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1708: .IP "\fB\-\-sparse-block=SIZE\fP"
1709: Change the block size used to handle sparse files to SIZE bytes. This
1710: option only has an effect if the \fB\-\-sparse\fP (\fB\-S\fP) option was also
1711: specified. The default block size used by rsync to detect a file hole is
1712: 1024 bytes; when the receiver writes data to the destination file and
1713: option \fB\-\-sparse\fP is used, rsync checks every 1024-bytes chunk to detect if
1714: they are actually filled with data or not. With certain filesystems,
1715: optimized to receive data streams for example, enlarging this block size
1716: can strongly increase performance. The option can be used to tune this
1717: block size.
1718: .IP "\fB\-\-dry-run\fP, \fB\-n\fP"
1719: This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1720: produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1721: in combination with the \fB\-\-verbose\fP, \fB\-v\fP and/or \fB\-\-itemize-changes\fP, \fB\-i\fP
1722: options to see what an rsync command is going to do before one actually
1723: runs it.
1724: .IP
1725: The output of \fB\-\-itemize-changes\fP is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1726: dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1727: call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
1728: unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not send
1729: the actual data for file transfers, so \fB\-\-progress\fP has no effect, the
1730: "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1731: statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1732: where no file transfers were needed.
1733: .IP "\fB\-\-whole-file\fP, \fB\-W\fP"
1734: This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1735: transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1736: option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1737: machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1738: is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1739: source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1740: batch-writing option is in effect.
1741: .IP "\fB\-\-checksum-choice=STR\fP, \fB\-\-cc=STR\fP"
1742: This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1743: specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1744: \fB\-\-checksum\fP is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1745: comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1746: checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (\fB\-c\fP).
1747: .IP
1748: The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1749: .IP
1750: .RS
1751: .IP o
1752: \fBauto\fP (the default automatic choice)
1753: .IP o
1754: \fBxxh128\fP
1755: .IP o
1756: \fBxxh3\fP
1757: .IP o
1758: \fBxxh64\fP (aka \fBxxhash\fP)
1759: .IP o
1760: \fBmd5\fP
1761: .IP o
1762: \fBmd4\fP
1763: .IP o
1764: \fBnone\fP
1765: .RE
1766: .IP
1767: Run \fBrsync\ \-\-version\fP to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1768: version (which may differ from the list above).
1769: .IP
1770: If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the \fB\-\-whole-file\fP
1771: option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1772: transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1773: the \fB\-\-checksum\fP option cannot be used.
1774: .IP
1775: The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1776: a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1777: .IP
1778: When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1779: algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1780: of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1781: an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1782: a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1783: and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1784: .IP
1785: The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1786: RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum names.
1787: If the string contains a "\fB&\fP" character, it is separated into the "client
1788: string & server string", otherwise the same string
1789: applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
1790: non-whitespace characters, the default checksum list is used. This method
1791: does not allow you to specify the transfer checksum separately from the
1792: pre-transfer checksum, and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum
1793: names. A list with only invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1794: .IP
1795: The use of the \fB\-\-checksum-choice\fP option overrides this environment list.
1796: .IP "\fB\-\-one-file-system\fP, \fB\-x\fP"
1797: This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1798: This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1799: multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1800: directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1801: receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1802: "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1803: .IP
1804: If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1805: the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1806: encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1807: the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1808: .IP
1809: If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via \fB\-\-copy-links\fP or
1810: \fB\-\-copy-unsafe-links\fP), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1811: treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected by
1812: this option.
1813: .IP "\fB\-\-existing\fP, \fB\-\-ignore-non-existing\fP"
1814: This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1815: exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1816: \fB\-\-ignore-existing\fP option, no files will be updated (which can be useful
1817: if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1818: .IP
1819: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1820: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1821: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1822: .IP "\fB\-\-ignore-existing\fP"
1823: This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1824: destination (this does \fInot\fP ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1825: get done). See also \fB\-\-existing\fP.
1826: .IP
1827: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1828: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1829: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1830: .IP
1831: This option can be useful for those doing backups using the \fB\-\-link-dest\fP
1832: option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1833: a \fB\-\-link-dest\fP run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1834: used properly), using \fB\-\-ignore-existing\fP will ensure that the
1835: already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1836: permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option is
1837: only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1838: .IP "\fB\-\-remove-source-files\fP"
1839: This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1840: non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1841: duplicated on the receiving side.
1842: .IP
1843: Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1844: quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1845: particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1846: files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1847: so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1848: If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1849: use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1850: yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1851: "foo" when it is done, and then use the option \fB\-\-exclude='*.new'\fP for the
1852: rsync transfer).
1853: .IP
1854: Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1855: error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1856: .IP "\fB\-\-source-backup\fP"
1857: Makes the sender back up the source files it removes due to
1858: \fB\-\-remove-source-files\fP. This option is independent of \fB\-\-backup\fP but uses
1859: the same \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP and \fB\-\-suffix\fP settings, if any. With
1860: \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP, rsync looks for each file's backup dir relative to the
1861: source argument the file came from. Consequently, if the \fB\-\-backup-dir\fP
1862: path is relative, each source argument gets a separate backup dir at that
1863: path relative to the argument.
1864: .IP "\fB\-\-delete\fP"
1865: This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1866: that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1867: being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1868: (e.g. "\fBdir\fP" or "\fBdir/\fP") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1869: contents (e.g. "\fBdir/*\fP") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1870: rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1871: parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1872: excluded from being deleted unless you use the \fB\-\-delete-excluded\fP option
1873: or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1874: include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1875: .IP
1876: Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless \fB\-\-recursive\fP
1877: was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when \fB\-\-dirs\fP
1878: (\fB\-d\fP) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being
1879: copied.
1880: .IP
1881: This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1882: first try a run using the \fB\-\-dry-run\fP option (\fB\-n\fP) to see what files are
1883: going to be deleted.
1884: .IP
1885: If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1886: at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1887: temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1888: causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1889: this with the \fB\-\-ignore-errors\fP option.
1890: .IP
1891: The \fB\-\-delete\fP option may be combined with one of the \-\-delete-WHEN options
1892: without conflict, as well as \fB\-\-delete-excluded\fP. However, if none of the
1893: \fB\-\-delete-WHEN\fP options are specified, rsync will choose the
1894: \fB\-\-delete-during\fP algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and the
1895: \fB\-\-delete-before\fP algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1896: \fB\-\-delete-delay\fP and \fB\-\-delete-after\fP.
1897: .IP "\fB\-\-delete-before\fP"
1898: Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1899: transfer starts. See \fB\-\-delete\fP (which is implied) for more details on
1900: file-deletion.
1901: .IP
1902: Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1903: space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1904: possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1905: transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1906: \fB\-\-timeout\fP was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1907: non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1908: files in the transfer into memory at once (see \fB\-\-recursive\fP).
1909: .IP "\fB\-\-delete-during\fP, \fB\-\-del\fP"
1910: Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1911: as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1912: before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1913: efficient \fB\-\-delete-before\fP, including doing the deletions prior to any
1914: per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added in
1915: rsync version 2.6.4. See \fB\-\-delete\fP (which is implied) for more details on
1916: file-deletion.
1917: .IP "\fB\-\-delete-delay\fP"
1918: Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1919: the transfer (like \fB\-\-delete-during\fP), and then removed after the transfer
1920: completes. This is useful when combined with \fB\-\-delay-updates\fP and/or
1921: \fB\-\-fuzzy\fP, and is more efficient than using \fB\-\-delete-after\fP (but can
1922: behave differently, since \fB\-\-delete-after\fP computes the deletions in a
1923: separate pass after all updates are done). If the number of removed files
1924: overflows an internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the
1925: receiving side to hold the names (it is removed while open, so you
1926: shouldn't see it during the transfer). If the creation of the temporary
1927: file fails, rsync will try to fall back to using \fB\-\-delete-after\fP (which it
1928: cannot do if \fB\-\-recursive\fP is doing an incremental scan). See \fB\-\-delete\fP
1929: (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1930: .IP "\fB\-\-delete-after\fP"
1931: Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1932: transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1933: per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1934: exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1935: also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1936: requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1937: (see \fB\-\-recursive\fP). See \fB\-\-delete\fP (which is implied) for more details on
1938: file-deletion.
1939: .IP "\fB\-\-delete-excluded\fP"
1940: In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side that are not on the
1941: sending side, this tells rsync to also delete any files on the receiving
1942: side that are excluded (see \fB\-\-exclude\fP). See the FILTER RULES section for
1943: a way to make individual exclusions behave this way on the receiver, and
1944: for a way to protect files from \fB\-\-delete-excluded\fP. See \fB\-\-delete\fP (which
1945: is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1946: .IP "\fB\-\-ignore-missing-args\fP"
1947: When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1948: command-line arguments or \fB\-\-files-from\fP entries), it is normally an error
1949: if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error, and does
1950: not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1951: vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1952: is no longer there.
1953: .IP "\fB\-\-delete-missing-args\fP"
1954: This option takes the behavior of (the implied) \fB\-\-ignore-missing-args\fP
1955: option a step farther: each missing arg will become a deletion request of
1956: the corresponding destination file on the receiving side (should it exist).
1957: If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will only be
1958: successfully deleted if \fB\-\-force-delete\fP or \fB\-\-delete\fP are in effect. Other than
1959: that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
1960: .IP
1961: The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1962: display as a "\fB*missing\fP" entry in the \fB\-\-list-only\fP output.
1963: .IP "\fB\-\-ignore-errors\fP"
1964: Tells \fB\-\-delete\fP to go ahead and delete files even when there are I/O
1965: errors.
1966: .IP "\fB\-\-force-delete\fP"
1967: This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1968: replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1969: active (see \fB\-\-delete\fP for details).
1970: .IP
1971: This option can be abbreviated \fB\-\-force\fP for backward compatibility. Note
1972: that some older rsync versions used to still require \fB\-\-force\fP when using
1973: \fB\-\-delete-after\fP, and it used to be non-functional unless the \fB\-\-recursive\fP
1974: option was also enabled.
1975: .IP "\fB\-\-max-delete=NUM\fP"
1976: This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
1977: limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
1978: transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
1979: skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
1980: important error condition also occurred).
1981: .IP
1982: Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify \fB\-\-max-delete=0\fP to be warned
1983: about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1984: Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1985: version the client is, you can use the less obvious \fB\-\-max-delete=\-1\fP as a
1986: backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1987: really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1988: .IP "\fB\-\-max-size=SIZE\fP"
1989: This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
1990: specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
1991: the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
1992: fractional value along with the units, such as \fB\-\-max-size=1.5m\fP.
1993: .IP
1994: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1995: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1996: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1997: .IP
1998: The first letter of a units string can be \fBB\fP (bytes), \fBK\fP (kilo), \fBM\fP
1999: (mega), \fBG\fP (giga), \fBT\fP (tera), or \fBP\fP (peta). If the string is a single
2000: char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
2001: multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
2002: (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
2003: letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
2004: .IP
2005: Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "\-1", it is offset by one
2006: byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
2007: \fB8192P-1\fP.
2008: .IP
2009: Examples: \fB\-\-max-size=1.5mb-1\fP is 1499999 bytes, and \fB\-\-max-size=2g+1\fP is
2010: 2147483649 bytes.
2011: .IP
2012: Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow \fB\-\-max-size=0\fP.
2013: .IP "\fB\-\-min-size=SIZE\fP"
2014: This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
2015: specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
2016: the \fB\-\-max-size\fP option for a description of SIZE and other information.
2017: .IP
2018: Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow \fB\-\-min-size=0\fP.
2019: .IP "\fB\-\-max-alloc=SIZE\fP"
2020: By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
2021: For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
2022: causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
2023: many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
2024: you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
2025: increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
2026: consume more memory.
2027: .IP
2028: Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
2029: memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
2030: .IP
2031: See the \fB\-\-max-size\fP option for a description of how SIZE can be specified.
2032: The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
2033: .IP
2034: Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
2035: .IP
2036: You can set a default value using the environment variable RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC
2037: using the same SIZE values as supported by this option. If the remote
2038: rsync doesn't understand the \fB\-\-max-alloc\fP option, you can override an
2039: environmental value by specifying \fB\-\-max-alloc=1g\fP, which will make rsync
2040: avoid sending the option to the remote side (because "1G" is the default).
2041: .IP "\fB\-\-block-size=SIZE\fP, \fB\-B\fP"
2042: This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
2043: fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
2044: updated. See the technical report for details.
2045: .IP
2046: Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
2047: the \fB\-\-max-size\fP option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
2048: .IP "\fB\-\-rsh=COMMAND\fP, \fB\-e\fP"
2049: This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
2050: for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
2051: rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
2052: a local network.
2053: .IP
2054: If this option is used with \fB[user@]host::module/path\fP, then the remote
2055: shell \fICOMMAND\fP will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
2056: all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
2057: than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
2058: remote host. See the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
2059: REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
2060: .IP
2061: Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the RSYNC_PORT environment variable will be set
2062: when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell connection. It
2063: is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or it is set to
2064: the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the \fB\-\-port\fP
2065: option or a non-empty port value in an rsync:// URL. This allows the
2066: script to discern if a non-default port is being requested, allowing for
2067: things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a default or
2068: alternate port.
2069: .IP
2070: Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
2071: presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
2072: other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
2073: can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
2074: not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
2075: string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
2076: need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
2077: quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
2078: .RS 4
2079: .IP
2080: .nf
2081: -e 'ssh -p 2234'
2082: -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
2083: .fi
2084: .RE
2085: .IP
2086: (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
2087: options in their .ssh/config file.)
2088: .IP
2089: You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
2090: environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as \fB\-e\fP.
2091: .IP
2092: See also the \fB\-\-blocking-io\fP option which is affected by this option.
2093: .IP "\fB\-\-rsync-path=PROGRAM\fP"
2094: Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
2095: start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
2096: path (e.g. \fB\-\-rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync\fP). Note that PROGRAM is run
2097: with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
2098: sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
2099: & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
2100: .IP
2101: One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
2102: machine for use with the \fB\-\-relative\fP option. For instance:
2103: .RS 4
2104: .IP
2105: .nf
2106: rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
2107: .fi
2108: .RE
2109: .IP "\fB\-\-remote-option=OPTION\fP, \fB\-M\fP"
2110: This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
2111: effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
2112: you want to pass \fB\-\-log-file=FILE\fP and \fB\-\-fake-super\fP to the remote system,
2113: specify it like this:
2114: .RS 4
2115: .IP
2116: .nf
2117: rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
2118: .fi
2119: .RE
2120: .IP
2121: If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
2122: it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
2123: this:
2124: .RS 4
2125: .IP
2126: .nf
2127: rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
2128: .fi
2129: .RE
2130: .IP
2131: Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
2132: cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
2133: the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
2134: .IP
2135: Note that it is best to use a separate \fB\-\-remote-option\fP for each option
2136: you want to pass. This makes your usage compatible with the
2137: \fB\-\-protect-args\fP option. If that option is off, any spaces in your remote
2138: options will be split by the remote shell unless you take steps to protect
2139: them.
2140: .IP
2141: When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
2142: "remote" side is the receiver.
2143: .IP
2144: Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
2145: that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
2146: short option letter (e.g. \fB\-M\-\-log-file=/tmp/foo\fP). If this bug affects
2147: your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
2148: rsync.
2149: .IP "\fB\-\-cvs-exclude\fP, \fB\-C\fP"
2150: This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
2151: often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
2152: to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
2153: .IP
2154: The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
2155: initial items are marked as perishable\ \-\- see the FILTER RULES section):
2156: .RS 4
2157: .IP
2158: \fBRCS\fP
2159: \fBSCCS\fP
2160: \fBCVS\fP
2161: \fBCVS.adm\fP
2162: \fBRCSLOG\fP
2163: \fBcvslog.*\fP
2164: \fBtags\fP
2165: \fBTAGS\fP
2166: \fB.make.state\fP
2167: \fB.nse_depinfo\fP
2168: \fB*~\fP
2169: \fB#*\fP
2170: \fB.#*\fP
2171: \fB,*\fP
2172: \fB_$*\fP
2173: \fB*$\fP
2174: \fB*.old\fP
2175: \fB*.bak\fP
2176: \fB*.BAK\fP
2177: \fB*.orig\fP
2178: \fB*.rej\fP
2179: \fB.del-*\fP
2180: \fB*.a\fP
2181: \fB*.olb\fP
2182: \fB*.o\fP
2183: \fB*.obj\fP
2184: \fB*.so\fP
2185: \fB*.exe\fP
2186: \fB*.Z\fP
2187: \fB*.elc\fP
2188: \fB*.ln\fP
2189: \fBcore\fP
2190: \fB.svn/\fP
2191: \fB.git/\fP
2192: \fB.hg/\fP
2193: \fB.bzr/\fP
2194: .RE
2195: .IP
2196: then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2197: files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2198: delimited by whitespace).
2199: .IP
2200: Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2201: file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2202: filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2203: \fBcvs\fP(1) manual for more information.
2204: .IP
2205: If you're combining \fB\-C\fP with your own \fB\-\-filter\fP rules, you should note
2206: that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2207: regardless of where the \fB\-C\fP was placed on the command-line. This makes
2208: them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2209: to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2210: you should omit the \fB\-C\fP as a command-line option and use a combination of
2211: \fB\-\-filter=:C\fP and \fB\-\-filter=\-C\fP (either on your command-line or by putting
2212: the ":C" and "\-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules). The
2213: first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore file.
2214: The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes mentioned
2215: above.
2216: .IP "\fB\-\-filter=RULE\fP, \fB\-f\fP"
2217: This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2218: from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2219: combination with a recursive transfer.
2220: .IP
2221: You may use as many \fB\-\-filter\fP options on the command line as you like to
2222: build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2223: be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2224: argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2225: replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2226: .IP
2227: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2228: .IP "\fB\-F\fP"
2229: The \fB\-F\fP option is a shorthand for adding two \fB\-\-filter\fP rules to your
2230: command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2231: .RS 4
2232: .IP
2233: .nf
2234: --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2235: .fi
2236: .RE
2237: .IP
2238: This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2239: been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2240: files in the transfer. If \fB\-F\fP is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2241: rule:
2242: .RS 4
2243: .IP
2244: .nf
2245: --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2246: .fi
2247: .RE
2248: .IP
2249: This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2250: .IP
2251: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
2252: work.
2253: .IP "\fB\-\-exclude=PATTERN\fP"
2254: This option is a simplified form of the \fB\-\-filter\fP option that defaults to
2255: an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
2256: filter rules.
2257: .IP
2258: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2259: .IP "\fB\-\-exclude-from=FILE\fP"
2260: This option is related to the \fB\-\-exclude\fP option, but it specifies a FILE
2261: that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
2262: lines starting with '\fB;\fP' or '\fB#\fP' are ignored. If \fIFILE\fP is '\fB\-\fP', the
2263: list will be read from standard input.
2264: .IP "\fB\-\-include=PATTERN\fP"
2265: This option is a simplified form of the \fB\-\-filter\fP option that defaults to
2266: an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
2267: filter rules.
2268: .IP
2269: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
2270: .IP "\fB\-\-include-from=FILE\fP"
2271: This option is related to the \fB\-\-include\fP option, but it specifies a FILE
2272: that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
2273: lines starting with '\fB;\fP' or '\fB#\fP' are ignored. If \fIFILE\fP is '\fB\-\fP', the
2274: list will be read from standard input.
2275: .IP "\fB\-\-files-from=FILE\fP"
2276: Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2277: (as read from the specified FILE or '\fB\-\fP' for standard input). It also
2278: tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2279: specified files and directories easier:
2280: .IP
2281: .RS
2282: .IP o
2283: The \fB\-\-relative\fP (\fB\-R\fP) option is implied, which preserves the path
2284: information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2285: \fB\-\-no-relative\fP or \fB\-\-no-R\fP if you want to turn that off).
2286: .IP o
2287: The \fB\-\-dirs\fP (\fB\-d\fP) option is implied, which will create directories
2288: specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
2289: them (use \fB\-\-no-dirs\fP or \fB\-\-no-d\fP if you want to turn that off).
2290: .IP o
2291: The \fB\-\-archive\fP (\fB\-a\fP) option's behavior does not imply \fB\-\-recursive\fP
2292: (\fB\-r\fP), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2293: .IP o
2294: These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2295: the \fB\-\-files-from\fP option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2296: options are parsed (e.g. \fB\-a\fP works the same before or after
2297: \fB\-\-files-from\fP, as does \fB\-\-no-R\fP and all other options).
2298: .RE
2299: .IP
2300: The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2301: dir\ \-\- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2302: to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2303: .RS 4
2304: .IP
2305: .nf
2306: rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2307: .fi
2308: .RE
2309: .IP
2310: If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2311: directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2312: contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2313: directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2314: the file\ \-\- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the \fB\-r\fP
2315: option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be transferred
2316: (keep in mind that \fB\-r\fP needs to be specified explicitly with
2317: \fB\-\-files-from\fP, since it is not implied by \fB\-a\fP). Also note that the
2318: effect of the (enabled by default) \fB\-\-relative\fP option is to duplicate only
2319: the path info that is read from the file\ \-\- it does not force the
2320: duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2321: .IP
2322: In addition, the \fB\-\-files-from\fP file can be read from the remote host
2323: instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2324: (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2325: specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2326: For example:
2327: .RS 4
2328: .IP
2329: .nf
2330: rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2331: .fi
2332: .RE
2333: .IP
2334: This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2335: was located on the remote "src" host.
2336: .IP
2337: If the \fB\-\-iconv\fP and \fB\-\-protect-args\fP options are specified and the
2338: \fB\-\-files-from\fP filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
2339: filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2340: receiving host's charset.
2341: .IP
2342: NOTE: sorting the list of files in the \fB\-\-files-from\fP input helps rsync to
2343: be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2344: shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2345: elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2346: rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2347: elements.
2348: .IP "\fB\-\-from0\fP, \fB\-0\fP"
2349: This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2350: terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2351: affects \fB\-\-exclude-from\fP, \fB\-\-include-from\fP, \fB\-\-files-from\fP, and any merged
2352: files specified in a \fB\-\-filter\fP rule. It does not affect \fB\-\-cvs-exclude\fP
2353: (since all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2354: .IP "\fB\-\-protect-args\fP, \fB\-s\fP"
2355: This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
2356: without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This means that
2357: spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special characters are
2358: not translated (such as \fB~\fP, \fB$\fP, \fB;\fP, \fB&\fP, etc.). Wildcards are expanded
2359: on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
2360: .IP
2361: If you use this option with \fB\-\-iconv\fP, the args related to the remote side
2362: will also be translated from the local to the remote character-set. The
2363: translation happens before wild-cards are expanded. See also the
2364: \fB\-\-files-from\fP option.
2365: .IP
2366: You may also control this option via the RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment
2367: variable. If this variable has a non-zero value, this option will be
2368: enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2369: is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2370: option (note that \fB\-\-no-s\fP and \fB\-\-no-protect-args\fP are the negative
2371: versions). Since this option was first introduced in 3.0.0, you'll need to
2372: make sure it's disabled if you ever need to interact with a remote rsync
2373: that is older than that.
2374: .IP
2375: Rsync can also be configured (at build time) to have this option enabled by
2376: default (with is overridden by both the environment and the command-line).
2377: Run \fBrsync\ \-\-version\fP to check if this is the case, as it will display
2378: "default protect-args" or "optional protect-args" depending on how it was
2379: compiled.
2380: .IP
2381: This option will eventually become a new default setting at some
2382: as-yet-undetermined point in the future.
2383: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-as=USER[:GROUP]\fP"
2384: This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2385: colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2386: is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2387: specified then the user's default groups are used.
2388: .IP
2389: This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2390: or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2391: want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2392: not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2393: specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2394: to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2395: operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2396: .IP
2397: The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2398: local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the \fB\-\-remote-option\fP to
2399: affect the remote side, such as \fB\-M\-\-copy-as=joe\fP. For a local transfer,
2400: the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file provides a local-shell helper script that
2401: can be used to allow a "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified
2402: without needing to setup any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote
2403: options that affect the side of the transfer that is using the host-spec
2404: (and using hostname "lh" avoids the overriding of the remote directory to
2405: the user's home dir).
2406: .IP
2407: For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2408: .RS 4
2409: .IP
2410: .nf
2411: sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2412: .fi
2413: .RE
2414: .IP
2415: This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2416: are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2417: a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2418: has no permissions to change.
2419: .IP
2420: The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2421: (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2422: .RS 4
2423: .IP
2424: .nf
2425: sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2426: .fi
2427: .RE
2428: .IP "\fB\-\-ignore-case\fP"
2429: This option tells rsync to ignore upper-/lower-case differences when
2430: comparing filenames. This can avoid problems when sending files to a
2431: filesystem that ignores these differences.
2432: .IP "\fB\-\-temp-dir=DIR\fP, \fB\-T\fP"
2433: This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2434: temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2435: default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2436: the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2437: names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2438: (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2439: .IP
2440: This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2441: have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2442: In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2443: partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2444: over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2445: into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2446: destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2447: truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2448: the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2449: temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2450: it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2451: someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2452: new version on the disk at the same time.
2453: .IP
2454: If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2455: space, you may wish to combine it with the \fB\-\-delay-updates\fP option, which
2456: will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
2457: destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't have
2458: enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
2459: partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about
2460: disk space is to use the \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP option with a relative path;
2461: because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a single file
2462: in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the partial-dir as
2463: a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then rename it into place
2464: from there. (Specifying a \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP with an absolute path does not
2465: have this side-effect.)
2466: .IP "\fB\-\-fuzzy\fP, \fB\-y\fP"
2467: This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2468: destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2469: directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2470: size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2471: the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2472: .IP
2473: If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2474: alternate destination directories that are specified via \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP,
2475: \fB\-\-copy-dest\fP, or \fB\-\-link-dest\fP.
2476: .IP
2477: Note that the use of the \fB\-\-delete\fP option might get rid of any potential
2478: fuzzy-match files, so either use \fB\-\-delete-after\fP or specify some filename
2479: exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2480: .IP "\fB\-\-detect-renamed\fP"
2481: With this option, for each new source file (call it \fBsrc/S\fP), rsync looks
2482: for a file \fBdest/D\fP anywhere in the destination that passes the quick check
2483: with \fBsrc/S\fP. If such a \fBdest/D\fP is found, rsync uses it as an alternate
2484: basis for transferring \fBS\fP. The idea is that if \fBsrc/S\fP was renamed from
2485: \fBsrc/D\fP (as opposed to \fBsrc/S\fP passing the quick check with \fBdest/D\fP by
2486: coincidence), the delta-transfer algorithm will find that all the data
2487: matches between \fBsrc/S\fP and \fBdest/D\fP, and the transfer will be really fast.
2488: .IP
2489: By default, alternate-basis files are hard-linked into a directory named
2490: ".~tmp~" in each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
2491: \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP option, that directory will be used instead. These
2492: otential alternate-basis files will be removed as the transfer progresses.
2493: This option conflicts with \fB\-\-inplace\fP and \fB\-\-append\fP.
2494: .IP "\fB\-\-compare-dest=DIR\fP"
2495: This option instructs rsync to use \fIDIR\fP on the destination machine as an
2496: additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2497: (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2498: found in \fIDIR\fP that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2499: transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2500: sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2501: option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2502: directory.
2503: .IP
2504: Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP directories may be
2505: provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2506: for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2507: local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2508: basis file from one of the \fIDIRs\fP will be selected to try to speed up the
2509: transfer.
2510: .IP
2511: If \fIDIR\fP is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2512: See also \fB\-\-copy-dest\fP and \fB\-\-link-dest\fP.
2513: .IP
2514: NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2515: non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2516: compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2517: copy).
2518: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-dest=DIR\fP"
2519: This option behaves like \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP, but rsync will also copy
2520: unchanged files found in \fIDIR\fP to the destination directory using a local
2521: copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2522: leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2523: files have been successfully transferred.
2524: .IP
2525: Multiple \fB\-\-copy-dest\fP directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2526: to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2527: match is not found, a basis file from one of the \fIDIRs\fP will be selected to
2528: try to speed up the transfer.
2529: .IP
2530: If \fIDIR\fP is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2531: See also \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP and \fB\-\-link-dest\fP.
2532: .IP "\fB\-\-link-dest=DIR\fP"
2533: This option behaves like \fB\-\-copy-dest\fP, but unchanged files are hard linked
2534: from \fIDIR\fP to the destination directory. The files must be identical in
2535: all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order
2536: for the files to be linked together. An example:
2537: .RS 4
2538: .IP
2539: .nf
2540: rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2541: .fi
2542: .RE
2543: .IP
2544: If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2545: some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2546: option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2547: with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2548: option).
2549: .IP
2550: Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple \fB\-\-link-dest\fP directories may be
2551: provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2552: for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2553: is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2554: attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2555: \fIDIRs\fP will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2556: .IP
2557: This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2558: existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2559: alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2560: get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2561: alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2562: destination) when a destination file already exists.
2563: .IP
2564: Note that if you combine this option with \fB\-\-ignore-times\fP, rsync will not
2565: link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2566: substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2567: the file is updated.
2568: .IP
2569: If \fIDIR\fP is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2570: See also \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP and \fB\-\-copy-dest\fP.
2571: .IP
2572: Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2573: \fB\-\-link-dest\fP from working properly for a non-super-user when \fB\-o\fP was
2574: specified (or implied by \fB\-a\fP). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
2575: the \fB\-o\fP option when sending to an old rsync.
2576: .IP "\fB\-\-clone-dest=DIR\fP"
2577: This option behaves like \fB\-\-link-dest\fP, but unchanged files are reflinked
2578: from \fIDIR\fP to the destination directory. The files do not need to match
2579: in attributes, as the data is cloned separately from the attributes.
2580: .IP
2581: If \fIDIR\fP is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2582: See also \fB\-\-compare-dest\fP and \fB\-\-copy-dest\fP.
2583: .IP
2584: All non-regular files are hard-linked (when possible).
2585: .IP "\fB\-\-compress\fP, \fB\-z\fP"
2586: With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2587: destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted\ \-\-
2588: something that is useful over a slow connection.
2589: .IP
2590: Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2591: unless you force the choice using the \fB\-\-compress-choice\fP (\fB\-\-zc\fP) option.
2592: .IP
2593: Run \fBrsync\ \-\-version\fP to see the default compress list compiled into your
2594: version.
2595: .IP
2596: When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2597: algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2598: of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2599: an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2600: its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2601: .IP
2602: The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2603: RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST to a space-separated list of acceptable compression
2604: names. If the string contains a "\fB&\fP" character, it is separated into the
2605: "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
2606: If the string (or string portion) contains no
2607: non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2608: compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2609: names results in a failed negotiation.
2610: .IP
2611: There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a \fB\-z\fP
2612: option and require the use of \fB\-zz\fP because their compression library was
2613: not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2614: ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2615: specify \fB\-zz\fP.
2616: .IP
2617: See also the \fB\-\-skip-compress\fP option for the default list of file suffixes
2618: that will be transferred with no (or minimal) compression.
2619: .IP "\fB\-\-compress-choice=STR\fP, \fB\-\-zc=STR\fP"
2620: This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2621: compression algorithm that occurs when \fB\-\-compress\fP is used. The option
2622: implies \fB\-\-compress\fP unless "none" was specified, which instead implies
2623: \fB\-\-no-compress\fP.
2624: .IP
2625: The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2626: .IP
2627: .RS
2628: .IP o
2629: \fBzstd\fP
2630: .IP o
2631: \fBlz4\fP
2632: .IP o
2633: \fBzlibx\fP
2634: .IP o
2635: \fBzlib\fP
2636: .IP o
2637: \fBnone\fP
2638: .RE
2639: .IP
2640: Run \fBrsync\ \-\-version\fP to see the default compress list compiled into your
2641: version (which may differ from the list above).
2642: .IP
2643: Note that if you see an error about an option named \fB\-\-old-compress\fP or
2644: \fB\-\-new-compress\fP, this is rsync trying to send the \fB\-\-compress-choice=zlib\fP
2645: or \fB\-\-compress-choice=zlibx\fP option in a backward-compatible manner that
2646: more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2647: version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2648: .IP
2649: Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2650: with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2651: more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2652: .IP "\fB\-\-compress-level=NUM\fP, \fB\-\-zl=NUM\fP"
2653: Explicitly set the compression level to use (see \fB\-\-compress\fP, \fB\-z\fP)
2654: instead of letting it default. The \fB\-\-compress\fP option is implied as long
2655: as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the compression
2656: algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level 0 as
2657: "off").
2658: .IP
2659: The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2660: will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2661: enough), it can be good to combine this option with a \fB\-\-compress-choice\fP
2662: (\fB\-\-zc\fP) option unless you're sure of the choice in effect. For example:
2663: .RS 4
2664: .IP
2665: .nf
2666: rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2667: .fi
2668: .RE
2669: .IP
2670: For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2671: the default. Specifying 0 turns compression off, and specifying \-1 chooses
2672: the default of 6.
2673: .IP
2674: For zstd compression the valid values are from \-131072 to 22 with 3 being
2675: the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2676: .IP
2677: For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2678: .IP
2679: If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2680: limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2681: \fB\-\-zl=999999999\fP and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2682: compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2683: .IP
2684: If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2685: \fB\-\-debug=nstr\fP to see the "negotiated string" results. This will report
2686: something like "\fBClient\ compress:\ zstd\ (level\ 3)\fP" (along with the checksum
2687: choice in effect).
2688: .IP "\fB\-\-skip-compress=LIST\fP"
2689: Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2690: possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2691: the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level (such
2692: as zlib/zlibx) then no compression occurs for those files. Other
2693: algorithms that support changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have
2694: the level minimized to reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a
2695: matching file. At this time, only zlib & zlibx compression support this
2696: changing of levels on a per-file basis.
2697: .IP
2698: The \fBLIST\fP should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2699: by slashes (\fB/\fP). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2700: should be skipped.
2701: .IP
2702: Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2703: of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2704: "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '\-' has no special meaning).
2705: .IP
2706: The characters asterisk (\fB*\fP) and question-mark (\fB?\fP) have no special meaning.
2707: .IP
2708: Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2709: matches 2 suffixes):
2710: .RS 4
2711: .IP
2712: .nf
2713: --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2714: .fi
2715: .RE
2716: .IP
2717: The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2718: rsync are:
2719: .RS 4
2720: .IP
2721: 3g2
2722: 3gp
2723: 7z
2724: aac
2725: ace
2726: apk
2727: avi
2728: bz2
2729: deb
2730: dmg
2731: ear
2732: f4v
2733: flac
2734: flv
2735: gpg
2736: gz
2737: iso
2738: jar
2739: jpeg
2740: jpg
2741: lrz
2742: lz
2743: lz4
2744: lzma
2745: lzo
2746: m1a
2747: m1v
2748: m2a
2749: m2ts
2750: m2v
2751: m4a
2752: m4b
2753: m4p
2754: m4r
2755: m4v
2756: mka
2757: mkv
2758: mov
2759: mp1
2760: mp2
2761: mp3
2762: mp4
2763: mpa
2764: mpeg
2765: mpg
2766: mpv
2767: mts
2768: odb
2769: odf
2770: odg
2771: odi
2772: odm
2773: odp
2774: ods
2775: odt
2776: oga
2777: ogg
2778: ogm
2779: ogv
2780: ogx
2781: opus
2782: otg
2783: oth
2784: otp
2785: ots
2786: ott
2787: oxt
2788: png
2789: qt
2790: rar
2791: rpm
2792: rz
2793: rzip
2794: spx
2795: squashfs
2796: sxc
2797: sxd
2798: sxg
2799: sxm
2800: sxw
2801: sz
2802: tbz
2803: tbz2
2804: tgz
2805: tlz
2806: ts
2807: txz
2808: tzo
2809: vob
2810: war
2811: webm
2812: webp
2813: xz
2814: z
2815: zip
2816: zst
2817: .RE
2818: .IP
2819: This list will be replaced by your \fB\-\-skip-compress\fP list in all but one
2820: situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2821: list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2822: different default).
2823: .IP "\fB\-\-numeric-ids\fP"
2824: With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2825: using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2826: .IP
2827: By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2828: ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2829: never mapped via user/group names even if the \fB\-\-numeric-ids\fP option is not
2830: specified.
2831: .IP
2832: If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2833: the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2834: instead. See also the comments on the "\fBuse\ chroot\fP" setting in the
2835: rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how the chroot setting affects
2836: rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and what you
2837: can do about it.
2838: .IP "\fB\-\-usermap=STRING\fP, \fB\-\-groupmap=STRING\fP"
2839: These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2840: to other values by the receiving side. The \fBSTRING\fP is one or more
2841: \fBFROM\fP:\fBTO\fP pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching \fBFROM\fP
2842: value from the sender is replaced with a \fBTO\fP value from the receiver.
2843: You may specify usernames or user IDs for the \fBFROM\fP and \fBTO\fP values,
2844: and the \fBFROM\fP value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2845: matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2846: numbers, though see below for why a '\fB*\fP' matches everything). You may
2847: instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2848: For example:
2849: .RS 4
2850: .IP
2851: .nf
2852: --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2853: .fi
2854: .RE
2855: .IP
2856: The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2857: all your user mappings using a single \fB\-\-usermap\fP option, and/or all your
2858: group mappings using a single \fB\-\-groupmap\fP option.
2859: .IP
2860: Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2861: the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2862: names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2863: \fBFROM\fP names match those in use on the sending side. All \fBTO\fP names
2864: match those in use on the receiving side.
2865: .IP
2866: Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2867: an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2868: via a "\fB*\fP" or using an empty name. For instance:
2869: .RS 4
2870: .IP
2871: .nf
2872: --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2873: .fi
2874: .RE
2875: .IP
2876: When the \fB\-\-numeric-ids\fP option is used, the sender does not send any
2877: names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2878: you will need to specify numeric \fBFROM\fP values if you want to map these
2879: nameless IDs to different values.
2880: .IP
2881: For the \fB\-\-usermap\fP option to have any effect, the \fB\-o\fP (\fB\-\-owner\fP) option
2882: must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running as a
2883: super-user (see also the \fB\-\-fake-super\fP option). For the \fB\-\-groupmap\fP
2884: option to have any effect, the \fB\-g\fP (\fB\-\-groups\fP) option must be used (or
2885: implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that group.
2886: .IP
2887: If your shell complains about the wildcards, use \fB\-\-protect-args\fP (\fB\-s\fP).
2888: .IP "\fB\-\-chown=USER:GROUP\fP"
2889: This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2890: a simpler interface than using \fB\-\-usermap\fP and \fB\-\-groupmap\fP directly, but
2891: it is implemented using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
2892: If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the omitted user/group
2893: will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may be omitted, but if
2894: USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2895: .IP
2896: If you specify "\fB\-\-chown=foo:bar\fP", this is exactly the same as specifying
2897: "\fB\-\-usermap=*:foo\ \-\-groupmap=*:bar\fP", only easier. If your shell complains
2898: about the wildcards, use \fB\-\-protect-args\fP (\fB\-s\fP).
2899: .IP
2900: To change ownership of files matching a pattern, use an include filter with
2901: a \fBo\fP or \fBg\fP modifier, which take effect before uid/gid mapping and
2902: therefore \fIcan\fP be mixed with \fB\-\-usermap\fP and \fB\-\-groupmap\fP.
2903: .IP "\fB\-\-timeout=SECONDS\fP"
2904: This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2905: is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2906: 0, which means no timeout.
2907: .IP "\fB\-\-contimeout=SECONDS\fP"
2908: This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
2909: its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
2910: rsync exits with an error.
2911: .IP "\fB\-\-address=ADDRESS\fP"
2912: By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
2913: rsync daemon. The \fB\-\-address\fP option allows you to specify a specific IP
2914: address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this option in the \fB\-\-daemon\fP
2915: mode section.
2916: .IP "\fB\-\-port=PORT\fP"
2917: This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
2918: of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
2919: to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
2920: the port as a part of the URL). See also this option in the \fB\-\-daemon\fP
2921: mode section.
2922: .IP "\fB\-\-sockopts=OPTIONS\fP"
2923: This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
2924: systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
2925: which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the man page for the
2926: \fBsetsockopt()\fP system call for details on some of the options you may be
2927: able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
2928: affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
2929: .IP
2930: This option also exists in the \fB\-\-daemon\fP mode section.
2931: .IP "\fB\-\-blocking-io\fP"
2932: This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
2933: transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
2934: using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
2935: that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2936: .IP "\fB\-\-outbuf=MODE\fP"
2937: This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
2938: Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
2939: single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2940: .IP
2941: The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2942: when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2943: .IP "\fB\-\-itemize-changes\fP, \fB\-i\fP"
2944: Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
2945: file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
2946: \fB\-\-out-format='%i\ %n%L'\fP. If you repeat the option, unchanged files will
2947: also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7
2948: (you can use \fB\-vv\fP with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the
2949: output of other verbose messages).
2950: .IP
2951: The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
2952: format is like the string \fBYXcstpoguaxf\fP, where \fBY\fP is replaced by the type
2953: of update being done, \fBX\fP is replaced by the file-type, and the other
2954: letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
2955: .IP
2956: The update types that replace the \fBY\fP are as follows:
2957: .IP
2958: .RS
2959: .IP o
2960: A \fB<\fP means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
2961: .IP o
2962: A \fB>\fP means that a file is being transferred to the local host
2963: (received).
2964: .IP o
2965: A \fBc\fP means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
2966: as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
2967: .IP o
2968: A \fBh\fP means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
2969: \fB\-\-hard-links\fP).
2970: .IP o
2971: A \fB.\fP means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
2972: attributes that are being modified).
2973: .IP o
2974: A \fB*\fP means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
2975: (e.g. "deleting").
2976: .RE
2977: .IP
2978: The file-types that replace the \fBX\fP are: \fBf\fP for a file, a \fBd\fP for a
2979: directory, an \fBL\fP for a symlink, a \fBD\fP for a device, and a \fBS\fP for a
2980: special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
2981: .IP
2982: The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
2983: have changed, as follows:
2984: .IP
2985: .RS
2986: .IP o
2987: "\fB.\fP" \- the attribute is unchanged.
2988: .IP o
2989: "\fB+\fP" \- the file is newly created.
2990: .IP o
2991: "\fB\ \fP" \- all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
2992: .IP o
2993: "\fB?\fP" \- the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
2994: .IP o
2995: A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
2996: .RE
2997: .IP
2998: The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
2999: .IP
3000: .RS
3001: .IP o
3002: A \fBc\fP means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
3003: \fB\-\-checksum\fP) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a changed
3004: value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1,
3005: this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular
3006: files.
3007: .IP o
3008: A \fBs\fP means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
3009: by the file transfer.
3010: .IP o
3011: A \fBt\fP means the modification time is different and is being updated to
3012: the sender's value (requires \fB\-\-times\fP). An alternate value of \fBT\fP means
3013: that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which
3014: happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without \fB\-\-times\fP and when
3015: a symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time. (Note: when
3016: using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the \fBs\fP flag combined with \fBt\fP
3017: instead of the proper \fBT\fP flag for this time-setting failure.)
3018: .IP o
3019: A \fBp\fP means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
3020: sender's value (requires \fB\-\-perms\fP).
3021: .IP o
3022: An \fBo\fP means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
3023: value (requires \fB\-\-owner\fP and super-user privileges).
3024: .IP o
3025: A \fBg\fP means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
3026: value (requires \fB\-\-group\fP and the authority to set the group).
3027: .IP o
3028: A \fBu\fP|\fBn\fP|\fBb\fP indicates the following information: \fBu\fP means the access
3029: (use) time is different and is being updated to the sender's value
3030: (requires \fB\-\-atimes\fP); \fBn\fP means the create time (newness) is different
3031: and is being updated to the sender's value (requires \fB\-\-crtimes\fP); \fBb\fP
3032: means that both the access and create times are being updated.
3033: .IP o
3034: The \fBa\fP means that the ACL information is being changed.
3035: .IP o
3036: The \fBx\fP means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
3037: .RE
3038: .IP
3039: One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
3040: string "\fB*deleting\fP" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
3041: are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
3042: outputting them as a verbose message).
3043: .IP "\fB\-\-out-format=FORMAT\fP"
3044: This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
3045: user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
3046: embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
3047: character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either \fB\-\-info=name\fP
3048: or \fB\-v\fP is specified (this tells you just the name of the file and, if the
3049: item is a link, where it points). For a full list of the possible escape
3050: characters, see the "\fBlog\ format\fP" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3051: .IP
3052: Specifying the \fB\-\-out-format\fP option implies the \fB\-\-info=name\fP option,
3053: which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
3054: way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
3055: directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
3056: the string (e.g. if the \fB\-\-itemize-changes\fP option was used), the logging
3057: of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
3058: as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the \fB\-\-itemize-changes\fP
3059: option for a description of the output of "%i".
3060: .IP
3061: Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
3062: one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
3063: logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
3064: is in effect and \fB\-\-progress\fP is also specified, rsync will also output the
3065: name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
3066: (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
3067: .IP "\fB\-\-log-file=FILE\fP"
3068: This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
3069: similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
3070: client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
3071: as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
3072: of "%i %n%L". See the \fB\-\-log-file-format\fP option if you wish to override
3073: this.
3074: .IP
3075: Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
3076: happening:
3077: .RS 4
3078: .IP
3079: .nf
3080: rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
3081: .fi
3082: .RE
3083: .IP
3084: This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
3085: unexpectedly.
3086: .IP "\fB\-\-log-file-format=FORMAT\fP"
3087: This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
3088: file specified by the \fB\-\-log-file\fP option (which must also be specified for
3089: this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty string, updated
3090: files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the possible
3091: escape characters, see the "\fBlog\ format\fP" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3092: .IP
3093: The default FORMAT used if \fB\-\-log-file\fP is specified and this option is not
3094: is '%i %n%L'.
3095: .IP "\fB\-\-stats\fP"
3096: This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
3097: allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
3098: your data. This option is equivalent to \fB\-\-info=stats2\fP if combined with 0
3099: or 1 \fB\-v\fP options, or \fB\-\-info=stats3\fP if combined with 2 or more \fB\-v\fP
3100: options.
3101: .IP
3102: The current statistics are as follows:
3103: .IP
3104: .RS
3105: .IP o
3106: \fBNumber\ of\ files\fP is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
3107: which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
3108: followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
3109: example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
3110: for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
3111: any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
3112: .IP o
3113: \fBNumber\ of\ created\ files\fP is the count of how many "files" (generic
3114: sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3115: followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3116: .IP o
3117: \fBNumber\ of\ deleted\ files\fP is the count of how many "files" (generic
3118: sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3119: followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3120: Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
3121: if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
3122: .IP o
3123: \fBNumber\ of\ regular\ files\ transferred\fP is the count of normal files that
3124: were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
3125: dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
3126: this heading.
3127: .IP o
3128: \fBTotal\ file\ size\fP is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
3129: This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
3130: include the size of symlinks.
3131: .IP o
3132: \fBTotal\ transferred\ file\ size\fP is the total sum of all files sizes for
3133: just the transferred files.
3134: .IP o
3135: \fBLiteral\ data\fP is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
3136: the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
3137: .IP o
3138: \fBMatched\ data\fP is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
3139: the updated files.
3140: .IP o
3141: \fBFile\ list\ size\fP is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
3142: it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
3143: list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
3144: list.
3145: .IP o
3146: \fBFile\ list\ generation\ time\fP is the number of seconds that the sender
3147: spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
3148: sending side for this to be present.
3149: .IP o
3150: \fBFile\ list\ transfer\ time\fP is the number of seconds that the sender spent
3151: sending the file list to the receiver.
3152: .IP o
3153: \fBTotal\ bytes\ sent\fP is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
3154: client side to the server side.
3155: .IP o
3156: \fBTotal\ bytes\ received\fP is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
3157: received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
3158: means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
3159: sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
3160: .RE
3161: .IP "\fB\-\-8-bit-output\fP, \fB\-8\fP"
3162: This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
3163: instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
3164: locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
3165: tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
3166: .IP
3167: The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
3168: (\fB\\\fP) and a hash (\fB#\fP), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
3169: newline would output as "\fB\\#012\fP". A literal backslash that is in a
3170: filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
3171: .IP "\fB\-\-human-readable\fP, \fB\-h\fP"
3172: Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible
3173: levels: (1) output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits
3174: (either a comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is
3175: represented by a period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
3176: (with a character suffix for larger units\ \-\- see below); (3) output
3177: numbers in units of 1024.
3178: .IP
3179: The default is human-readable level 1. Each \fB\-h\fP option increases the
3180: level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
3181: digits) by specifying the \fB\-\-no-human-readable\fP (\fB\-\-no-h\fP) option.
3182: .IP
3183: The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: \fBK\fP (kilo), \fBM\fP
3184: (mega), \fBG\fP (giga), \fBT\fP (tera), or \fBP\fP (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
3185: file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
3186: decimal point).
3187: .IP
3188: Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
3189: support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
3190: specifying one or two \fB\-h\fP options will behave in a comparable manner in
3191: old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a \fB\-\-no-h\fP option prior
3192: to one or more \fB\-h\fP options. See the \fB\-\-list-only\fP option for one
3193: difference.
3194: .IP "\fB\-\-partial\fP"
3195: By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
3196: transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
3197: keep partially transferred files. Using the \fB\-\-partial\fP option tells rsync
3198: to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
3199: rest of the file much faster.
3200: .IP "\fB\-\-partial-dir=DIR\fP"
3201: A better way to keep partial files than the \fB\-\-partial\fP option is to
3202: specify a \fIDIR\fP that will be used to hold the partial data (instead of
3203: writing it out to the destination file). On the next transfer, rsync will
3204: use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3205: transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3206: .IP
3207: Note that if \fB\-\-whole-file\fP is specified (or implied), any partial-dir file
3208: that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
3209: (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer
3210: algorithm).
3211: .IP
3212: Rsync will create the \fIDIR\fP if it is missing (just the last dir\ \-\- not the
3213: whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3214: "\fB\-\-partial-dir=.rsync-partial\fP") to have rsync create the
3215: partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
3216: remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that the directory
3217: is only removed if it is a relative pathname, as it is expected that an
3218: absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir work.
3219: .IP
3220: If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3221: rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3222: sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3223: will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3224: receiving side. An example: the above \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP option would add the
3225: equivalent of "\fB\-f\ '\-p\ .rsync-partial/'\fP" at the end of any other filter
3226: rules.
3227: .IP
3228: If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3229: exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
3230: rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
3231: to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
3232: rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
3233: should specify \fB\-\-delete-after\fP and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
3234: \fB\-f\ 'R\ .rsync-partial/'\fP. (Avoid using \fB\-\-delete-before\fP or
3235: \fB\-\-delete-during\fP unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over
3236: partial-dir data during the current run.)
3237: .IP
3238: IMPORTANT: the \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP should not be writable by other users or it
3239: is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
3240: .IP
3241: You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
3242: variable. Setting this in the environment does not force \fB\-\-partial\fP to be
3243: enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when \fB\-\-partial\fP is
3244: specified. For instance, instead of using \fB\-\-partial-dir=.rsync-tmp\fP along
3245: with \fB\-\-progress\fP, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
3246: environment and then just use the \fB\-P\fP option to turn on the use of the
3247: \&.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the \fB\-\-partial\fP
3248: option does not look for this environment value are (1) when \fB\-\-inplace\fP
3249: was specified (since \fB\-\-inplace\fP conflicts with \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP), and (2)
3250: when \fB\-\-delay-updates\fP was specified (see below).
3251: .IP
3252: When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3253: partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3254: tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3255: tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3256: 3.2.0.
3257: .IP
3258: For the purposes of the daemon-config's "\fBrefuse\ options\fP" setting,
3259: \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP does \fInot\fP imply \fB\-\-partial\fP. This is so that a refusal of
3260: the \fB\-\-partial\fP option can be used to disallow the overwriting of
3261: destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the safer
3262: idiom provided by \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP.
3263: .IP "\fB\-\-delay-updates\fP"
3264: This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3265: directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3266: renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3267: of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3268: directory named \fB.~tmp~\fP in each file's destination directory, but if
3269: you've specified the \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP option, that directory will be used
3270: instead. See the comments in the \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP section for a discussion
3271: of how this \fB.~tmp~\fP dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you
3272: can do if you want rsync to cleanup old \fB.~tmp~\fP dirs that might be lying
3273: around. Conflicts with \fB\-\-inplace\fP and \fB\-\-append\fP.
3274: .IP
3275: This option implies \fB\-\-no-inc-recursive\fP since it needs the full file list
3276: in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3277: .IP
3278: This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3279: transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3280: to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3281: should not use an absolute path to \fB\-\-partial-dir\fP unless (1) there is no
3282: chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
3283: the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
3284: absolute) and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
3285: delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3286: .IP
3287: See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
3288: update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses \fB\-\-link-dest\fP and a
3289: parallel hierarchy of files).
3290: .IP "\fB\-\-direct-io\fP"
3291: This option opens files with a direct-I/O flag that makes the file I/O
3292: avoid the buffer cache. The option only affects one side of the transfer
3293: (unless the transfer is local). If you want it to affect both sides, use
3294: the \fB\-\-remote-option\fP (\fB\-M\fP) option to specify it for the remote side. For
3295: instance, this specifies it for both sides:
3296: .RS 4
3297: .IP
3298: .nf
3299: rsync -av {,-M}--direct-io /src/ host:/dest/
3300: .fi
3301: .RE
3302: .IP "\fB\-\-prune-empty-dirs\fP, \fB\-m\fP"
3303: This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3304: the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3305: children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3306: directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3307: files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3308: .IP
3309: Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the \fB\-\-min-size\fP option, does
3310: not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave
3311: directories empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the
3312: transfer rule.
3313: .IP
3314: Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3315: what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3316: mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3317: being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3318: destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3319: this.
3320: .IP
3321: You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3322: by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3323: that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3324: .RS 4
3325: .IP
3326: .nf
3327: --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3328: .fi
3329: .RE
3330: .IP
3331: Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3332: the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3333: that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3334: (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3335: .RS 4
3336: .IP
3337: .nf
3338: rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3339: .fi
3340: .RE
3341: .IP
3342: If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3343: time-honored options of \fB\-\-include='*/'\ \-\-exclude='*'\fP would work
3344: fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3345: .IP "\fB\-\-progress\fP"
3346: This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3347: transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3348: this is the same as specifying \fB\-\-info=flist2,name,progress\fP, but any
3349: user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3350: "\fB\-\-info=flist0\ \-\-progress\fP").
3351: .IP
3352: While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3353: looks like this:
3354: .RS 4
3355: .IP
3356: .nf
3357: 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3358: .fi
3359: .RE
3360: .IP
3361: In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3362: sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3363: per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3364: is maintained until the end.
3365: .IP
3366: These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3367: in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3368: followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3369: dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3370: will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3371: was finishing the matched part of the file.
3372: .IP
3373: When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3374: summary line that looks like this:
3375: .RS 4
3376: .IP
3377: .nf
3378: 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3379: .fi
3380: .RE
3381: .IP
3382: In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3383: rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3384: the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3385: regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3386: for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3387: out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3388: .IP
3389: In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3390: files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3391: starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3392: text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3393: the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3394: switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3395: total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3396: time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3397: of the files added to the list).
3398: .IP "\fB\-P\fP"
3399: The \fB\-P\fP option is equivalent to \fB\-\-partial\ \-\-progress\fP. Its purpose is
3400: to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer
3401: that may be interrupted.
3402: .IP
3403: There is also a \fB\-\-info=progress2\fP option that outputs statistics based on
3404: the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without
3405: outputting a filename (e.g. avoid \fB\-v\fP or specify \fB\-\-info=name0\fP) if you
3406: want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a
3407: lot of names. (You don't need to specify the \fB\-\-progress\fP option in order
3408: to use \fB\-\-info=progress2\fP.)
3409: .IP
3410: Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3411: of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3412: typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3413: the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3414: output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3415: transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3416: handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3417: followed by the \fB\-\-info=progress2\fP format of progress info. If you don't
3418: know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3419: signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3420: .IP
3421: CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3422: .IP "\fB\-\-password-file=FILE\fP"
3423: This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3424: via a file or via standard input if \fBFILE\fP is \fB\-\fP. The file should
3425: contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3426: Rsync will exit with an error if \fBFILE\fP is world readable or if a
3427: root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3428: .IP
3429: This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3430: ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3431: When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3432: option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3433: authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3434: config file).
3435: .IP "\fB\-\-early-input=FILE\fP"
3436: This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3437: script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3438: secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3439: unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3440: .IP
3441: The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3442: .IP "\fB\-\-list-only\fP"
3443: This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3444: transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3445: no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command
3446: that includes a destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be
3447: able to specify more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the
3448: destination). Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is
3449: expanded by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to
3450: list such an arg without using this option. For example:
3451: .RS 4
3452: .IP
3453: .nf
3454: rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3455: .fi
3456: .RE
3457: .IP
3458: Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by \fB\-\-list-only\fP are affected
3459: by the \fB\-\-human-readable\fP option. By default they will contain digit
3460: separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes with
3461: unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output has
3462: increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
3463: \fB\-\-no-h\fP if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
3464: 11 characters.
3465: .IP
3466: Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3467: that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3468: non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the \fB\-\-dirs\fP
3469: option w/o \fB\-\-recursive\fP, and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
3470: avoid this problem, either specify the \fB\-\-no-dirs\fP option (if you don't
3471: need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude the
3472: content of subdirectories: \fB\-r\ \-\-exclude='/*/*'\fP.
3473: .IP "\fB\-\-bwlimit=RATE\fP"
3474: This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3475: sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3476: suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3477: fractional value (e.g. "\fB\-\-bwlimit=1.5m\fP"). If no suffix is specified, the
3478: value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3479: been appended). See the \fB\-\-max-size\fP option for a description of all the
3480: available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3481: .IP
3482: For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3483: nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3484: possible.
3485: .IP
3486: Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3487: the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3488: transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3489: rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3490: into compliance.
3491: .IP
3492: Due to the internal buffering of data, the \fB\-\-progress\fP option may not be
3493: an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because
3494: some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly
3495: buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the
3496: output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3497: .IP "`\-\-stop-after=MINS"
3498: This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3499: minutes has elapsed.
3500: .IP
3501: Rsync also accepts an earlier version of this option: \fB\-\-time-limit=MINS\fP.
3502: .IP
3503: For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3504: remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3505: quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3506: of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3507: limit using \fB\-\-remote-option\fP (\fB\-M\fP), should the need arise.
3508: .IP "`\-\-stop-at=y-m-dTh:m"
3509: This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3510: has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3511: format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3512: timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3513: instead of dashes.
3514: .IP
3515: The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3516: a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3517: will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3518: information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3519: time, rsync exits with an error.
3520: .IP
3521: For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3522: time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3523: month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3524: 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3525: .IP
3526: For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3527: remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3528: quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3529: of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3530: limit using \fB\-\-remote-option\fP (\fB\-M\fP), should the need arise. Do keep in
3531: mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone than your
3532: local host.
3533: .IP "\fB\-\-write-batch=FILE\fP"
3534: Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3535: with \fB\-\-read-batch\fP. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and also
3536: the \fB\-\-only-write-batch\fP option.
3537: .IP
3538: This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3539: negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3540: a more modern choice, use the \fB\-\-checksum-choice\fP (\fB\-\-cc\fP) and/or
3541: \fB\-\-compress-choice\fP (\fB\-\-zc\fP) options.
3542: .IP "\fB\-\-only-write-batch=FILE\fP"
3543: Works like \fB\-\-write-batch\fP, except that no updates are made on the
3544: destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3545: changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3546: changes via \fB\-\-read-batch\fP.
3547: .IP
3548: Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3549: media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3550: can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3551: whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3552: partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3553: happening).
3554: .IP
3555: Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3556: system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3557: into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3558: (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3559: .IP "\fB\-\-read-batch=FILE\fP"
3560: Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3561: \fB\-\-write-batch\fP. If \fIFILE\fP is \fB\-\fP, the batch data will be read from
3562: standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3563: .IP "\fB\-\-source-filter=COMMAND\fP"
3564: This option allows the user to specify a filter program that will be
3565: applied to the contents of all transferred regular files before the data is
3566: sent to destination. COMMAND will receive the data on its standard input
3567: and it should write the filtered data to standard output. COMMAND should
3568: exit non-zero if it cannot process the data or if it encounters an error
3569: when writing the data to stdout.
3570: .IP
3571: Example: \fB\-\-source-filter="gzip\ \-9"\fP will cause remote files to be
3572: compressed. Use of \fB\-\-source-filter\fP automatically enables \fB\-\-whole-file\fP.
3573: If your filter does not output the same number of bytes that it received on
3574: input, you should use \fB\-\-times-only\fP to disable size and content checks on
3575: subsequent rsync runs.
3576: .IP "\fB\-\-dest-filter=COMMAND\fP"
3577: This option allows you to specify a filter program that will be applied to
3578: the contents of all transferred regular files before the data is written to
3579: disk. COMMAND will receive the data on its standard input and it should
3580: write the filtered data to standard output. COMMAND should exit non-zero
3581: if it cannot process the data or if it encounters an error when writing the
3582: data to stdout.
3583: .IP
3584: Example: \-\-dest-filter="gzip \-9" will cause remote files to be compressed.
3585: Use of \-\-dest-filter automatically enables \-\-whole-file. If your filter
3586: does not output the same number of bytes that it received on input, you
3587: should use \-\-times-only to disable size and content checks on subsequent
3588: rsync runs.
3589: .IP "\fB\-\-protocol=NUM\fP"
3590: Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3591: batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3592: instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the \fB\-\-write-batch\fP option, but
3593: rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the \fB\-\-read-batch\fP option, you
3594: should use "\-\-protocol=28" when creating the batch file to force the older
3595: protocol version to be used in the batch file (assuming you can't upgrade
3596: the rsync on the reading system).
3597: .IP "\fB\-\-iconv=CONVERT_SPEC\fP"
3598: Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3599: Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3600: character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3601: what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3602: comma in the order \fB\-\-iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE\fP, e.g. \fB\-\-iconv=utf8,iso88591\fP.
3603: This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3604: pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either \fB\-\-no-iconv\fP or
3605: a CONVERT_SPEC of "\-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3606: this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the RSYNC_ICONV
3607: environment variable.
3608: .IP
3609: For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3610: run "\fBiconv\ \-\-list\fP".
3611: .IP
3612: If you specify the \fB\-\-protect-args\fP option (\fB\-s\fP), rsync will translate the
3613: filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the remote
3614: host. See also the \fB\-\-files-from\fP option.
3615: .IP
3616: Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3617: (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3618: specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3619: For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3620: filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3621: .IP
3622: When you pass an \fB\-\-iconv\fP option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3623: daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3624: regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3625: free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3626: \fB\-\-iconv=utf8\fP).
3627: .IP "\fB\-\-tr=BAD/GOOD\fP"
3628: Transliterates filenames on the receiver, after the iconv conversion (if
3629: any). This can be used to remove characters illegal on the destination
3630: filesystem. If you use this option, consider saving a "find . \-ls" listing
3631: of the source in the destination to help you determine the original
3632: filenames in case of need.
3633: .IP
3634: The argument consists of a string of characters to remove, optionally
3635: followed by a slash and a string of corresponding characters with which to
3636: replace them. The second string may be shorter, in which case any leftover
3637: characters in the first string are simply deleted. For example,
3638: \fB\-\-tr=':\\/!'\fP replaces colons with exclamation marks and deletes
3639: backslashes. Slashes cannot be transliterated because it would cause
3640: havoc.
3641: .IP
3642: If the receiver is invoked over a remote shell, use \fB\-\-protect-args\fP to
3643: stop the shell from interpreting any nasty characters in the argument.
3644: .IP "\fB\-\-ipv4\fP, \fB\-4\fP or \fB\-\-ipv6\fP, \fB\-6\fP"
3645: Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3646: affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3647: socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3648: of the \fB\-4\fP or \fB\-6\fP option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3649: used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3650: the "\fB\-\-rsh\ SHELL\ \-4\fP" option directly (or whatever ipv4/ipv6 hint options
3651: it uses).
3652: .IP
3653: These options also exist in the \fB\-\-daemon\fP mode section.
3654: .IP
3655: If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the \fB\-\-ipv6\fP option will
3656: have no effect. The \fBrsync\ \-\-version\fP output will contain "\fBno\ IPv6\fP" if
3657: is the case.
3658: .IP "\fB\-\-checksum-seed=NUM\fP"
3659: Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3660: included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3661: MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3662: generated by the server and defaults to the current \fBtime\fP(). This
3663: option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3664: applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3665: user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3666: use the default of \fBtime\fP() for checksum seed.
3667: .P
3668: .SH "DAEMON OPTIONS"
3669: .P
3670: The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3671: .P
3672: .IP "\fB\-\-daemon\fP"
3673: This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3674: running may be accessed using an rsync client using the \fBhost::module\fP or
3675: \fBrsync://host/module/\fP syntax.
3676: .IP
3677: If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3678: via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3679: background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3680: each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly. See the
3681: \fBrsyncd.conf\fP(5) man page for more details.
3682: .IP "\fB\-\-address=ADDRESS\fP"
3683: By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3684: with the \fB\-\-daemon\fP option. The \fB\-\-address\fP option allows you to specify a
3685: specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3686: possible in conjunction with the \fB\-\-config\fP option. See also the "address"
3687: global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3688: .IP "\fB\-\-bwlimit=RATE\fP"
3689: This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3690: the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3691: \fB\-\-bwlimit\fP value, but no larger value will be allowed. See the client
3692: version of this option (above) for some extra details.
3693: .IP "\fB\-\-config=FILE\fP"
3694: This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3695: relevant when \fB\-\-daemon\fP is specified. The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf
3696: unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program and the remote
3697: user is not the super-user; in that case the default is rsyncd.conf in the
3698: current directory (typically $HOME).
3699: .IP "\fB\-\-dparam=OVERRIDE\fP, \fB\-M\fP"
3700: This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3701: rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3702: of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3703: parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3704: instance:
3705: .RS 4
3706: .IP
3707: .nf
3708: rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3709: .fi
3710: .RE
3711: .IP "\fB\-\-no-detach\fP"
3712: When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3713: and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3714: service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3715: program such as \fBdaemontools\fP or AIX's \fBSystem\ Resource\ Controller\fP.
3716: \fB\-\-no-detach\fP is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3717: option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3718: .IP "\fB\-\-port=PORT\fP"
3719: This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3720: rather than the default of 873. See also the "port" global option in the
3721: rsyncd.conf manpage.
3722: .IP "\fB\-\-log-file=FILE\fP"
3723: This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3724: of using the "\fBlog\ file\fP" setting in the config file.
3725: .IP "\fB\-\-log-file-format=FORMAT\fP"
3726: This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3727: of using the "\fBlog\ format\fP" setting in the config file. It also enables
3728: "\fBtransfer\ logging\fP" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3729: logging is turned off.
3730: .IP "\fB\-\-sockopts\fP"
3731: This overrides the \fBsocket\ options\fP setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has
3732: the same syntax.
3733: .IP "\fB\-\-verbose\fP, \fB\-v\fP"
3734: This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3735: startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3736: will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3737: "\fBmax\ verbosity\fP" setting in the module's config section.
3738: .IP "\fB\-\-ipv4\fP, \fB\-4\fP or \fB\-\-ipv6\fP, \fB\-6\fP"
3739: Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3740: rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3741: be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3742: kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3743: using the port, try specifying \fB\-\-ipv6\fP or \fB\-\-ipv4\fP when starting the
3744: daemon).
3745: .IP
3746: These options also exist in the regular rsync options section.
3747: .IP
3748: If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the \fB\-\-ipv6\fP option will
3749: have no effect. The \fBrsync\ \-\-version\fP output will contain "\fBno\ IPv6\fP" if
3750: is the case.
3751: .IP "\fB\-\-help\fP, \fB\-h\fP"
3752: When specified after \fB\-\-daemon\fP, print a short help page describing the
3753: options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3754: .P
3755: .SH "FILTER RULES"
3756: .P
3757: The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
3758: (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify
3759: include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude
3760: patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
3761: .P
3762: As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name
3763: to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the
3764: first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file
3765: is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if
3766: no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.
3767: .P
3768: Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line.
3769: Filter rules have the following syntax:
3770: .RS 4
3771: .P
3772: .nf
3773: RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3774: RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
3775: .fi
3776: .RE
3777: .P
3778: You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
3779: below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
3780: MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
3781: must come after either a single space or an underscore (_). Here are the
3782: available rule prefixes:
3783: .P
3784: .IP "\fBexclude,\ '\-'\fP"
3785: specifies an exclude pattern.
3786: .IP "\fBinclude,\ '+'\fP"
3787: specifies an include pattern.
3788: .IP "\fBmerge,\ '.'\fP"
3789: specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
3790: .IP "\fBdir-merge,\ ':'\fP"
3791: specifies a per-directory merge-file.
3792: .IP "\fBhide,\ 'H'\fP"
3793: specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
3794: .IP "\fBshow,\ 'S'\fP"
3795: files that match the pattern are not hidden.
3796: .IP "\fBprotect,\ 'P'\fP"
3797: specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
3798: .IP "\fBrisk,\ 'R'\fP"
3799: files that match the pattern are not protected.
3800: .IP "\fBclear,\ '!'\fP"
3801: clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
3802: .P
3803: When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are comment
3804: lines that start with a "#".
3805: .P
3806: Note that the \fB\-\-include\fP & \fB\-\-exclude\fP command-line options do not allow the
3807: full range of rule parsing as described above\ \-\- they only allow the
3808: specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "\fB!\fP" token to clear the
3809: list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a
3810: pattern does not begin with "\fB\-\ \fP" (dash, space) or "\fB+\ \fP" (plus, space), then
3811: the rule will be interpreted as if "\fB+\ \fP" (for an include option) or "\fB\-\ \fP"
3812: (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A \fB\-\-filter\fP option, on
3813: the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
3814: start of the rule.
3815: .P
3816: Note also that the \fB\-\-filter\fP, \fB\-\-include\fP, and \fB\-\-exclude\fP options take one
3817: rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on the
3818: command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the \fB\-\-filter\fP option, or the
3819: \fB\-\-include-from\fP / \fB\-\-exclude-from\fP options.
3820: .P
3821: .SH "INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES"
3822: .P
3823: You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+", "\-",
3824: etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The
3825: include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against the names
3826: of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several
3827: forms:
3828: .P
3829: .IP o
3830: if the pattern starts with a \fB/\fP then it is anchored to a particular spot in
3831: the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the
3832: pathname. This is similar to a leading \fB^\fP in regular expressions. Thus
3833: \fB/foo\fP would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for
3834: a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule).
3835: An unqualified \fBfoo\fP would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because
3836: the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each
3837: path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the
3838: unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo"
3839: was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING
3840: INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern
3841: that matches at the root of the transfer.
3842: .IP o
3843: if the pattern ends with a \fB/\fP then it will only match a directory, not a
3844: regular file, symlink, or device.
3845: .IP o
3846: rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
3847: checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters:
3848: \&'\fB*\fP', '\fB?\fP', and '\fB[\fP' .
3849: .IP o
3850: a '\fB*\fP' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
3851: .IP o
3852: use '\fB**\fP' to match anything, including slashes.
3853: .IP o
3854: a '\fB?\fP' matches any character except a slash (\fB/\fP).
3855: .IP o
3856: a '\fB[\fP' introduces a character class, such as \fB[a-z]\fP or \fB[[:alpha:]]\fP.
3857: .IP o
3858: in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
3859: character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. This
3860: means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a pattern
3861: contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none. e.g. if
3862: you add a wildcard to "\fBfoo\\bar\fP" (which matches the backslash) you would
3863: need to use "\fBfoo\\\\bar*\fP" to avoid the "\fB\\b\fP" becoming just "b".
3864: .IP o
3865: if the pattern contains a \fB/\fP (not counting a trailing /) or a "\fB**\fP", then it
3866: is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If
3867: the pattern doesn't contain a \fB/\fP or a "\fB**\fP", then it is matched only against
3868: the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied
3869: recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the
3870: starting directory on down.)
3871: .IP o
3872: a trailing "\fBdir_name/***\fP" will match both the directory (as if "dir_name/"
3873: had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "\fBdir_name/**\fP"
3874: had been specified). This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.
3875: .P
3876: Note that, when using the \fB\-\-recursive\fP (\fB\-r\fP) option (which is implied by
3877: \fB\-a\fP), every subdir component of every path is visited left to right, with each
3878: directory having a chance for exclusion before its content. In this way
3879: include/exclude patterns are applied recursively to the pathname of each node
3880: in the filesystem's tree (those inside the transfer). The exclude patterns
3881: short-circuit the directory traversal stage as rsync finds the files to send.
3882: .P
3883: For instance, to include "\fB/foo/bar/baz\fP", the directories "\fB/foo\fP" and "\fB/foo/bar\fP"
3884: must not be excluded. Excluding one of those parent directories prevents the
3885: examination of its content, cutting off rsync's recursion into those paths and
3886: rendering the include for "\fB/foo/bar/baz\fP" ineffectual (since rsync can't match
3887: something it never sees in the cut-off section of the directory hierarchy).
3888: .P
3889: The concept path exclusion is particularly important when using a trailing '\fB*\fP'
3890: rule. For instance, this won't work:
3891: .RS 4
3892: .P
3893: .nf
3894: + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
3895: + /file-is-included
3896: - *
3897: .fi
3898: .RE
3899: .P
3900: This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '\fB*\fP' rule, so
3901: rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" directories.
3902: One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by
3903: using a single rule: "\fB+\ */\fP" (put it somewhere before the "\fB\-\ *\fP" rule), and
3904: perhaps use the \fB\-\-prune-empty-dirs\fP option. Another solution is to add
3905: specific include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
3906: instance, this set of rules works fine:
3907: .RS 4
3908: .P
3909: .nf
3910: + /some/
3911: + /some/path/
3912: + /some/path/this-file-is-found
3913: + /file-also-included
3914: - *
3915: .fi
3916: .RE
3917: .P
3918: Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
3919: .P
3920: .IP o
3921: "\fB\-\ *.o\fP" would exclude all names matching \fB*.o\fP
3922: .IP o
3923: "\fB\-\ /foo\fP" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root
3924: directory
3925: .IP o
3926: "\fB\-\ foo/\fP" would exclude any directory named foo
3927: .IP o
3928: "\fB\-\ /foo/*/bar\fP" would exclude any file named bar which is at two levels
3929: below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3930: .IP o
3931: "\fB\-\ /foo/**/bar\fP" would exclude any file named bar two or more levels below a
3932: directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
3933: .IP o
3934: The combination of "\fB+\ */\fP", "\fB+\ *.c\fP", and "\fB\-\ *\fP" would include all
3935: directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
3936: \fB\-\-prune-empty-dirs\fP option)
3937: .IP o
3938: The combination of "\fB+\ foo/\fP", "\fB+\ foo/bar.c\fP", and "\fB\-\ *\fP" would include
3939: only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly
3940: included or it would be excluded by the "\fB*\fP")
3941: .P
3942: The following modifiers are accepted after a "\fB+\fP" or "\fB\-\fP":
3943: .P
3944: .IP o
3945: A \fB/\fP specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
3946: absolute pathname of the current item. For example, "\fB\-/\ /etc/passwd\fP" would
3947: exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from the
3948: "/etc" directory, and "\-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is
3949: in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
3950: transfer.
3951: .IP o
3952: A \fB!\fP specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
3953: fails to match. For instance, "\fB\-!\ */\fP" would exclude all non-directories.
3954: .IP o
3955: A \fBC\fP is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
3956: inserted as excludes in place of the "\-C". No arg should follow.
3957: .IP o
3958: An \fBs\fP is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
3959: rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from being transferred. The
3960: default is for a rule to affect both sides unless \fB\-\-delete-excluded\fP was
3961: specified, in which case default rules become sender-side only. See also the
3962: hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify
3963: sending-side includes/excludes.
3964: .IP o
3965: An \fBr\fP is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
3966: a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
3967: the \fBs\fP modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
3968: which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
3969: .IP o
3970: A \fBp\fP indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
3971: directories that are being deleted. For instance, the \fB\-C\fP option's default
3972: rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "\fB*.o\fP" are marked as perishable,
3973: and will not prevent a directory that was removed on the source from being
3974: deleted on the destination.
3975: .IP o
3976: An \fBm(CHMOD)\fP on an include rule tweaks the permissions of matching
3977: source files in the same way as \fB\-\-chmod\fP. This happens before any tweaks
3978: requested via \fB\-\-chmod\fP options.
3979: .IP o
3980: An \fBo(USER)\fP on an include rule pretends that matching source files are
3981: owned by \fBUSER\fP (a name or numeric uid). This happens before any uid mapping
3982: by name or \fB\-\-usermap\fP.
3983: .IP o
3984: A \fBg(GROUP)\fP on an include rule pretends that matching source files are
3985: owned by \fBGROUP\fP (a name or numeric gid). This happens before any gid
3986: mapping by name or \fB\-\-groupmap\fP.
3987: .IP o
3988: An \fBx\fP indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
3989: operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
3990: xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
3991: (see the \fB\-\-xattrs\fP option).
3992: .P
3993: .SH "MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES"
3994: .P
3995: You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
3996: (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
3997: above).
3998: .P
3999: There are two kinds of merged files\ \-\- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
4000: (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
4001: incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
4002: per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
4003: for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
4004: list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
4005: sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
4006: available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
4007: to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
4008: (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE below).
4009: .P
4010: Some examples:
4011: .RS 4
4012: .P
4013: .nf
4014: merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
4015: \&. /etc/rsync/default.rules
4016: dir-merge .per-dir-filter
4017: dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4018: :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4019: .fi
4020: .RE
4021: .P
4022: The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
4023: .P
4024: .IP o
4025: A \fB\-\fP specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
4026: no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4027: .IP o
4028: A \fB+\fP specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
4029: no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4030: .IP o
4031: A \fBC\fP is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
4032: manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '\-', but also allows the list-clearing
4033: token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
4034: assumed.
4035: .IP o
4036: A \fBe\fP will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
4037: \&.rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "\- .rules".
4038: .IP o
4039: An \fBn\fP specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
4040: .IP o
4041: A \fBw\fP specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
4042: normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
4043: separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "\- foo + bar" is
4044: parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
4045: .IP o
4046: You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "\-" rules (above) in
4047: order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
4048: modifier set (except for the \fB!\fP modifier, which would not be useful). For
4049: instance, "merge,\-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
4050: excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
4051: per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
4052: specifies sides to affect (via the \fBs\fP or \fBr\fP modifier or both), then the
4053: rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
4054: such as \fBhide\fP).
4055: .P
4056: The attribute-affecting modifiers \fBm\fP, \fBo\fP, and \fBg\fP work only in client filters
4057: (not in daemon filters), and only the modifiers of the first matching rule are
4058: applied. As an example, assuming \fB\-\-super\fP is enabled, the rule
4059: "\fB+o(root),g(root),m(go=)\ *~\fP" would ensure that all "backup"
4060: files belong to root and are not accessible to anyone else.
4061: .P
4062: Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
4063: the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
4064: rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
4065: gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
4066: set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
4067: was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
4068: got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
4069: ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
4070: the current merge file.
4071: .P
4072: Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
4073: is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
4074: merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
4075: would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
4076: file was found.
4077: .P
4078: Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via \fB\-\-filter=".\ file":\fP
4079: .RS 4
4080: .P
4081: .nf
4082: merge /home/user/.global-filter
4083: - *.gz
4084: dir-merge .rules
4085: + *.[ch]
4086: - *.o
4087: - foo*
4088: .fi
4089: .RE
4090: .P
4091: This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
4092: of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
4093: file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
4094: global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
4095: transfer).
4096: .P
4097: If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
4098: directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
4099: from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
4100: per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see \fB\-F\fP):
4101: .RS 4
4102: .P
4103: .nf
4104: --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
4105: .fi
4106: .RE
4107: .P
4108: That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
4109: from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
4110: start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
4111: as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
4112: same as the module's "path".)
4113: .P
4114: Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
4115: .RS 4
4116: .P
4117: .nf
4118: rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
4119: rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4120: rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4121: .fi
4122: .RE
4123: .P
4124: The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
4125: before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
4126: subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
4127: the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
4128: .P
4129: If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
4130: should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
4131: parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
4132: \fB\-\-cvs-exclude\fP (\fB\-C\fP) option's inclusion of the per-directory .cvsignore file
4133: gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you like in your
4134: filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule for the
4135: \&.cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower priority
4136: than your command-line rules). For example:
4137: .RS 4
4138: .P
4139: .nf
4140: cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
4141: + foo.o
4142: :C
4143: - *.old
4144: EOT
4145: rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
4146: .fi
4147: .RE
4148: .P
4149: Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
4150: per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
4151: end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
4152: the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
4153: exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
4154: $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the \fB\-C\fP
4155: command-line option and instead insert a "\-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
4156: "\fB\-\-filter=\-C\fP".
4157: .P
4158: .SH "LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE"
4159: .P
4160: You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
4161: introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current" list is either
4162: the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
4163: options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
4164: sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
4165: .P
4166: .SH "ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS"
4167: .P
4168: As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
4169: of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
4170: the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
4171: names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
4172: the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
4173: governs where patterns that start with a / match.
4174: .P
4175: Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
4176: slash on a source path or changing your use of the \fB\-\-relative\fP option affects
4177: the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of
4178: the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following examples
4179: demonstrate this.
4180: .P
4181: Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
4182: path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
4183: Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
4184: .RS 4
4185: .P
4186: .nf
4187: Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
4188: +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
4189: +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
4190: Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4191: Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4192: .fi
4193: .RE
4194: .RS 4
4195: .P
4196: .nf
4197: Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
4198: +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
4199: +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
4200: Target file: /dest/foo/bar
4201: Target file: /dest/bar/baz
4202: .fi
4203: .RE
4204: .RS 4
4205: .P
4206: .nf
4207: Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
4208: +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
4209: +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
4210: Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
4211: Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
4212: .fi
4213: .RE
4214: .RS 4
4215: .P
4216: .nf
4217: Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
4218: +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
4219: +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
4220: Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4221: Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4222: .fi
4223: .RE
4224: .P
4225: The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
4226: look at the output when using \fB\-\-verbose\fP and put a / in front of the name
4227: (use the \fB\-\-dry-run\fP option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
4228: .P
4229: .SH "PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE"
4230: .P
4231: Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
4232: side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
4233: affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
4234: for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
4235: .RS 4
4236: .P
4237: .nf
4238: rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
4239: rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
4240: .fi
4241: .RE
4242: .P
4243: However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
4244: files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
4245: receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
4246: per-directory merge files in the transfer and use \fB\-\-delete-after\fP, because
4247: this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as the
4248: sending side before it tries to delete anything:
4249: .RS 4
4250: .P
4251: .nf
4252: rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
4253: .fi
4254: .RE
4255: .P
4256: However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
4257: either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
4258: or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
4259: side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
4260: exclude themselves):
4261: .RS 4
4262: .P
4263: .nf
4264: rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
4265: --delete host:src/dir /dest
4266: .fi
4267: .RE
4268: .P
4269: In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
4270: transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
4271: merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
4272: per-directory merge rule.
4273: .P
4274: In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
4275: the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
4276: gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
4277: the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
4278: rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
4279: one of these commands:
4280: .RS 4
4281: .P
4282: .nf
4283: rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \\
4284: host:src/dir /dest
4285: rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
4286: .fi
4287: .RE
4288: .P
4289: .SH "BATCH MODE"
4290: .P
4291: Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
4292: systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
4293: suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
4294: to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
4295: rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
4296: source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
4297: rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
4298: this operation against other, identical destination trees.
4299: .P
4300: Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
4301: checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
4302: destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
4303: batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
4304: same data to every host individually.
4305: .P
4306: To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
4307: read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
4308: destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
4309: stored in the batch file.
4310: .P
4311: For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
4312: is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
4313: script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
4314: using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
4315: Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
4316: pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
4317: useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
4318: used to create the batch file.
4319: .P
4320: Examples:
4321: .RS 4
4322: .P
4323: .nf
4324: $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4325: $ scp foo* remote:
4326: $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4327: .fi
4328: .RE
4329: .RS 4
4330: .P
4331: .nf
4332: $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4333: $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4334: .fi
4335: .RE
4336: .P
4337: In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4338: the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4339: host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4340: /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4341: flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4342: .P
4343: .IP o
4344: The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local\ \-\- you
4345: can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4346: syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4347: .IP o
4348: The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4349: options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4350: .IP o
4351: The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4352: file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4353: avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified \fB\-\-read-batch\fP
4354: option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to make use of it
4355: (just be sure that no other option is trying to use standard input, such as
4356: the "\fB\-\-exclude-from=\-\fP" option).
4357: .P
4358: Caveats:
4359: .P
4360: The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4361: identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4362: fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4363: update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4364: already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4365: verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4366: to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4367: to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4368: size and date, use the \fB\-I\fP option (when reading the batch). If an error
4369: occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated state. In
4370: that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to
4371: fix up the destination tree.
4372: .P
4373: The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4374: used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4375: version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4376: See also the \fB\-\-protocol\fP option for a way to have the creating rsync generate
4377: a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch files
4378: changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with newer
4379: versions will not work.)
4380: .P
4381: When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4382: match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4383: batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4384: instance \fB\-\-write-batch\fP changes to \fB\-\-read-batch\fP, \fB\-\-files-from\fP is dropped,
4385: and the \fB\-\-filter\fP / \fB\-\-include\fP / \fB\-\-exclude\fP options are not needed unless
4386: one of the \fB\-\-delete\fP options is specified.
4387: .P
4388: The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4389: options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4390: script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4391: change in what gets deleted by \fB\-\-delete\fP is desired. A normal user can ignore
4392: this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the appropriate
4393: \fB\-\-read-batch\fP command for the batched data.
4394: .P
4395: The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4396: version uses a new implementation.
4397: .P
4398: .SH "SYMBOLIC LINKS"
4399: .P
4400: Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4401: link in the source directory.
4402: .P
4403: By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4404: non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4405: .P
4406: If \fB\-\-links\fP is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same target on
4407: the destination. Note that \fB\-\-archive\fP implies \fB\-\-links\fP.
4408: .P
4409: If \fB\-\-copy-links\fP is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4410: copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4411: .P
4412: Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4413: where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4414: rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to \fB/etc/passwd\fP in
4415: the public section of the site. Using \fB\-\-copy-unsafe-links\fP will cause any
4416: links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4417: \fB\-\-safe-links\fP will cause unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you
4418: must specify \fB\-\-links\fP for \fB\-\-safe-links\fP to have any effect.)
4419: .P
4420: Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
4421: (start with \fB/\fP), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
4422: components to ascend from the directory being copied.
4423: .P
4424: Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4425: order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4426: first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4427: .P
4428: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-links\fP"
4429: Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no symlinks for
4430: any other options to affect).
4431: .IP "\fB\-\-links\ \-\-copy-unsafe-links\fP"
4432: Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and
4433: duplicate all safe symlinks.
4434: .IP "\fB\-\-copy-unsafe-links\fP"
4435: Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily skip all
4436: safe symlinks.
4437: .IP "\fB\-\-links\ \-\-safe-links\fP"
4438: Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.
4439: .IP "\fB\-\-links\fP"
4440: Duplicate all symlinks.
4441: .P
4442: .SH "DIAGNOSTICS"
4443: .P
4444: rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4445: one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch\ \-\- is
4446: your shell clean?".
4447: .P
4448: This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4449: producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4450: The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4451: .RS 4
4452: .P
4453: .nf
4454: ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4455: .fi
4456: .RE
4457: .P
4458: then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4459: be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4460: will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4461: contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4462: incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4463: contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4464: .P
4465: If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4466: \fB\-vv\fP option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4467: file is included or excluded.
4468: .P
4469: .SH "EXIT VALUES"
4470: .P
4471: .IP "\fB0\fP"
4472: Success
4473: .IP "\fB1\fP"
4474: Syntax or usage error
4475: .IP "\fB2\fP"
4476: Protocol incompatibility
4477: .IP "\fB3\fP"
4478: Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4479: .IP "\fB4\fP"
4480: Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipulate
4481: 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an option was
4482: specified that is supported by the client and not by the server.
4483: .IP "\fB5\fP"
4484: Error starting client-server protocol
4485: .IP "\fB6\fP"
4486: Daemon unable to append to log-file
4487: .IP "\fB10\fP"
4488: Error in socket I/O
4489: .IP "\fB11\fP"
4490: Error in file I/O
4491: .IP "\fB12\fP"
4492: Error in rsync protocol data stream
4493: .IP "\fB13\fP"
4494: Errors with program diagnostics
4495: .IP "\fB14\fP"
4496: Error in IPC code
4497: .IP "\fB20\fP"
4498: Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4499: .IP "\fB21\fP"
4500: Some error returned by \fBwaitpid()\fP
4501: .IP "\fB22\fP"
4502: Error allocating core memory buffers
4503: .IP "\fB23\fP"
4504: Partial transfer due to error
4505: .IP "\fB24\fP"
4506: Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4507: .IP "\fB25\fP"
4508: The \-\-max-delete limit stopped deletions
4509: .IP "\fB30\fP"
4510: Timeout in data send/receive
4511: .IP "\fB35\fP"
4512: Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4513: .P
4514: .SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
4515: .P
4516: .IP "\fBCVSIGNORE\fP"
4517: The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4518: \&.cvsignore files. See the \fB\-\-cvs-exclude\fP option for more details.
4519: .IP "\fBRSYNC_ICONV\fP"
4520: Specify a default \fB\-\-iconv\fP setting using this environment variable. (First
4521: supported in 3.0.0.)
4522: .IP "\fBRSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS\fP"
4523: Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the \fB\-\-protect-args\fP option to
4524: be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is disabled by
4525: default. (First supported in 3.1.0.)
4526: .IP "\fBRSYNC_RSH\fP"
4527: The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to override the default shell
4528: used as the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after
4529: the command name, just as in the \fB\-e\fP option.
4530: .IP "\fBRSYNC_PROXY\fP"
4531: The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4532: client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync daemon. You should
4533: set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
4534: .IP "\fBRSYNC_PASSWORD\fP"
4535: Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password allows you to run
4536: authenticated rsync connections to an rsync daemon without user
4537: intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to a remote shell
4538: transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's
4539: documentation.
4540: .IP "\fBUSER\fP or \fBLOGNAME\fP"
4541: The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4542: username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4543: to "nobody".
4544: .IP "\fBHOME\fP"
4545: The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4546: file.
4547: .P
4548: .SH "FILES"
4549: .P
4550: /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4551: .P
4552: .SH "SEE ALSO"
4553: .P
4554: \fBrsync-ssl\fP(1), \fBrsyncd.conf\fP(5)
4555: .P
4556: .SH "BUGS"
4557: .P
4558: times are transferred as *nix time_t values
4559: .P
4560: When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
4561: unmodified files.
4562: See the comments on the \fB\-\-modify-window\fP option.
4563: .P
4564: file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
4565: values
4566: .P
4567: see also the comments on the \fB\-\-delete\fP option
4568: .P
4569: Please report bugs! See the web site at https://rsync.samba.org/.
4570: .P
4571: .SH "VERSION"
4572: .P
4573: This man page is current for version 3.2.3 of rsync.
4574: .P
4575: .SH "INTERNAL OPTIONS"
4576: .P
4577: The options \fB\-\-server\fP and \fB\-\-sender\fP are used internally by rsync, and should
4578: never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4579: options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4580: that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4581: rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4582: that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4583: .P
4584: .SH "CREDITS"
4585: .P
4586: rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4587: COPYING for details.
4588: .P
4589: A web site is available at https://rsync.samba.org/. The site includes an
4590: FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual page.
4591: .P
4592: We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4593: contact the mailing-list at rsync@lists.samba.org.
4594: .P
4595: This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4596: Gailly and Mark Adler.
4597: .P
4598: .SH "THANKS"
4599: .P
4600: Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4601: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4602: gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4603: .P
4604: Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4605: David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4606: .P
4607: .SH "AUTHOR"
4608: .P
4609: rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4610: people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4611: Davison.
4612: .P
4613: Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4614: https://lists.samba.org/.
FreeBSD-CVSweb <freebsd-cvsweb@FreeBSD.org>