1: mailto(rsync-bugs@samba.org)
2: manpage(rsync)(1)(21 Dec 2015)()()
3: manpagename(rsync)(a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool)
4: manpagesynopsis()
5:
6: verb(Local: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
7:
8: Access via remote shell:
9: Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
10: Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
11:
12: Access via rsync daemon:
13: Pull: rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
14: rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
15: Push: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
16: rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
17:
18: Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files
19: instead of copying.
20:
21: manpagedescription()
22:
23: Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can
24: copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a
25: remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control
26: every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the
27: set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm,
28: which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the
29: differences between the source files and the existing files in the
30: destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an
31: improved copy command for everyday use.
32:
33: Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check"
34: algorithm (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or
35: in last-modified time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as
36: requested by options) are made on the destination file directly when the
37: quick check indicates that the file's data does not need to be updated.
38:
39: Some of the additional features of rsync are:
40:
41: itemization(
42: it() support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
43: it() exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
44: it() a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
45: it() can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
46: it() does not require super-user privileges
47: it() pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
48: it() support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for
49: mirroring)
50: )
51:
52: manpagesection(GENERAL)
53:
54: Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the
55: current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
56:
57: There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
58: remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
59: rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever
60: the source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after
61: a host specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the
62: source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a
63: host specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the
64: "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for
65: an exception to this latter rule).
66:
67: As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a
68: destination, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".
69:
70: As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote
71: host, the copy occurs locally (see also the bf(--list-only) option).
72:
73: Rsync refers to the local side as the "client" and the remote side as the
74: "server". Don't confuse "server" with an rsync daemon -- a daemon is always a
75: server, but a server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
76:
77: manpagesection(SETUP)
78:
79: See the file README for installation instructions.
80:
81: Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via
82: a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync
83: daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh
84: for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a
85: different remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.
86:
87: You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the bf(-e)
88: command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
89:
90: Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination
91: machines.
92:
93: manpagesection(USAGE)
94:
95: You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source
96: and a destination, one of which may be remote.
97:
98: Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
99:
100: quote(tt(rsync -t *.c foo:src/))
101:
102: This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the
103: current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of
104: the files already exist on the remote system then the rsync
105: remote-update protocol is used to update the file by sending only the
106: differences in the data. Note that the expansion of wildcards on the
107: commandline (*.c) into a list of files is handled by the shell before
108: it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the same as all other
109: posix-style programs).
110:
111: quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp))
112:
113: This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
114: machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The
115: files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that symbolic
116: links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved
117: in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the
118: size of data portions of the transfer.
119:
120: quote(tt(rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp))
121:
122: A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
123: additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing
124: / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed
125: to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
126: containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
127: destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the
128: files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of
129: /dest/foo:
130:
131: quote(
132: tt(rsync -av /src/foo /dest)nl()
133: tt(rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo)nl()
134: )
135:
136: Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
137: copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these
138: copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
139:
140: quote(
141: tt(rsync -av host: /dest)nl()
142: tt(rsync -av host::module /dest)nl()
143: )
144:
145: You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
146: destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like
147: an improved copy command.
148:
149: Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a
150: particular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
151:
152: quote(tt(rsync somehost.mydomain.com::))
153:
154: See the following section for more details.
155:
156: manpagesection(ADVANCED USAGE)
157:
158: The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
159: specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first,
160: or with the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
161:
162: quote(tt(rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/)nl()
163: tt(rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/)nl()
164: tt(rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}))
165:
166: Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
167: examples:
168:
169: quote(tt(rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest)nl()
170: tt(rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest))
171:
172: This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is
173: not as easy to use as the first method.
174:
175: If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
176: specify the bf(--protect-args) (bf(-s)) option, or you'll need to escape
177: the whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For
178: instance:
179:
180: quote(tt(rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest))
181:
182: manpagesection(CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON)
183:
184: It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport.
185: In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically
186: using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on
187: the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT
188: CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)
189:
190: Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
191: that:
192:
193: itemization(
194: it() you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to
195: separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.
196: it() the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.
197: it() the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you
198: connect.
199: it() if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the
200: list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.
201: it() if you specify no local destination then a listing of the
202: specified files on the remote daemon is provided.
203: it() you must not specify the bf(--rsh) (bf(-e)) option.
204: )
205:
206: An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
207:
208: verb( rsync -av host::src /dest)
209:
210: Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so,
211: you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the
212: password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to
213: the password you want to use or using the bf(--password-file) option. This
214: may be useful when scripting rsync.
215:
216: WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all
217: users. On those systems using bf(--password-file) is recommended.
218:
219: You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the
220: environment variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to
221: your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support
222: proxy connections to port 873.
223:
224: You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
225: setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you
226: wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
227: contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
228: command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For
229: example:
230:
231: verb( export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
232: rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
233: rsync -av rsync:://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/ )
234:
235: The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost,
236: which forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost
237: (%H).
238:
239: manpagesection(USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION)
240:
241: It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
242: named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
243: system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
244: Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning
245: a single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the
246: home dir of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a
247: daemon-style transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by
248: the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or
249: change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon
250: transfer, consider using ssh to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and
251: configure a normal rsync daemon on that remote host to only allow
252: connections from "localhost".)
253:
254: From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell
255: connection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal
256: rsync-daemon transfer, with the only exception being that you must
257: explicitly set the remote shell program on the command-line with the
258: bf(--rsh=COMMAND) option. (Setting the RSYNC_RSH in the environment
259: will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
260:
261: verb( rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest)
262:
263: If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
264: user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
265: module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must
266: give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in
267: this example that uses the short version of the bf(--rsh) option:
268:
269: verb( rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest)
270:
271: The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be
272: used to log-in to the "module".
273:
274: manpagesection(STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS)
275:
276: In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
277: daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd
278: to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port).
279: For full information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming
280: socket connections, see the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page -- that is the config
281: file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the
282: daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
283:
284: If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
285: no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
286:
287: manpagesection(SORTED TRANSFER ORDER)
288:
289: Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
290: This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
291: directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse
292: someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what was
293: given on the command-line.
294:
295: If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
296: separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
297: bf(--delay-updates) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
298: does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
299:
300: manpagesection(EXAMPLES)
301:
302: Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
303:
304: To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word
305: files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
306:
307: quote(tt(rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup))
308:
309: each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
310: "arvidsjaur".
311:
312: To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile
313: targets:
314:
315: verb( get:
316: rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
317: put:
318: rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
319: sync: get put)
320:
321: this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the
322: connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a
323: lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
324:
325: I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the
326: command:
327:
328: tt(rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge")
329:
330: This is launched from cron every few hours.
331:
332: manpagesection(OPTIONS SUMMARY)
333:
334: Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer
335: to the detailed description below for a complete description. verb(
336: -v, --verbose increase verbosity
337: --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
338: --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
339: --msgs2stderr special output handling for debugging
340: -q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
341: --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)
342: -c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
343: -a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
344: --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
345: -r, --recursive recurse into directories
346: -R, --relative use relative path names
347: --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
348: -b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
349: --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
350: --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
351: -u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
352: --inplace update destination files in-place
353: --append append data onto shorter files
354: --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
355: -d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
356: -l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
357: -L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
358: --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
359: --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
360: --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safer
361: -k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir
362: -K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
363: -H, --hard-links preserve hard links
364: -p, --perms preserve permissions
365: -E, --executability preserve executability
366: --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
367: -A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies -p)
368: -X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
369: -o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
370: -g, --group preserve group
371: --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
372: --specials preserve special files
373: -D same as --devices --specials
374: -t, --times preserve modification times
375: -O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
376: -J, --omit-link-times omit symlinks from --times
377: --super receiver attempts super-user activities
378: --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
379: -S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
380: --preallocate allocate dest files before writing
381: -n, --dry-run perform a trial run with no changes made
382: -W, --whole-file copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
383: -x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
384: -B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
385: -e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
386: --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
387: --existing skip creating new files on receiver
388: --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
389: --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
390: --del an alias for --delete-during
391: --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
392: --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
393: --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
394: --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
395: --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
396: --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
397: --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
398: --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
399: --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
400: --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
401: --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
402: --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
403: --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
404: --partial keep partially transferred files
405: --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
406: --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
407: -m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list
408: --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
409: --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
410: --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
411: --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
412: --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
413: --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
414: -I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time
415: --size-only skip files that match in size
416: --modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
417: -T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
418: -y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
419: --compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR
420: --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
421: --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
422: -z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
423: --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
424: --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
425: -C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
426: -f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
427: -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
428: repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
429: --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
430: --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
431: --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
432: --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
433: --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
434: -0, --from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s
435: -s, --protect-args no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
436: --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
437: --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
438: --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
439: --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
440: --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
441: --stats give some file-transfer stats
442: -8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
443: -h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
444: --progress show progress during transfer
445: -P same as --partial --progress
446: -i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
447: -M, --remote-option=OPTION send OPTION to the remote side only
448: --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
449: --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
450: --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
451: --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
452: --list-only list the files instead of copying them
453: --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
454: --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
455: --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
456: --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
457: --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
458: --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
459: --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
460: -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
461: -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
462: --version print version number
463: (-h) --help show this help (see below for -h comment))
464:
465: Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
466: accepted: verb(
467: --daemon run as an rsync daemon
468: --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
469: --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
470: --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
471: -M, --dparam=OVERRIDE override global daemon config parameter
472: --no-detach do not detach from the parent
473: --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
474: --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
475: --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
476: --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
477: -v, --verbose increase verbosity
478: -4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
479: -6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
480: -h, --help show this help (if used after --daemon))
481:
482: manpageoptions()
483:
484: Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
485: options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
486: option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
487: Some options only have a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a
488: parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though it
489: must also be specified for the short. When specifying a parameter, you can
490: either use the form --option=param or replace the '=' with whitespace. The
491: parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the shell's
492: command-line parsing. Keep in mind that a leading tilde (~) in a filename is
493: substituted by your shell, so --option=~/foo will not change the tilde into
494: your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
495:
496: startdit()
497: dit(bf(--help)) Print a short help page describing the options
498: available in rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older
499: versions of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the bf(-h)
500: option without any other args.
501:
502: dit(bf(--version)) print the rsync version number and exit.
503:
504: dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information you
505: are given during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A
506: single bf(-v) will give you information about what files are being
507: transferred and a brief summary at the end. Two bf(-v) options will give you
508: information on what files are being skipped and slightly more
509: information at the end. More than two bf(-v) options should only be used if
510: you are debugging rsync.
511:
512: In a modern rsync, the bf(-v) option is equivalent to the setting of groups
513: of bf(--info) and bf(--debug) options. You can choose to use these newer
514: options in addition to, or in place of using bf(--verbose), as any
515: fine-grained settings override the implied settings of bf(-v). Both
516: bf(--info) and bf(--debug) have a way to ask for help that tells you
517: exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
518:
519: However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "max verbosity" setting will limit how
520: high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon side.
521: For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that is set to
522: a higher value than what would be set by bf(-vv) will be downgraded to the
523: bf(-vv) level in the daemon's logging.
524:
525: dit(bf(--info=FLAGS))
526: This option lets you have fine-grained control over the
527: information
528: output you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
529: number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
530: level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
531: that support higher levels). Use
532: bf(--info=help)
533: to see all the available flag names, what they output, and what flag names
534: are added for each increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
535:
536: verb( rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
537: rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/ )
538:
539: Note that bf(--info=name)'s output is affected by the bf(--out-format) and
540: bf(--itemize-changes) (bf(-i)) options. See those options for more
541: information on what is output and when.
542:
543: This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
544: reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
545: to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
546: See also the "max verbosity" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
547:
548: dit(bf(--debug=FLAGS))
549: This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug
550: output you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
551: number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
552: level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
553: that support higher levels). Use
554: bf(--debug=help)
555: to see all the available flag names, what they output, and what flag names
556: are added for each increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
557:
558: verb( rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
559: rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/ )
560:
561: Note that some debug messages will only be output when bf(--msgs2stderr) is
562: specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
563:
564: This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
565: reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
566: to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
567: See also the "max verbosity" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
568:
569: dit(bf(--msgs2stderr)) This option changes rsync to send all its output
570: directly to stderr rather than to send messages to the client side via the
571: protocol (which normally outputs info messages via stdout). This is mainly
572: intended for debugging in order to avoid changing the data sent via the
573: protocol, since the extra protocol data can change what is being tested.
574: The option does not affect the remote side of a transfer without using
575: bf(--remote-option) -- e.g. bf(-M--msgs2stderr).
576: Also keep in mind that a daemon connection does not have a stderr channel to send
577: messages back to the client side, so if you are doing any daemon-transfer
578: debugging using this option, you should start up a daemon using bf(--no-detach)
579: so that you can see the stderr output on the daemon side.
580:
581: This option has the side-effect of making stderr output get line-buffered so
582: that the merging of the output of 3 programs happens in a more readable manner.
583:
584: dit(bf(-q, --quiet)) This option decreases the amount of information you
585: are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages
586: from the remote server. This option is useful when invoking rsync from
587: cron.
588:
589: dit(bf(--no-motd)) This option affects the information that is output
590: by the client at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the
591: message-of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules
592: that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request (due to
593: a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option if you want to
594: request the list of modules from the daemon.
595:
596: dit(bf(-I, --ignore-times)) Normally rsync will skip any files that are
597: already the same size and have the same modification timestamp.
598: This option turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to
599: be updated.
600:
601: dit(bf(--size-only)) This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for
602: finding files that need to be transferred, changing it from the default of
603: transferring files with either a changed size or a changed last-modified
604: time to just looking for files that have changed in size. This is useful
605: when starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which may
606: not preserve timestamps exactly.
607:
608: dit(bf(--modify-window)) When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the
609: timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window
610: value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful
611: to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when
612: transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents
613: times with a 2-second resolution), bf(--modify-window=1) is useful
614: (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second).
615:
616: dit(bf(-c, --checksum)) This changes the way rsync checks if the files have
617: been changed and are in need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync
618: uses a "quick check" that (by default) checks if each file's size and time
619: of last modification match between the sender and receiver. This option
620: changes this to compare a 128-bit checksum for each file that has a
621: matching size. Generating the checksums means that both sides will expend
622: a lot of disk I/O reading all the data in the files in the transfer (and
623: this is prior to any reading that will be done to transfer changed files),
624: so this can slow things down significantly.
625:
626: The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
627: scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
628: its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
629: file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
630: either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
631:
632: Note that rsync always verifies that each em(transferred) file was
633: correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file
634: checksum that is generated as the file is transferred, but that
635: automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this
636: option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
637:
638: For protocol 30 and beyond (first supported in 3.0.0), the checksum used is
639: MD5. For older protocols, the checksum used is MD4.
640:
641: dit(bf(-a, --archive)) This is equivalent to bf(-rlptgoD). It is a quick
642: way of saying you want recursion and want to preserve almost
643: everything (with -H being a notable omission).
644: The only exception to the above equivalence is when bf(--files-from) is
645: specified, in which case bf(-r) is not implied.
646:
647: Note that bf(-a) bf(does not preserve hardlinks), because
648: finding multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately
649: specify bf(-H).
650:
651: dit(--no-OPTION) You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing
652: the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-":
653: only options that are implied by other options (e.g. bf(--no-D),
654: bf(--no-perms)) or have different defaults in various circumstances
655: (e.g. bf(--no-whole-file), bf(--no-blocking-io), bf(--no-dirs)). You may
656: specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix
657: (e.g. bf(--no-R) is the same as bf(--no-relative)).
658:
659: For example: if you want to use bf(-a) (bf(--archive)) but don't want
660: bf(-o) (bf(--owner)), instead of converting bf(-a) into bf(-rlptgD), you
661: could specify bf(-a --no-o) (or bf(-a --no-owner)).
662:
663: The order of the options is important: if you specify bf(--no-r -a), the
664: bf(-r) option would end up being turned on, the opposite of bf(-a --no-r).
665: Note also that the side-effects of the bf(--files-from) option are NOT
666: positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
667: changes the meaning of bf(-a) (see the bf(--files-from) option for more
668: details).
669:
670: dit(bf(-r, --recursive)) This tells rsync to copy directories
671: recursively. See also bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)).
672:
673: Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
674: incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
675: transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
676: completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
677: does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
678: both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
679:
680: Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
681: disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: bf(--delete-before),
682: bf(--delete-after), bf(--prune-empty-dirs), and bf(--delay-updates).
683: Because of this, the default delete mode when you specify bf(--delete) is now
684: bf(--delete-during) when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0
685: (use bf(--del) or bf(--delete-during) to request this improved deletion mode
686: explicitly). See also the bf(--delete-delay) option that is a better choice
687: than using bf(--delete-after).
688:
689: Incremental recursion can be disabled using the bf(--no-inc-recursive)
690: option or its shorter bf(--no-i-r) alias.
691:
692: dit(bf(-R, --relative)) Use relative paths. This means that the full path
693: names specified on the command line are sent to the server rather than
694: just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when
695: you want to send several different directories at the same time. For
696: example, if you used this command:
697:
698: quote(tt( rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
699:
700: ... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote
701: machine. If instead you used
702:
703: quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
704:
705: then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
706: machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
707: "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
708: above example).
709:
710: Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
711: real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
712: symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected
713: behaviors when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had
714: a symlink in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink,
715: include both the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real
716: path. If you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may
717: need to use the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option.
718:
719: It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
720: implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
721: sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
722: the source path, like this:
723:
724: quote(tt( rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/))
725:
726: That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the
727: dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.)
728: For older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the
729: source path. For example, when pushing files:
730:
731: quote(tt( (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/) ))
732:
733: (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
734: "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.)
735: If you're pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only
736: for a non-daemon transfer):
737:
738: quote(
739: tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \ )nl()
740: tt( remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/)
741: )
742:
743: dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
744: bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
745: directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
746: means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
747: left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
748: created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
749: elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
750: the receiving side.
751:
752: For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
753: transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
754: are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
755: "bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
756: delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
757: the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
758: "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
759: ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
760: preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
761: affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
762:
763: When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
764: option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
765: wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
766:
767: dit(bf(-b, --backup)) With this option, preexisting destination files are
768: renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the
769: backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using the
770: bf(--backup-dir) and bf(--suffix) options.
771:
772: Note that if you don't specify bf(--backup-dir), (1) the
773: bf(--omit-dir-times) option will be implied, and (2) if bf(--delete) is
774: also in effect (without bf(--delete-excluded)), rsync will add a "protect"
775: filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all your existing excludes
776: (e.g. bf(-f "P *~")). This will prevent previously backed-up files from being
777: deleted. Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may
778: need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up
779: in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if
780: your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of '*', the auto-added
781: rule would never be reached).
782:
783: dit(bf(--backup-dir=DIR)) In combination with the bf(--backup) option, this
784: tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving
785: side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally
786: specify a backup suffix using the bf(--suffix) option
787: (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory
788: will keep their original filenames).
789:
790: Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
791: relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
792: either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
793: daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
794: hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
795:
796: dit(bf(--suffix=SUFFIX)) This option allows you to override the default
797: backup suffix used with the bf(--backup) (bf(-b)) option. The default suffix is a ~
798: if no -bf(-backup-dir) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
799:
800: dit(bf(-u, --update)) This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on
801: the destination and have a modified time that is newer than the source
802: file. (If an existing destination file has a modification time equal to the
803: source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are different.)
804:
805: Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other special
806: files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and receiver
807: is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what
808: date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory
809: where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of
810: the timestamps.
811:
812: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
813: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
814: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
815:
816: dit(bf(--inplace)) This option changes how rsync transfers a file when
817: its data needs to be updated: instead of the default method of creating
818: a new copy of the file and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync
819: instead writes the updated data directly to the destination file.
820:
821: This has several effects:
822:
823: quote(itemization(
824: it() Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
825: through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
826: copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
827: result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and forth.
828: it() In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
829: happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave or
830: crash).
831: it() The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer
832: and will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
833: fails.
834: it() A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
835: can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission for
836: the open of the file for writing to be successful.
837: it() The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if
838: some data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to
839: a position later in the file. This does not apply if you use bf(--backup),
840: since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for the
841: transfer.
842: ))
843:
844: WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
845: accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
846:
847: This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
848: or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
849: bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
850: diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
851:
852: The option implies bf(--partial) (since an interrupted transfer does not delete
853: the file), but conflicts with bf(--partial-dir) and bf(--delay-updates).
854: Prior to rsync 2.6.4 bf(--inplace) was also incompatible with bf(--compare-dest)
855: and bf(--link-dest).
856:
857: dit(bf(--append)) This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto
858: the end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on
859: the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending
860: side. If a file needs to be transferred and its size on the receiver is
861: the same or longer than the size on the sender, the file is skipped. This
862: does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content attributes
863: (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need to be
864: transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any non-regular files.
865: Implies bf(--inplace),
866: but does not conflict with bf(--sparse) (since it is always extending a
867: file's length).
868:
869: The use of bf(--append) can be dangerous if you aren't 100% sure that the files
870: that are longer have only grown by the appending of data onto the end. You
871: should thus use include/exclude/filter rules to ensure that such a transfer is
872: only affecting files that you know to be growing via appended data.
873:
874: dit(bf(--append-verify)) This works just like the bf(--append) option, but
875: the existing data on the receiving side is included in the full-file
876: checksum verification step, which will cause a file to be resent if the
877: final verification step fails (rsync uses a normal, non-appending
878: bf(--inplace) transfer for the resend).
879:
880: Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the bf(--append) option worked like
881: bf(--append-verify), so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
882: transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
883: will initiate an bf(--append-verify) transfer.
884:
885: dit(bf(-d, --dirs)) Tell the sending side to include any directories that
886: are encountered. Unlike bf(--recursive), a directory's contents are not copied
887: unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash
888: (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
889: bf(--recursive) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and
890: output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
891: bf(--dirs) and bf(--recursive), bf(--recursive) takes precedence.
892:
893: The bf(--dirs) option is implied by the bf(--files-from) option
894: or the bf(--list-only) option (including an implied
895: bf(--list-only) usage) if bf(--recursive) wasn't specified (so that
896: directories are seen in the listing). Specify bf(--no-dirs) (or bf(--no-d))
897: if you want to turn this off.
898:
899: There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, bf(--old-dirs) (or
900: bf(--old-d)) that tells rsync to use a hack of "-r --exclude='/*/*'" to get
901: an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
902:
903: dit(bf(-l, --links)) When symlinks are encountered, recreate the
904: symlink on the destination.
905:
906: dit(bf(-L, --copy-links)) When symlinks are encountered, the item that
907: they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older
908: versions of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the
909: receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a
910: modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to specify bf(--keep-dirlinks) (bf(-K))
911: to get this extra behavior. The only exception is when sending files to
912: an rsync that is too old to understand bf(-K) -- in that case, the bf(-L) option
913: will still have the side-effect of bf(-K) on that older receiving rsync.
914:
915: dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) This tells rsync to copy the referent of
916: symbolic links that point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks
917: are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the
918: source path itself when bf(--relative) is used. This option has no
919: additional effect if bf(--copy-links) was also specified.
920:
921: dit(bf(--safe-links)) This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links
922: which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are
923: also ignored. Using this option in conjunction with bf(--relative) may
924: give unexpected results.
925:
926: dit(bf(--munge-links)) This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on
927: the receiving side in a way that makes them unusable but recoverable (see
928: below), or (2) to unmunge symlinks on the sending side that had been stored in
929: a munged state. This is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data
930: to not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
931:
932: The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with the
933: string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used as long as
934: that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will refuse
935: to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a directory.
936:
937: The option only affects the client side of the transfer, so if you need it to
938: affect the server, specify it via bf(--remote-option). (Note that in a local
939: transfer, the client side is the sender.)
940:
941: This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon configures whether it
942: wants munged symlinks via its "munge symlinks" parameter. See also the
943: "munge-symlinks" perl script in the support directory of the source code.
944:
945: dit(bf(-k, --copy-dirlinks)) This option causes the sending side to treat
946: a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is
947: useful if you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as
948: they would be using bf(--copy-links).
949:
950: Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
951: symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
952: the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
953: bf(--force) or bf(--delete) is in effect).
954:
955: See also bf(--keep-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the receiving
956: side.
957:
958: bf(--copy-dirlinks) applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
959: you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
960: pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using bf(--relative)
961: to make the paths match up right. For example:
962:
963: quote(tt(rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/))
964:
965: This works because rsync calls bf(lstat)(2) on the source arg as given, and the
966: trailing slash makes bf(lstat)(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a directory
967: in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the scan of "src/./".
968:
969: dit(bf(-K, --keep-dirlinks)) This option causes the receiving side to treat
970: a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it
971: matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the
972: receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.
973:
974: For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
975: "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
976: bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
977: directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
978: bf(--keep-dirlinks), the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
979: "bar".
980:
981: One note of caution: if you use bf(--keep-dirlinks), you must trust all
982: the symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to
983: create their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a
984: subsequent copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the
985: content of whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies,
986: you are better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink
987: to modify your receiving hierarchy.
988:
989: See also bf(--copy-dirlinks) for an analogous option for the sending side.
990:
991: dit(bf(-H, --hard-links)) This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in
992: the source and link together the corresponding files on the destination.
993: Without this option, hard-linked files in the source are treated
994: as though they were separate files.
995:
996: This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on the
997: destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
998: destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
999:
1000: quote(itemization(
1001: it() If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than
1002: what is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not
1003: break them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1004: differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1005: (unless you are using the bf(--inplace) option).
1006: it() If you specify a bf(--link-dest) directory that contains hard links,
1007: the linking of the destination files against the bf(--link-dest) files can
1008: cause some paths in the destination to become linked together due to the
1009: bf(--link-dest) associations.
1010: ))
1011:
1012: Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1013: the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1014: connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1015: you are tempted to use the bf(--inplace) option to avoid this breakage, be
1016: very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1017: certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1018: see the bf(--inplace) option for more caveats).
1019:
1020: If incremental recursion is active (see bf(--recursive)), rsync may transfer
1021: a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that contents
1022: exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the accuracy of
1023: the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together), just its efficiency
1024: (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a hard-linked file that could
1025: have been found later in the transfer in another member of the hard-linked
1026: set of files). One way to avoid this inefficiency is to disable
1027: incremental recursion using the bf(--no-inc-recursive) option.
1028:
1029: dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes the receiving rsync to set the
1030: destination permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See
1031: also the bf(--chmod) option for a way to modify what rsync considers to
1032: be the source permissions.)
1033:
1034: When this option is em(off), permissions are set as follows:
1035:
1036: quote(itemization(
1037: it() Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1038: permissions, though the bf(--executability) option might change just
1039: the execute permission for the file.
1040: it() New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source
1041: file's permissions masked with the receiving directory's default
1042: permissions (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions
1043: specified via the destination directory's default ACL), and
1044: their special permission bits disabled except in the case where a new
1045: directory inherits a setgid bit from its parent directory.
1046: ))
1047:
1048: Thus, when bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) are both disabled,
1049: rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities,
1050: such as bf(cp)(1) and bf(tar)(1).
1051:
1052: In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1053: permissions, use bf(--perms). To give new files the destination-default
1054: permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1055: bf(--perms) option is off and use bf(--chmod=ugo=rwX) (which ensures that
1056: all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
1057: behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
1058: putting this line in the file ~/.popt (the following defines the bf(-Z) option,
1059: and includes --no-g to use the default group of the destination dir):
1060:
1061: quote(tt( rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX))
1062:
1063: You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1064:
1065: quote(tt( rsync -avZ src/ dest/))
1066:
1067: (Caveat: make sure that bf(-a) does not follow bf(-Z), or it will re-enable
1068: the two "--no-*" options mentioned above.)
1069:
1070: The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1071: directories when bf(--perms) is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1072: versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1073: newly-created files when bf(--perms) was off, while overriding the
1074: destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1075: observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1076: non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1077: (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1078: these behaviors.)
1079:
1080: dit(bf(-E, --executability)) This option causes rsync to preserve the
1081: executability (or non-executability) of regular files when bf(--perms) is
1082: not enabled. A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one
1083: 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's
1084: executability differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync
1085: modifies the destination file's permissions as follows:
1086:
1087: quote(itemization(
1088: it() To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x'
1089: permissions.
1090: it() To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that
1091: has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1092: ))
1093:
1094: If bf(--perms) is enabled, this option is ignored.
1095:
1096: dit(bf(-A, --acls)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
1097: ACLs to be the same as the source ACLs.
1098: The option also implies bf(--perms).
1099:
1100: The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for this
1101: option to work properly. See the bf(--fake-super) option for a way to backup
1102: and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1103:
1104: dit(bf(-X, --xattrs)) This option causes rsync to update the destination
1105: extended attributes to be the same as the source ones.
1106:
1107: For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done by a
1108: super-user copies all namespaces except system.*. A normal user only copies
1109: the user.* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user namespaces as
1110: a normal user, see the bf(--fake-super) option.
1111:
1112: Note that this option does not copy rsyncs special xattr values (e.g. those
1113: used by bf(--fake-super)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. -XX). This
1114: "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with bf(--fake-super).
1115:
1116: dit(bf(--chmod)) This option tells rsync to apply one or more
1117: comma-separated "chmod" modes to the permission of the files in the
1118: transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it were the permissions
1119: that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option
1120: can seem to have no effect on existing files if bf(--perms) is not enabled.
1121:
1122: In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the bf(chmod)(1)
1123: manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1124: prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1125: file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1126: that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1127: that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1128: consistent executability across all bits:
1129:
1130: quote(--chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X)
1131:
1132: Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1133:
1134: quote(--chmod=D2775,F664)
1135:
1136: It is also legal to specify multiple bf(--chmod) options, as each
1137: additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1138:
1139: See the bf(--perms) and bf(--executability) options for how the resulting
1140: permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1141:
1142: dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the
1143: destination file to be the same as the source file, but only if the
1144: receiving rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the bf(--super)
1145: and bf(--fake-super) options).
1146: Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to
1147: the invoking user on the receiving side.
1148:
1149: The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1150: may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1151: bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
1152:
1153: dit(bf(-g, --group)) This option causes rsync to set the group of the
1154: destination file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving
1155: program is not running as the super-user (or if bf(--no-super) was
1156: specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side
1157: is a member of will be preserved.
1158: Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1159: user on the receiving side.
1160:
1161: The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1162: default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1163: (see also the bf(--numeric-ids) option for a full discussion).
1164:
1165: dit(bf(--devices)) This option causes rsync to transfer character and
1166: block device files to the remote system to recreate these devices.
1167: This option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the
1168: super-user (see also the bf(--super) and bf(--fake-super) options).
1169:
1170: dit(bf(--specials)) This option causes rsync to transfer special files
1171: such as named sockets and fifos.
1172:
1173: dit(bf(-D)) The bf(-D) option is equivalent to bf(--devices) bf(--specials).
1174:
1175: dit(bf(-t, --times)) This tells rsync to transfer modification times along
1176: with the files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this
1177: option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been
1178: modified cannot be effective; in other words, a missing bf(-t) or bf(-a) will
1179: cause the next transfer to behave as if it used bf(-I), causing all files to be
1180: updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly efficient
1181: if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off using bf(-t)).
1182:
1183: dit(bf(-O, --omit-dir-times)) This tells rsync to omit directories when
1184: it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)). If NFS is sharing
1185: the directories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use bf(-O).
1186: This option is inferred if you use bf(--backup) without bf(--backup-dir).
1187:
1188: This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of directories
1189: in incremental recursion copies. The default bf(--inc-recursive) copying
1190: normally does an early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a parent
1191: directory in order for it to be able to then set the modify time of the parent
1192: directory right away (without having to delay that until a bunch of recursive
1193: copying has finished). This early-create idiom is not necessary if directory
1194: modify times are not being preserved, so it is skipped. Since early-create
1195: directories don't have accurate mode, mtime, or ownership, the use of this
1196: option can help when someone wants to avoid these partially-finished
1197: directories.
1198:
1199: dit(bf(-J, --omit-link-times)) This tells rsync to omit symlinks when
1200: it is preserving modification times (see bf(--times)).
1201:
1202: dit(bf(--super)) This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user
1203: activities even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These
1204: activities include: preserving users via the bf(--owner) option, preserving
1205: all groups (not just the current user's groups) via the bf(--groups)
1206: option, and copying devices via the bf(--devices) option. This is useful
1207: for systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and
1208: also for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't
1209: being run as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the
1210: super-user can use bf(--no-super).
1211:
1212: dit(bf(--fake-super)) When this option is enabled, rsync simulates
1213: super-user activities by saving/restoring the privileged attributes via
1214: special extended attributes that are attached to each file (as needed). This
1215: includes the file's owner and group (if it is not the default), the file's
1216: device info (device & special files are created as empty text files), and
1217: any permission bits that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g.
1218: the real file gets u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's
1219: access (since the real super-user can always access/change a file, the
1220: files we create can always be accessed/changed by the creating user).
1221: This option also handles ACLs (if bf(--acls) was specified) and non-user
1222: extended attributes (if bf(--xattrs) was specified).
1223:
1224: This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1225: ACLs from incompatible systems.
1226:
1227: The bf(--fake-super) option only affects the side where the option is used.
1228: To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1229: bf(--remote-option) (bf(-M)) option:
1230:
1231: quote(tt( rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/))
1232:
1233: For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1234: If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1235: files, specify bf(-M--fake-super). If you wish a local copy to enable
1236: this option just for the source files, combine bf(--fake-super) with
1237: bf(-M--super).
1238:
1239: This option is overridden by both bf(--super) and bf(--no-super).
1240:
1241: See also the "fake super" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1242:
1243: dit(bf(-S, --sparse)) Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take
1244: up less space on the destination. Conflicts with bf(--inplace) because it's
1245: not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.
1246:
1247: dit(bf(--preallocate)) This tells the receiver to allocate each destination
1248: file to its eventual size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use
1249: the real filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's
1250: bf(fallocate)(2) system call or Cygwin's bf(posix_fallocate)(3), not the slow
1251: glibc implementation that writes a zero byte into each block.
1252:
1253: Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1254: filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If the
1255: destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs, NTFS,
1256: etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1257:
1258: dit(bf(-n, --dry-run)) This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't
1259: make any changes (and produces mostly the same output as a real run). It
1260: is most commonly used in combination with the bf(-v, --verbose) and/or
1261: bf(-i, --itemize-changes) options to see what an rsync command is going
1262: to do before one actually runs it.
1263:
1264: The output of bf(--itemize-changes) is supposed to be exactly the same on a
1265: dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
1266: call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
1267: unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not
1268: send the actual data for file transfers, so bf(--progress) has no effect,
1269: the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
1270: statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
1271: where no file transfers were needed.
1272:
1273: dit(bf(-W, --whole-file)) With this option rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1274: is not used and the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be
1275: faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and
1276: destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the
1277: "disk" is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both
1278: the source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1279: batch-writing option is in effect.
1280:
1281: dit(bf(-x, --one-file-system)) This tells rsync to avoid crossing a
1282: filesystem boundary when recursing. This does not limit the user's ability
1283: to specify items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion
1284: through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also
1285: the analogous recursion on the receiving side during deletion. Also keep
1286: in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to the same device as being on the
1287: same filesystem.
1288:
1289: If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1290: the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1291: encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1292: the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1293:
1294: If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via bf(--copy-links) or
1295: bf(--copy-unsafe-links)), a symlink to a directory on another device is
1296: treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1297: by this option.
1298:
1299: dit(bf(--existing, --ignore-non-existing)) This tells rsync to skip
1300: creating files (including directories) that do not exist
1301: yet on the destination. If this option is
1302: combined with the bf(--ignore-existing) option, no files will be updated
1303: (which can be useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1304:
1305: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1306: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1307: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1308:
1309: dit(bf(--ignore-existing)) This tells rsync to skip updating files that
1310: already exist on the destination (this does em(not) ignore existing
1311: directories, or nothing would get done). See also bf(--existing).
1312:
1313: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1314: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1315: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1316:
1317: This option can be useful for those doing backups using the bf(--link-dest)
1318: option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
1319: a bf(--link-dest) run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
1320: used properly), using bf(--ignore existing) will ensure that the
1321: already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
1322: permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option
1323: is only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
1324:
1325: dit(bf(--remove-source-files)) This tells rsync to remove from the sending
1326: side the files (meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer
1327: and have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.
1328:
1329: Note that you should only use this option on source files that are quiescent.
1330: If you are using this to move files that show up in a particular directory over
1331: to another host, make sure that the finished files get renamed into the source
1332: directory, not directly written into it, so that rsync can't possibly transfer
1333: a file that is not yet fully written. If you can't first write the files into
1334: a different directory, you should use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid
1335: transferring files that are not yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when
1336: it is written, rename it to "foo" when it is done, and then use the option
1337: bf(--exclude='*.new') for the rsync transfer).
1338:
1339: Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1340: error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1341:
1342: dit(bf(--delete)) This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the
1343: receiving side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the
1344: directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to
1345: send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without using a wildcard
1346: for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*") since the wildcard is expanded
1347: by the shell and rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not
1348: the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are
1349: also excluded from being deleted unless you use the bf(--delete-excluded)
1350: option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1351: include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
1352:
1353: Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless bf(--recursive)
1354: was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when bf(--dirs)
1355: (bf(-d)) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being copied.
1356:
1357: This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1358: first try a run using the bf(--dry-run) option (bf(-n)) to see what files are
1359: going to be deleted.
1360:
1361: If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any
1362: files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to
1363: prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the
1364: sending side from causing a massive deletion of files on the
1365: destination. You can override this with the bf(--ignore-errors) option.
1366:
1367: The bf(--delete) option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1368: without conflict, as well as bf(--delete-excluded). However, if none of the
1369: --delete-WHEN options are specified, rsync will choose the
1370: bf(--delete-during) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and
1371: the bf(--delete-before) algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
1372: bf(--delete-delay) and bf(--delete-after).
1373:
1374: dit(bf(--delete-before)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1375: side be done before the transfer starts.
1376: See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1377:
1378: Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space
1379: and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible.
1380: However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer,
1381: and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if bf(--timeout) was
1382: specified). It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion
1383: algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into
1384: memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1385:
1386: dit(bf(--delete-during, --del)) Request that the file-deletions on the
1387: receiving side be done incrementally as the transfer happens. The
1388: per-directory delete scan is done right before each directory is checked
1389: for updates, so it behaves like a more efficient bf(--delete-before),
1390: including doing the deletions prior to any per-directory filter files
1391: being updated. This option was first added in rsync version 2.6.4.
1392: See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1393:
1394: dit(bf(--delete-delay)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1395: side be computed during the transfer (like bf(--delete-during)), and then
1396: removed after the transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1397: bf(--delay-updates) and/or bf(--fuzzy), and is more efficient than using
1398: bf(--delete-after) (but can behave differently, since bf(--delete-after)
1399: computes the deletions in a separate pass after all updates are done).
1400: If the number of removed files overflows an internal buffer, a
1401: temporary file will be created on the receiving side to hold the names (it
1402: is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during the transfer). If
1403: the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try to fall back to
1404: using bf(--delete-after) (which it cannot do if bf(--recursive) is doing an
1405: incremental scan).
1406: See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1407:
1408: dit(bf(--delete-after)) Request that the file-deletions on the receiving
1409: side be done after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you
1410: are sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and
1411: you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the
1412: current transfer. It also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental
1413: recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the files in the
1414: transfer into memory at once (see bf(--recursive)).
1415: See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1416:
1417: dit(bf(--delete-excluded)) In addition to deleting the files on the
1418: receiving side that are not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also
1419: delete any files on the receiving side that are excluded (see bf(--exclude)).
1420: See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclusions behave
1421: this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect files from
1422: bf(--delete-excluded).
1423: See bf(--delete) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1424:
1425: dit(bf(--ignore-missing-args)) When rsync is first processing the explicitly
1426: requested source files (e.g. command-line arguments or bf(--files-from)
1427: entries), it is normally an error if the file cannot be found. This option
1428: suppresses that error, and does not try to transfer the file. This does not
1429: affect subsequent vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be
1430: present and later is no longer there.
1431:
1432: dit(bf(--delete-missing-args)) This option takes the behavior of (the implied)
1433: bf(--ignore-missing-args) option a step farther: each missing arg will become
1434: a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the receiving side
1435: (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will
1436: only be successfully deleted if --force or --delete are in effect. Other than
1437: that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
1438:
1439: The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1440: display as a "*missing" entry in the bf(--list-only) output.
1441:
1442: dit(bf(--ignore-errors)) Tells bf(--delete) to go ahead and delete files
1443: even when there are I/O errors.
1444:
1445: dit(bf(--force)) This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory
1446: when it is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if
1447: deletions are not active (see bf(--delete) for details).
1448:
1449: Note for older rsync versions: bf(--force) used to still be required when
1450: using bf(--delete-after), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1451: bf(--recursive) option was also enabled.
1452:
1453: dit(bf(--max-delete=NUM)) This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM
1454: files or directories. If that limit is exceeded, all further deletions are
1455: skipped through the end of the transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning
1456: (including a count of the skipped deletions) and exits with an error code
1457: of 25 (unless some more important error condition also occurred).
1458:
1459: Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify bf(--max-delete=0) to be warned
1460: about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
1461: Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
1462: version the client is, you can use the less obvious bf(--max-delete=-1) as
1463: a backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
1464: really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
1465:
1466: dit(bf(--max-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1467: file that is larger than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be
1468: suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and
1469: may be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--max-size=1.5m)").
1470:
1471: This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
1472: data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
1473: It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
1474:
1475: The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024),
1476: "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a
1477: gibibyte (1024*1024*1024).
1478: If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB",
1479: "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.)
1480: Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
1481: be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
1482:
1483: Examples: --max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and --max-size=2g+1 is
1484: 2147483649 bytes.
1485:
1486: Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow bf(--max-size=0).
1487:
1488: dit(bf(--min-size=SIZE)) This tells rsync to avoid transferring any
1489: file that is smaller than the specified SIZE, which can help in not
1490: transferring small, junk files.
1491: See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of SIZE and other information.
1492:
1493: Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow bf(--min-size=0).
1494:
1495: dit(bf(-B, --block-size=BLOCKSIZE)) This forces the block size used in
1496: rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a fixed value. It is normally selected based on
1497: the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.
1498:
1499: dit(bf(-e, --rsh=COMMAND)) This option allows you to choose an alternative
1500: remote shell program to use for communication between the local and
1501: remote copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by
1502: default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network.
1503:
1504: If this option is used with bf([user@]host::module/path), then the
1505: remote shell em(COMMAND) will be used to run an rsync daemon on the
1506: remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote
1507: shell connection, rather than through a direct socket connection to a
1508: running rsync daemon on the remote host. See the section "USING
1509: RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
1510:
1511: Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
1512: presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs
1513: or other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other,
1514: and you can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an
1515: argument (but not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote
1516: inside a single-quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for
1517: double-quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your
1518: shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
1519:
1520: quote(
1521: tt( -e 'ssh -p 2234')nl()
1522: tt( -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"')nl()
1523: )
1524:
1525: (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
1526: options in their .ssh/config file.)
1527:
1528: You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
1529: environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as bf(-e).
1530:
1531: See also the bf(--blocking-io) option which is affected by this option.
1532:
1533: dit(bf(--rsync-path=PROGRAM)) Use this to specify what program is to be run
1534: on the remote machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in
1535: the default remote-shell's path (e.g. --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync).
1536: Note that PROGRAM is run with the help of a shell, so it can be any
1537: program, script, or command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does
1538: not corrupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to
1539: communicate.
1540:
1541: One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
1542: machine for use with the bf(--relative) option. For instance:
1543:
1544: quote(tt( rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/))
1545:
1546: dit(bf(-M, --remote-option=OPTION)) This option is used for more advanced
1547: situations where you want certain effects to be limited to one side of the
1548: transfer only. For instance, if you want to pass bf(--log-file=FILE) and
1549: bf(--fake-super) to the remote system, specify it like this:
1550:
1551: quote(tt( rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/))
1552:
1553: If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
1554: it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
1555: this:
1556:
1557: quote(tt( rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/))
1558:
1559: Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will cause
1560: rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over the socket,
1561: and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
1562:
1563: Note that it is best to use a separate bf(--remote-option) for each option you
1564: want to pass. This makes your useage compatible with the bf(--protect-args)
1565: option. If that option is off, any spaces in your remote options will be split
1566: by the remote shell unless you take steps to protect them.
1567:
1568: When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
1569: "remote" side is the receiver.
1570:
1571: Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them that
1572: prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a short
1573: option letter (e.g. tt(-M--log-file=/tmp/foo). If this bug affects your
1574: version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with rsync.
1575:
1576: dit(bf(-C, --cvs-exclude)) This is a useful shorthand for excluding a
1577: broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between
1578: systems. It uses a similar algorithm to CVS to determine if
1579: a file should be ignored.
1580:
1581: The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
1582: initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
1583:
1584: quote(quote(tt(RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS .make.state
1585: .nse_depinfo *~ #* .#* ,* _$* *$ *.old *.bak *.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-*
1586: *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe *.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/ .git/ .hg/ .bzr/)))
1587:
1588: then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
1589: files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names
1590: are delimited by whitespace).
1591:
1592: Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a
1593: .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike
1594: rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace.
1595: See the bf(cvs)(1) manual for more information.
1596:
1597: If you're combining bf(-C) with your own bf(--filter) rules, you should
1598: note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
1599: regardless of where the bf(-C) was placed on the command-line. This makes them
1600: a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want to
1601: control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you
1602: should omit the bf(-C) as a command-line option and use a combination of
1603: bf(--filter=:C) and bf(--filter=-C) (either on your command-line or by
1604: putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules).
1605: The first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore
1606: file. The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes
1607: mentioned above.
1608:
1609: dit(bf(-f, --filter=RULE)) This option allows you to add rules to selectively
1610: exclude certain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is
1611: most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.
1612:
1613: You may use as many bf(--filter) options on the command line as you like
1614: to build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
1615: be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
1616: argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
1617: replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
1618:
1619: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1620:
1621: dit(bf(-F)) The bf(-F) option is a shorthand for adding two bf(--filter) rules to
1622: your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
1623:
1624: quote(tt( --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'))
1625:
1626: This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
1627: been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
1628: files in the transfer. If bf(-F) is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
1629: rule:
1630:
1631: quote(tt( --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'))
1632:
1633: This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
1634:
1635: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
1636: work.
1637:
1638: dit(bf(--exclude=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1639: bf(--filter) option that defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow
1640: the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1641:
1642: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1643:
1644: dit(bf(--exclude-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--exclude)
1645: option, but it specifies a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line).
1646: Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1647: If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1648:
1649: dit(bf(--include=PATTERN)) This option is a simplified form of the
1650: bf(--filter) option that defaults to an include rule and does not allow
1651: the full rule-parsing syntax of normal filter rules.
1652:
1653: See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
1654:
1655: dit(bf(--include-from=FILE)) This option is related to the bf(--include)
1656: option, but it specifies a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line).
1657: Blank lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are ignored.
1658: If em(FILE) is bf(-), the list will be read from standard input.
1659:
1660: dit(bf(--files-from=FILE)) Using this option allows you to specify the
1661: exact list of files to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or bf(-)
1662: for standard input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make
1663: transferring just the specified files and directories easier:
1664:
1665: quote(itemization(
1666: it() The bf(--relative) (bf(-R)) option is implied, which preserves the path
1667: information that is specified for each item in the file (use
1668: bf(--no-relative) or bf(--no-R) if you want to turn that off).
1669: it() The bf(--dirs) (bf(-d)) option is implied, which will create directories
1670: specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
1671: them (use bf(--no-dirs) or bf(--no-d) if you want to turn that off).
1672: it() The bf(--archive) (bf(-a)) option's behavior does not imply bf(--recursive)
1673: (bf(-r)), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
1674: it() These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position
1675: of the bf(--files-from) option on the command-line has no bearing on how
1676: other options are parsed (e.g. bf(-a) works the same before or after
1677: bf(--files-from), as does bf(--no-R) and all other options).
1678: ))
1679:
1680: The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the
1681: source dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are
1682: allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this
1683: command:
1684:
1685: quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup))
1686:
1687: If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
1688: directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
1689: contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of
1690: the directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly
1691: mentioned in the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases,
1692: if the bf(-r) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would
1693: also be transferred (keep in mind that bf(-r) needs to be specified
1694: explicitly with bf(--files-from), since it is not implied by bf(-a)).
1695: Also note
1696: that the effect of the (enabled by default) bf(--relative) option is to
1697: duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does not
1698: force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
1699:
1700: In addition, the bf(--files-from) file can be read from the remote host
1701: instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
1702: (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
1703: specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the
1704: transfer". For example:
1705:
1706: quote(tt( rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy))
1707:
1708: This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
1709: was located on the remote "src" host.
1710:
1711: If the bf(--iconv) and bf(--protect-args) options are specified and the
1712: bf(--files-from) filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
1713: filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
1714: receiving host's charset.
1715:
1716: NOTE: sorting the list of files in the --files-from input helps rsync to be
1717: more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are shared
1718: between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path elements
1719: (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and rsync will
1720: eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list elements.
1721:
1722: dit(bf(-0, --from0)) This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a
1723: file are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF.
1724: This affects bf(--exclude-from), bf(--include-from), bf(--files-from), and any
1725: merged files specified in a bf(--filter) rule.
1726: It does not affect bf(--cvs-exclude) (since all names read from a .cvsignore
1727: file are split on whitespace).
1728:
1729: dit(bf(-s, --protect-args)) This option sends all filenames and most options to
1730: the remote rsync without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This
1731: means that spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special
1732: characters are not translated (such as ~, $, ;, &, etc.). Wildcards are
1733: expanded on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
1734:
1735: If you use this option with bf(--iconv), the args related to the remote
1736: side will also be translated
1737: from the local to the remote character-set. The translation happens before
1738: wild-cards are expanded. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
1739:
1740: You may also control this option via the RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment
1741: variable. If this variable has a non-zero value, this option will be enabled
1742: by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state is
1743: overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this option
1744: (note that bf(--no-s) and bf(--no-protect-args) are the negative versions).
1745: Since this option was first introduced in 3.0.0, you'll need to make sure it's
1746: disabled if you ever need to interact with a remote rsync that is older than
1747: that.
1748:
1749: Rsync can also be configured (at build time) to have this option enabled by
1750: default (with is overridden by both the environment and the command-line).
1751: This option will eventually become a new default setting at some
1752: as-yet-undetermined point in the future.
1753:
1754: dit(bf(-T, --temp-dir=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a
1755: scratch directory when creating temporary copies of the files transferred
1756: on the receiving side. The default behavior is to create each temporary
1757: file in the same directory as the associated destination file.
1758: Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file names inside the specified DIR will
1759: not be prefixed with an extra dot (though they will still have a random suffix
1760: added).
1761:
1762: This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
1763: have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
1764: In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
1765: partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
1766: over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
1767: into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
1768: destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
1769: truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
1770: the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
1771: temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
1772: it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
1773: someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
1774: new version on the disk at the same time.
1775:
1776: If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
1777: space, you may wish to combine it with the bf(--delay-updates) option,
1778: which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
1779: destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't
1780: have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
1781: partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned
1782: about disk space is to use the bf(--partial-dir) option with a relative
1783: path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a
1784: single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the
1785: partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then
1786: rename it into place from there. (Specifying a bf(--partial-dir) with
1787: an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
1788:
1789: dit(bf(-y, --fuzzy)) This option tells rsync that it should look for a
1790: basis file for any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm
1791: looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a file that
1792: has an identical size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If
1793: found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
1794:
1795: If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
1796: alternate destination directories that are specified via bf(--compare-dest),
1797: bf(--copy-dest), or bf(--link-dest).
1798:
1799: Note that the use of the bf(--delete) option might get rid of any potential
1800: fuzzy-match files, so either use bf(--delete-after) or specify some
1801: filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
1802:
1803: dit(bf(--compare-dest=DIR)) This option instructs rsync to use em(DIR) on
1804: the destination machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination
1805: files against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the destination
1806: directory). If a file is found in em(DIR) that is identical to the
1807: sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination
1808: directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that
1809: have changed from an earlier backup.
1810: This option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
1811: directory.
1812:
1813: Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--compare-dest) directories may be
1814: provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1815: for an exact match.
1816: If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1817: and the attributes updated.
1818: If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1819: selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1820:
1821: If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1822: See also bf(--copy-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1823:
1824: NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a non-empty
1825: destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the compare-dest
1826: hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh copy).
1827:
1828: dit(bf(--copy-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--compare-dest), but
1829: rsync will also copy unchanged files found in em(DIR) to the destination
1830: directory using a local copy.
1831: This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving
1832: existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all files have
1833: been successfully transferred.
1834:
1835: Multiple bf(--copy-dest) directories may be provided, which will cause
1836: rsync to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file.
1837: If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1838: selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1839:
1840: If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1841: See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--link-dest).
1842:
1843: dit(bf(--link-dest=DIR)) This option behaves like bf(--copy-dest), but
1844: unchanged files are hard linked from em(DIR) to the destination directory.
1845: The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions,
1846: possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together.
1847: An example:
1848:
1849: quote(tt( rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/))
1850:
1851: If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if some
1852: attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount option
1853: that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive with generic
1854: ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume" option).
1855:
1856: Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple bf(--link-dest) directories may be
1857: provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
1858: for an exact match.
1859: If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made
1860: and the attributes updated.
1861: If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the em(DIR)s will be
1862: selected to try to speed up the transfer.
1863:
1864: This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
1865: existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect alternate
1866: destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can get a bit
1867: muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an alternate-directory exact match
1868: would never be found (nor linked into the destination) when a destination file
1869: already exists.
1870:
1871: Note that if you combine this option with bf(--ignore-times), rsync will not
1872: link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
1873: substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the
1874: file is updated.
1875:
1876: If em(DIR) is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
1877: See also bf(--compare-dest) and bf(--copy-dest).
1878:
1879: Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
1880: bf(--link-dest) from working properly for a non-super-user when bf(-o) was
1881: specified (or implied by bf(-a)). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
1882: the bf(-o) option when sending to an old rsync.
1883:
1884: dit(bf(-z, --compress)) With this option, rsync compresses the file data
1885: as it is sent to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data
1886: being transmitted -- something that is useful over a slow connection.
1887:
1888: Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can
1889: be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport
1890: because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data
1891: blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection. This matching-data
1892: compression comes at a cost of CPU, though, and can be disabled by repeating
1893: the bf(-z) option, but only if both sides are at least version 3.1.1.
1894:
1895: Note that if your version of rsync was compiled with an external zlib (instead
1896: of the zlib that comes packaged with rsync) then it will not support the
1897: old-style compression, only the new-style (repeated-option) compression. In
1898: the future this new-style compression will likely become the default.
1899:
1900: The client rsync requests new-style compression on the server via the
1901: bf(--new-compress) option, so if you see that option rejected it means that
1902: the server is not new enough to support bf(-zz). Rsync also accepts the
1903: bf(--old-compress) option for a future time when new-style compression
1904: becomes the default.
1905:
1906: See the bf(--skip-compress) option for the default list of file suffixes
1907: that will not be compressed.
1908:
1909: dit(bf(--compress-level=NUM)) Explicitly set the compression level to use
1910: (see bf(--compress)) instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero,
1911: the bf(--compress) option is implied.
1912:
1913: dit(bf(--skip-compress=LIST)) Override the list of file suffixes that will
1914: not be compressed. The bf(LIST) should be one or more file suffixes
1915: (without the dot) separated by slashes (/).
1916:
1917: You may specify an empty string to indicate that no file should be skipped.
1918:
1919: Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
1920: of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
1921: "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
1922:
1923: The characters asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) have no special meaning.
1924:
1925: Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
1926: matches 2 suffixes):
1927:
1928: verb( --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2)
1929:
1930: The default list of suffixes that will not be compressed is this (in this
1931: version of rsync):
1932:
1933: bf(7z)
1934: bf(ace)
1935: bf(avi)
1936: bf(bz2)
1937: bf(deb)
1938: bf(gpg)
1939: bf(gz)
1940: bf(iso)
1941: bf(jpeg)
1942: bf(jpg)
1943: bf(lz)
1944: bf(lzma)
1945: bf(lzo)
1946: bf(mov)
1947: bf(mp3)
1948: bf(mp4)
1949: bf(ogg)
1950: bf(png)
1951: bf(rar)
1952: bf(rpm)
1953: bf(rzip)
1954: bf(tbz)
1955: bf(tgz)
1956: bf(tlz)
1957: bf(txz)
1958: bf(xz)
1959: bf(z)
1960: bf(zip)
1961:
1962: This list will be replaced by your bf(--skip-compress) list in all but one
1963: situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to
1964: its list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
1965: different default).
1966:
1967: dit(bf(--numeric-ids)) With this option rsync will transfer numeric group
1968: and user IDs rather than using user and group names and mapping them
1969: at both ends.
1970:
1971: By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine
1972: what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group
1973: 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if the bf(--numeric-ids)
1974: option is not specified.
1975:
1976: If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match
1977: on the destination system, then the numeric ID
1978: from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the
1979: "use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how
1980: the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the
1981: users and groups and what you can do about it.
1982:
1983: dit(bf(--usermap=STRING, --groupmap=STRING)) These options allow you to
1984: specify users and groups that should be mapped to other values by the
1985: receiving side. The bf(STRING) is one or more bf(FROM):bf(TO) pairs of
1986: values separated by commas. Any matching bf(FROM) value from the sender is
1987: replaced with a bf(TO) value from the receiver. You may specify usernames
1988: or user IDs for the bf(FROM) and bf(TO) values, and the bf(FROM) value may
1989: also be a wild-card string, which will be matched against the sender's
1990: names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID numbers, though see below for
1991: why a '*' matches everything). You may instead specify a range of ID
1992: numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH. For example:
1993:
1994: verb( --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr)
1995:
1996: The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
1997: all your user mappings using a single bf(--usermap) option, and/or all
1998: your group mappings using a single bf(--groupmap) option.
1999:
2000: Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted
2001: to the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use
2002: the names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2003: bf(FROM) names match those in use on the sending side. All bf(TO) names
2004: match those in use on the receiving side.
2005:
2006: Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having an
2007: empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched via
2008: a "*" or using an empty name. For instance:
2009:
2010: verb( --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody)
2011:
2012: When the bf(--numeric-ids) option is used, the sender does not send any
2013: names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2014: you will need to specify numeric bf(FROM) values if you want to map these
2015: nameless IDs to different values.
2016:
2017: For the bf(--usermap) option to have any effect, the bf(-o) (bf(--owner))
2018: option must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running
2019: as a super-user (see also the bf(--fake-super) option). For the bf(--groupmap)
2020: option to have any effect, the bf(-g) (bf(--groups)) option must be used
2021: (or implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that
2022: group.
2023:
2024: dit(bf(--chown=USER:GROUP)) This option forces all files to be owned by USER
2025: with group GROUP. This is a simpler interface than using bf(--usermap) and
2026: bf(--groupmap) directly, but it is implemented using those options internally,
2027: so you cannot mix them. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for
2028: the omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
2029: be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2030:
2031: If you specify "--chown=foo:bar, this is exactly the same as specifying
2032: "--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar", only easier.
2033:
2034: dit(bf(--timeout=TIMEOUT)) This option allows you to set a maximum I/O
2035: timeout in seconds. If no data is transferred for the specified time
2036: then rsync will exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.
2037:
2038: dit(bf(--contimeout)) This option allows you to set the amount of time
2039: that rsync will wait for its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed.
2040: If the timeout is reached, rsync exits with an error.
2041:
2042: dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2043: connecting to an rsync daemon. The bf(--address) option allows you to
2044: specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this
2045: option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
2046:
2047: dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use
2048: rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the
2049: double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL
2050: syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the URL). See also this
2051: option in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
2052:
2053: dit(bf(--sockopts)) This option can provide endless fun for people
2054: who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all
2055: sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or
2056: slower!). Read the man page for the code(setsockopt()) system call for
2057: details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no
2058: special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket
2059: connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists in the
2060: bf(--daemon) mode section.
2061:
2062: dit(bf(--blocking-io)) This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching
2063: a remote shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,
2064: rsync defaults to using
2065: blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note that
2066: ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
2067:
2068: dit(bf(--outbuf=MODE)) This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be
2069: None (aka Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little
2070: as a single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
2071:
2072: The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
2073: when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
2074:
2075: dit(bf(-i, --itemize-changes)) Requests a simple itemized list of the
2076: changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes.
2077: This is exactly the same as specifying bf(--out-format='%i %n%L').
2078: If you repeat the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only
2079: if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use bf(-vv)
2080: with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of other
2081: verbose messages).
2082:
2083: The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
2084: format is like the string bf(YXcstpoguax), where bf(Y) is replaced by the
2085: type of update being done, bf(X) is replaced by the file-type, and the
2086: other letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being
2087: modified.
2088:
2089: The update types that replace the bf(Y) are as follows:
2090:
2091: quote(itemization(
2092: it() A bf(<) means that a file is being transferred to the remote host
2093: (sent).
2094: it() A bf(>) means that a file is being transferred to the local host
2095: (received).
2096: it() A bf(c) means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item
2097: (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
2098: it() A bf(h) means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
2099: bf(--hard-links)).
2100: it() A bf(.) means that the item is not being updated (though it might
2101: have attributes that are being modified).
2102: it() A bf(*) means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains
2103: a message (e.g. "deleting").
2104: ))
2105:
2106: The file-types that replace the bf(X) are: bf(f) for a file, a bf(d) for a
2107: directory, an bf(L) for a symlink, a bf(D) for a device, and a bf(S) for a
2108: special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
2109:
2110: The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that
2111: will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or
2112: a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created
2113: item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the
2114: dots with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with
2115: a "?" (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
2116:
2117: The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
2118:
2119: quote(itemization(
2120: it() A bf(c) means either that a regular file has a different checksum
2121: (requires bf(--checksum)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has
2122: a changed value.
2123: Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1, this
2124: change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular files.
2125: it() A bf(s) means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
2126: by the file transfer.
2127: it() A bf(t) means the modification time is different and is being updated
2128: to the sender's value (requires bf(--times)). An alternate value of bf(T)
2129: means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which happens
2130: when a file/symlink/device is updated without bf(--times) and when a
2131: symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time.
2132: (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the bf(s) flag combined
2133: with bf(t) instead of the proper bf(T) flag for this time-setting failure.)
2134: it() A bf(p) means the permissions are different and are being updated to
2135: the sender's value (requires bf(--perms)).
2136: it() An bf(o) means the owner is different and is being updated to the
2137: sender's value (requires bf(--owner) and super-user privileges).
2138: it() A bf(g) means the group is different and is being updated to the
2139: sender's value (requires bf(--group) and the authority to set the group).
2140: it() The bf(u) slot is reserved for future use.
2141: it() The bf(a) means that the ACL information changed.
2142: it() The bf(x) means that the extended attribute information changed.
2143: ))
2144:
2145: One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output
2146: the string "*deleting" for each item that is being removed (assuming that
2147: you are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
2148: outputting them as a verbose message).
2149:
2150: dit(bf(--out-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what the
2151: rsync client outputs to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a
2152: text string containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed
2153: with a percent (%) character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if
2154: either bf(--info=name) or bf(-v) is specified (this tells you just the name
2155: of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full list
2156: of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting in the
2157: rsyncd.conf manpage.
2158:
2159: Specifying the bf(--out-format) option implies the bf(--info=name) option,
2160: which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
2161: way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
2162: directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
2163: the string (e.g. if the bf(--itemize-changes) option was used), the logging
2164: of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
2165: as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the bf(--itemize-changes)
2166: option for a description of the output of "%i".
2167:
2168: Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
2169: one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
2170: logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
2171: is in effect and bf(--progress) is also specified, rsync will also output
2172: the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
2173: (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
2174:
2175: dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option causes rsync to log what it is doing
2176: to a file. This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be
2177: requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon
2178: transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer logging will be
2179: enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See the bf(--log-file-format)
2180: option if you wish to override this.
2181:
2182: Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
2183: happening:
2184:
2185: verb( rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/)
2186:
2187: This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
2188: unexpectedly.
2189:
2190: dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This allows you to specify exactly what
2191: per-update logging is put into the file specified by the bf(--log-file) option
2192: (which must also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you
2193: specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file.
2194: For a list of the possible escape characters, see the "log format" setting
2195: in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2196:
2197: The default FORMAT used if bf(--log-file) is specified and this option is not
2198: is '%i %n%L'.
2199:
2200: dit(bf(--stats)) This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics
2201: on the file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer
2202: algorithm is for your data. This option is equivalent to bf(--info=stats2)
2203: if combined with 0 or 1 bf(-v) options, or bf(--info=stats3) if combined
2204: with 2 or more bf(-v) options.
2205:
2206: The current statistics are as follows: quote(itemization(
2207: it() bf(Number of files) is the count of all "files" (in the generic
2208: sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will
2209: be followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2210: For example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the
2211: totals for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special
2212: files. If any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
2213: it() bf(Number of created files) is the count of how many "files" (generic
2214: sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
2215: followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2216: it() bf(Number of deleted files) is the count of how many "files" (generic
2217: sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
2218: followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
2219: Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
2220: if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
2221: it() bf(Number of regular files transferred) is the count of normal files
2222: that were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not
2223: include dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word
2224: "regular" into this heading.
2225: it() bf(Total file size) is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
2226: This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
2227: include the size of symlinks.
2228: it() bf(Total transferred file size) is the total sum of all files sizes
2229: for just the transferred files.
2230: it() bf(Literal data) is how much unmatched file-update data we had to
2231: send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
2232: it() bf(Matched data) is how much data the receiver got locally when
2233: recreating the updated files.
2234: it() bf(File list size) is how big the file-list data was when the sender
2235: sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the
2236: file list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
2237: list.
2238: it() bf(File list generation time) is the number of seconds that the
2239: sender spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
2240: sending side for this to be present.
2241: it() bf(File list transfer time) is the number of seconds that the sender
2242: spent sending the file list to the receiver.
2243: it() bf(Total bytes sent) is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent
2244: from the client side to the server side.
2245: it() bf(Total bytes received) is the count of all non-message bytes that
2246: rsync received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message"
2247: bytes means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the
2248: server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
2249: ))
2250:
2251: dit(bf(-8, --8-bit-output)) This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters
2252: unescaped in the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're
2253: valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control
2254: characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's
2255: setting.
2256:
2257: The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash (\)
2258: and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a newline
2259: would output as "\#012". A literal backslash that is in a filename is not
2260: escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
2261:
2262: dit(bf(-h, --human-readable)) Output numbers in a more human-readable format.
2263: There are 3 possible levels: (1) output numbers with a separator between each
2264: set of 3 digits (either a comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point
2265: is represented by a period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
2266: (with a character suffix for larger units -- see below); (3) output numbers in
2267: units of 1024.
2268:
2269: The default is human-readable level 1. Each bf(-h) option increases the level
2270: by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure digits) by
2271: specifing the bf(--no-human-readable) (bf(--no-h)) option.
2272:
2273: The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: K (kilo), M (mega),
2274: G (giga), or T (tera). For example, a 1234567-byte file would output as 1.23M
2275: in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local decimal point).
2276:
2277: Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not support
2278: human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus, specifying one or
2279: two bf(-h) options will behave in a comparable manner in old and new versions
2280: as long as you didn't specify a bf(--no-h) option prior to one or more bf(-h)
2281: options. See the bf(--list-only) option for one difference.
2282:
2283: dit(bf(--partial)) By default, rsync will delete any partially
2284: transferred file if the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances
2285: it is more desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the
2286: bf(--partial) option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should
2287: make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.
2288:
2289: dit(bf(--partial-dir=DIR)) A better way to keep partial files than the
2290: bf(--partial) option is to specify a em(DIR) that will be used to hold the
2291: partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file).
2292: On the next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this
2293: dir as data to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it
2294: after it has served its purpose.
2295:
2296: Note that if bf(--whole-file) is specified (or implied), any partial-dir
2297: file that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
2298: (since
2299: rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer algorithm).
2300:
2301: Rsync will create the em(DIR) if it is missing (just the last dir -- not
2302: the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
2303: "bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-partial)") to have rsync create the
2304: partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
2305: remove it again when the partial file is deleted.
2306:
2307: If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
2308: rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
2309: sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
2310: will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
2311: receiving side. An example: the above bf(--partial-dir) option would add
2312: the equivalent of "bf(-f '-p .rsync-partial/')" at the end of any other
2313: filter rules.
2314:
2315: If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
2316: exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
2317: rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
2318: to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
2319: rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
2320: should specify bf(--delete-after) and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
2321: bf(-f 'R .rsync-partial/'). (Avoid using bf(--delete-before) or
2322: bf(--delete-during) unless you don't need rsync to use any of the
2323: left-over partial-dir data during the current run.)
2324:
2325: IMPORTANT: the bf(--partial-dir) should not be writable by other users or it
2326: is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
2327:
2328: You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
2329: variable. Setting this in the environment does not force bf(--partial) to be
2330: enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when bf(--partial) is
2331: specified. For instance, instead of using bf(--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp)
2332: along with bf(--progress), you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
2333: environment and then just use the bf(-P) option to turn on the use of the
2334: .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the bf(--partial)
2335: option does not look for this environment value are (1) when bf(--inplace) was
2336: specified (since bf(--inplace) conflicts with bf(--partial-dir)), and (2) when
2337: bf(--delay-updates) was specified (see below).
2338:
2339: For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" setting,
2340: bf(--partial-dir) does em(not) imply bf(--partial). This is so that a
2341: refusal of the bf(--partial) option can be used to disallow the overwriting
2342: of destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the
2343: safer idiom provided by bf(--partial-dir).
2344:
2345: dit(bf(--delay-updates)) This option puts the temporary file from each
2346: updated file into a holding directory until the end of the
2347: transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid
2348: succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more
2349: atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in
2350: each file's destination directory, but if you've specified the
2351: bf(--partial-dir) option, that directory will be used instead. See the
2352: comments in the bf(--partial-dir) section for a discussion of how this
2353: ".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you can do if
2354: you want rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs that might be lying around.
2355: Conflicts with bf(--inplace) and bf(--append).
2356:
2357: This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
2358: transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving
2359: side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that
2360: you should not use an absolute path to bf(--partial-dir) unless (1)
2361: there is no
2362: chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
2363: the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
2364: absolute)
2365: and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
2366: delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
2367:
2368: See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
2369: update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses bf(--link-dest) and a
2370: parallel hierarchy of files).
2371:
2372: dit(bf(-m, --prune-empty-dirs)) This option tells the receiving rsync to get
2373: rid of empty directories from the file-list, including nested directories
2374: that have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the
2375: creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending rsync is
2376: recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using include/exclude/filter
2377: rules.
2378:
2379: Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the bf(--min-size) option, does
2380: not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave directories
2381: empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the transfer rule.
2382:
2383: Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
2384: what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
2385: mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
2386: being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
2387: destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
2388: this.
2389:
2390: You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
2391: by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
2392: that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
2393:
2394: quote( --filter 'protect emptydir/')
2395:
2396: Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
2397: the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
2398: that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
2399: (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
2400:
2401: quote( rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest)
2402:
2403: If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
2404: time-honored options of "bf(--include='*/' --exclude='*')" would work fine
2405: in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
2406:
2407: dit(bf(--progress)) This option tells rsync to print information
2408: showing the progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user
2409: something to watch.
2410: With a modern rsync this is the same as specifying
2411: bf(--info=flist2,name,progress), but any user-supplied settings for those
2412: info flags takes precedence (e.g. "--info=flist0 --progress").
2413:
2414: While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
2415: looks like this:
2416:
2417: verb( 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04)
2418:
2419: In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
2420: sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
2421: per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
2422: is maintained until the end.
2423:
2424: These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
2425: in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
2426: followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
2427: dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
2428: will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
2429: was finishing the matched part of the file.
2430:
2431: When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
2432: summary line that looks like this:
2433:
2434: verb( 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396))
2435:
2436: In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average rate
2437: of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8
2438: seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a regular file
2439: during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files for the
2440: receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of
2441: the 396 total files in the file-list.
2442:
2443: In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of files
2444: in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it starts to
2445: transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the text "ir-chk"
2446: (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until the point that it
2447: knows the full size of the list, at which point it will switch to using
2448: "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the total count of files
2449: in the file list is still going to increase (and each time it does, the count
2450: of files left to check will increase by the number of the files added to the
2451: list).
2452:
2453: dit(bf(-P)) The bf(-P) option is equivalent to bf(--partial) bf(--progress). Its
2454: purpose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long
2455: transfer that may be interrupted.
2456:
2457: There is also a bf(--info=progress2) option that outputs statistics based
2458: on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without
2459: outputting a filename (e.g. avoid bf(-v) or specify bf(--info=name0)) if you
2460: want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a
2461: lot of names. (You don't need to specify the bf(--progress) option in
2462: order to use bf(--info=progress2).)
2463:
2464: dit(bf(--password-file=FILE)) This option allows you to provide a password for
2465: accessing an rsync daemon via a file or via standard input if bf(FILE) is
2466: bf(-). The file should contain just the password on the first line (all other
2467: lines are ignored). Rsync will exit with an error if bf(FILE) is world
2468: readable or if a root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
2469:
2470: This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
2471: ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
2472: When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
2473: option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
2474: authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
2475: config file).
2476:
2477: dit(bf(--list-only)) This option will cause the source files to be listed
2478: instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source
2479: arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy
2480: command that includes a
2481: destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be able to specify
2482: more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the destination).
2483: Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
2484: shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg
2485: without using this option. For example:
2486:
2487: verb( rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/)
2488:
2489: Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by bf(--list-only) are affected
2490: by the bf(--human-readable) option. By default they will contain digit
2491: separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes with
2492: unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output has
2493: increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
2494: bf(--no-h) if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width
2495: of 11 characters.
2496:
2497: Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
2498: that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
2499: non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the bf(--dirs)
2500: option w/o bf(--recursive), and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
2501: avoid this problem, either specify the bf(--no-dirs) option (if you don't
2502: need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude
2503: the content of subdirectories: bf(-r --exclude='/*/*').
2504:
2505: dit(bf(--bwlimit=RATE)) This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer
2506: rate for the data sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The
2507: RATE value can be suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may
2508: be a fractional value (e.g. "bf(--bwlimit=1.5m)"). If no suffix is specified,
2509: the value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
2510: been appended). See the bf(--max-size) option for a description of all the
2511: available suffixes. A value of zero specifies no limit.
2512:
2513: For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
2514: nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is possible.
2515:
2516: Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits the
2517: size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average transfer
2518: rate at the requested limit. Some "burstiness" may be seen where rsync writes
2519: out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate into compliance.
2520:
2521: Due to the internal buffering of data, the bf(--progress) option may not be an
2522: accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because some
2523: files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly buffered,
2524: while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the output buffer
2525: occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
2526:
2527: dit(bf(--write-batch=FILE)) Record a file that can later be applied to
2528: another identical destination with bf(--read-batch). See the "BATCH MODE"
2529: section for details, and also the bf(--only-write-batch) option.
2530:
2531: dit(bf(--only-write-batch=FILE)) Works like bf(--write-batch), except that
2532: no updates are made on the destination system when creating the batch.
2533: This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some
2534: other means and then apply the changes via bf(--read-batch).
2535:
2536: Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
2537: media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
2538: can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
2539: whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
2540: partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
2541: happening).
2542:
2543: Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
2544: system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
2545: into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
2546: (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
2547:
2548: dit(bf(--read-batch=FILE)) Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a
2549: file previously generated by bf(--write-batch).
2550: If em(FILE) is bf(-), the batch data will be read from standard input.
2551: See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
2552:
2553: dit(bf(--protocol=NUM)) Force an older protocol version to be used. This
2554: is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older
2555: version of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the
2556: bf(--write-batch) option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
2557: bf(--read-batch) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating the
2558: batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
2559: file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
2560:
2561: dit(bf(--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC)) Rsync can convert filenames between character
2562: sets using this option. Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up
2563: the default character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can
2564: fully specify what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset
2565: separated by a comma in the order bf(--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE), e.g.
2566: bf(--iconv=utf8,iso88591). This order ensures that the option
2567: will stay the same whether you're pushing or pulling files.
2568: Finally, you can specify either bf(--no-iconv) or a CONVERT_SPEC of "-"
2569: to turn off any conversion.
2570: The default setting of this option is site-specific, and can also be
2571: affected via the RSYNC_ICONV environment variable.
2572:
2573: For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
2574: run "iconv --list".
2575:
2576: If you specify the bf(--protect-args) option (bf(-s)), rsync will translate
2577: the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the
2578: remote host. See also the bf(--files-from) option.
2579:
2580: Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
2581: (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
2582: specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
2583: For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
2584: filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
2585:
2586: When you pass an bf(--iconv) option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
2587: daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
2588: regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel free to
2589: specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g. bf(--iconv=utf8)).
2590:
2591: dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2592: when creating sockets. This only affects sockets that rsync has direct
2593: control over, such as the outgoing socket when directly contacting an
2594: rsync daemon. See also these options in the bf(--daemon) mode section.
2595:
2596: If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2597: will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2598: is the case.
2599:
2600: dit(bf(--checksum-seed=NUM)) Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4
2601: byte checksum seed is included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation
2602: (the more modern MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum
2603: seed is generated by the server and defaults to the current code(time()). This
2604: option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
2605: applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
2606: user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use
2607: the default of code(time()) for checksum seed.
2608:
2609: enddit()
2610:
2611: manpagesection(DAEMON OPTIONS)
2612:
2613: The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
2614:
2615: startdit()
2616: dit(bf(--daemon)) This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The
2617: daemon you start running may be accessed using an rsync client using
2618: the bf(host::module) or bf(rsync://host/module/) syntax.
2619:
2620: If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being
2621: run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and
2622: become a background daemon. The daemon will read the config file
2623: (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client and respond to
2624: requests accordingly. See the bf(rsyncd.conf)(5) man page for more
2625: details.
2626:
2627: dit(bf(--address)) By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when
2628: run as a daemon with the bf(--daemon) option. The bf(--address) option
2629: allows you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This
2630: makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the bf(--config) option.
2631: See also the "address" global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2632:
2633: dit(bf(--bwlimit=RATE)) This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer
2634: rate for the data the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still
2635: specify a smaller bf(--bwlimit) value, but no larger value will be allowed.
2636: See the client version of this option (above) for some extra details.
2637:
2638: dit(bf(--config=FILE)) This specifies an alternate config file than
2639: the default. This is only relevant when bf(--daemon) is specified.
2640: The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over
2641: a remote shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case
2642: the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
2643:
2644: dit(bf(-M, --dparam=OVERRIDE)) This option can be used to set a daemon-config
2645: parameter when starting up rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding
2646: the parameter at the end of the global settings prior to the first module's
2647: definition. The parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so
2648: desire. For instance:
2649:
2650: verb( rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid )
2651:
2652: dit(bf(--no-detach)) When running as a daemon, this option instructs
2653: rsync to not detach itself and become a background process. This
2654: option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also
2655: be useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as
2656: bf(daemontools) or AIX's bf(System Resource Controller).
2657: bf(--no-detach) is also recommended when rsync is run under a
2658: debugger. This option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or
2659: sshd.
2660:
2661: dit(bf(--port=PORT)) This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the
2662: daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"
2663: global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
2664:
2665: dit(bf(--log-file=FILE)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2666: given log-file name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config
2667: file.
2668:
2669: dit(bf(--log-file-format=FORMAT)) This option tells the rsync daemon to use the
2670: given FORMAT string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config
2671: file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which
2672: case transfer logging is turned off.
2673:
2674: dit(bf(--sockopts)) This overrides the bf(socket options) setting in the
2675: rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
2676:
2677: dit(bf(-v, --verbose)) This option increases the amount of information the
2678: daemon logs during its startup phase. After the client connects, the
2679: daemon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the client
2680: used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's config section.
2681:
2682: dit(bf(-4, --ipv4) or bf(-6, --ipv6)) Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6
2683: when creating the incoming sockets that the rsync daemon will use to
2684: listen for connections. One of these options may be required in older
2685: versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see
2686: an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port,
2687: try specifying bf(--ipv6) or bf(--ipv4) when starting the daemon).
2688:
2689: If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the bf(--ipv6) option
2690: will have no effect. The bf(--version) output will tell you if this
2691: is the case.
2692:
2693: dit(bf(-h, --help)) When specified after bf(--daemon), print a short help
2694: page describing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.
2695: enddit()
2696:
2697: manpagesection(FILTER RULES)
2698:
2699: The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
2700: (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly
2701: specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more
2702: include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
2703:
2704: As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each
2705: name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in
2706: turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude
2707: pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that
2708: filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the
2709: filename is not skipped.
2710:
2711: Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the
2712: command-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:
2713:
2714: quote(
2715: tt(RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2716: tt(RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME])nl()
2717: )
2718:
2719: You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
2720: below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
2721: MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
2722: must come after either a single space or an underscore (_).
2723: Here are the available rule prefixes:
2724:
2725: quote(
2726: bf(exclude, -) specifies an exclude pattern. nl()
2727: bf(include, +) specifies an include pattern. nl()
2728: bf(merge, .) specifies a merge-file to read for more rules. nl()
2729: bf(dir-merge, :) specifies a per-directory merge-file. nl()
2730: bf(hide, H) specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. nl()
2731: bf(show, S) files that match the pattern are not hidden. nl()
2732: bf(protect, P) specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion. nl()
2733: bf(risk, R) files that match the pattern are not protected. nl()
2734: bf(clear, !) clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) nl()
2735: )
2736:
2737: When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are
2738: comment lines that start with a "#".
2739:
2740: Note that the bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) command-line options do not allow the
2741: full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
2742: specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the
2743: list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).
2744: If a pattern
2745: does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus, space), then the
2746: rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include option) or "- " (for
2747: an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A bf(--filter) option, on
2748: the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
2749: start of the rule.
2750:
2751: Note also that the bf(--filter), bf(--include), and bf(--exclude) options take one
2752: rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on
2753: the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the bf(--filter) option, or
2754: the bf(--include-from)/bf(--exclude-from) options.
2755:
2756: manpagesection(INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES)
2757:
2758: You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",
2759: "-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above).
2760: The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against
2761: the names of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns
2762: can take several forms:
2763:
2764: itemization(
2765: it() if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a
2766: particular spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched
2767: against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in
2768: regular expressions.
2769: Thus "/foo" would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the
2770: transfer" (for a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a
2771: per-directory rule).
2772: An unqualified "foo" would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the
2773: tree because the algorithm is applied recursively from the
2774: top down; it behaves as if each path component gets a turn at being the
2775: end of the filename. Even the unanchored "sub/foo" would match at
2776: any point in the hierarchy where a "foo" was found within a directory
2777: named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for
2778: a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root
2779: of the transfer.
2780: it() if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a
2781: directory, not a regular file, symlink, or device.
2782: it() rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard
2783: matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard
2784: characters: '*', '?', and '[' .
2785: it() a '*' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
2786: it() use '**' to match anything, including slashes.
2787: it() a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).
2788: it() a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or [[:alpha:]].
2789: it() in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
2790: character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present.
2791: This means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a
2792: pattern contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none.
2793: e.g. if you add a wildcard to "foo\bar" (which matches the backslash) you
2794: would need to use "foo\\bar*" to avoid the "\b" becoming just "b".
2795: it() if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**",
2796: then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading
2797: directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is
2798: matched only against the final component of the filename.
2799: (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename"
2800: can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on
2801: down.)
2802: it() a trailing "dir_name/***" will match both the directory (as if
2803: "dir_name/" had been specified) and everything in the directory
2804: (as if "dir_name/**" had been specified). This behavior was added in
2805: version 2.6.7.
2806: )
2807:
2808: Note that, when using the bf(--recursive) (bf(-r)) option (which is implied by
2809: bf(-a)), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so
2810: include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's
2811: full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and
2812: "/foo/bar" must not be excluded).
2813: The exclude patterns actually short-circuit the directory traversal stage
2814: when rsync finds the files to send. If a pattern excludes a particular
2815: parent directory, it can render a deeper include pattern ineffectual
2816: because rsync did not descend through that excluded section of the
2817: hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule.
2818: For instance, this won't work:
2819:
2820: quote(
2821: tt(+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found)nl()
2822: tt(+ /file-is-included)nl()
2823: tt(- *)nl()
2824: )
2825:
2826: This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'
2827: rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path"
2828: directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy
2829: to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it somewhere before the
2830: "- *" rule), and perhaps use the bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option. Another
2831: solution is to add specific include rules for all
2832: the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules
2833: works fine:
2834:
2835: quote(
2836: tt(+ /some/)nl()
2837: tt(+ /some/path/)nl()
2838: tt(+ /some/path/this-file-is-found)nl()
2839: tt(+ /file-also-included)nl()
2840: tt(- *)nl()
2841: )
2842:
2843: Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
2844:
2845: itemization(
2846: it() "- *.o" would exclude all names matching *.o
2847: it() "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
2848: transfer-root directory
2849: it() "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo
2850: it() "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two
2851: levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2852: it() "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two
2853: or more levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
2854: it() The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all
2855: directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
2856: bf(--prune-empty-dirs) option)
2857: it() The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would include
2858: only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be
2859: explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")
2860: )
2861:
2862: The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":
2863:
2864: itemization(
2865: it() A bf(/) specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched
2866: against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,
2867: "-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer
2868: was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo"
2869: would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even
2870: if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer.
2871: it() A bf(!) specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if
2872: the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude all
2873: non-directories.
2874: it() A bf(C) is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules
2875: should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should
2876: follow.
2877: it() An bf(s) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending
2878: side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from
2879: being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect both sides
2880: unless bf(--delete-excluded) was specified, in which case default rules
2881: become sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules,
2882: which are an alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
2883: it() An bf(r) is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving
2884: side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from
2885: being deleted. See the bf(s) modifier for more info. See also the
2886: protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way to
2887: specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
2888: it() A bf(p) indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is
2889: ignored in directories that are being deleted. For instance, the bf(-C)
2890: option's default rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "*.o" are
2891: marked as perishable, and will not prevent a directory that was removed
2892: on the source from being deleted on the destination.
2893: )
2894:
2895: manpagesection(MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES)
2896:
2897: You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a
2898: merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES
2899: section above).
2900:
2901: There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and
2902: per-directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and
2903: its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."
2904: rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that
2905: it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists
2906: into the current list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files
2907: must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is
2908: being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may
2909: also need to be transferred to the receiving side if you want them to
2910: affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
2911: below).
2912:
2913: Some examples:
2914:
2915: quote(
2916: tt(merge /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2917: tt(. /etc/rsync/default.rules)nl()
2918: tt(dir-merge .per-dir-filter)nl()
2919: tt(dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2920: tt(:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes)nl()
2921: )
2922:
2923: The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
2924:
2925: itemization(
2926: it() A bf(-) specifies that the file should consist of only exclude
2927: patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2928: it() A bf(+) specifies that the file should consist of only include
2929: patterns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
2930: it() A bf(C) is a way to specify that the file should be read in a
2931: CVS-compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also
2932: allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no filename is
2933: provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.
2934: it() A bf(e) will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.
2935: "dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
2936: it() An bf(n) specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
2937: it() A bf(w) specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead
2938: of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the
2939: space that separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so
2940: "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't
2941: also disabled).
2942: it() You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules
2943: (above) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file
2944: default to having that modifier set (except for the bf(!) modifier, which
2945: would not be useful). For instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would
2946: treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path excludes,
2947: while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
2948: per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
2949: specifies sides to affect (via the bf(s) or bf(r) modifier or both),
2950: then the rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or
2951: a rule prefix such as bf(hide)).
2952: )
2953:
2954: Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory
2955: where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each
2956: subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules
2957: from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority than the
2958: inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in
2959: the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it is possible to override
2960: dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified earlier in the list of global
2961: rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!") is read from a per-directory
2962: file, it only clears the inherited rules for the current merge file.
2963:
2964: Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited is to
2965: anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
2966: merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
2967: would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
2968: file was found.
2969:
2970: Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via bf(--filter=". file":)
2971:
2972: quote(
2973: tt(merge /home/user/.global-filter)nl()
2974: tt(- *.gz)nl()
2975: tt(dir-merge .rules)nl()
2976: tt(+ *.[ch])nl()
2977: tt(- *.o)nl()
2978: )
2979:
2980: This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the
2981: start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory
2982: filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan
2983: follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root
2984: of the transfer).
2985:
2986: If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
2987: directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent
2988: dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
2989: per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see bf(-F)):
2990:
2991: quote(tt(--filter=': /.rsync-filter'))
2992:
2993: That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all
2994: directories from the root down through the parent directory of the
2995: transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in
2996: the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an
2997: rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)
2998:
2999: Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
3000:
3001: quote(
3002: tt(rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
3003: tt(rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
3004: tt(rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir)nl()
3005: )
3006:
3007: The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and
3008: "/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path"
3009: and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan
3010: and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is
3011: a part of the transfer.
3012:
3013: If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,
3014: you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore
3015: file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can
3016: use this to affect where the bf(--cvs-exclude) (bf(-C)) option's inclusion of the
3017: per-directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the
3018: ":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would
3019: add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other
3020: rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules). For
3021: example:
3022:
3023: quote(
3024: tt(cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b)nl()
3025: tt(+ foo.o)nl()
3026: tt(:C)nl()
3027: tt(- *.old)nl()
3028: tt(EOT)nl()
3029: tt(rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b)nl()
3030: )
3031:
3032: Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all
3033: the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than
3034: at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules
3035: that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To
3036: affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions,
3037: the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should
3038: omit the bf(-C) command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into
3039: your filter rules; e.g. "bf(--filter=-C)".
3040:
3041: manpagesection(LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE)
3042:
3043: You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter
3044: rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current"
3045: list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while
3046: parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are
3047: inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear
3048: out the parent's rules).
3049:
3050: manpagesection(ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS)
3051:
3052: As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the
3053: "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are
3054: anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as
3055: a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the
3056: transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination
3057: directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
3058:
3059: Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
3060: trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the bf(--relative)
3061: option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to
3062: changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination
3063: host). The following examples demonstrate this.
3064:
3065: Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
3066: path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
3067: Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
3068:
3069: quote(
3070: Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest nl()
3071: +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar nl()
3072: +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz nl()
3073: Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
3074: Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
3075: )
3076:
3077: quote(
3078: Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest nl()
3079: +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me") nl()
3080: +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you") nl()
3081: Target file: /dest/foo/bar nl()
3082: Target file: /dest/bar/baz nl()
3083: )
3084:
3085: quote(
3086: Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest nl()
3087: +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path) nl()
3088: +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
3089: Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar nl()
3090: Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz nl()
3091: )
3092:
3093: quote(
3094: Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest nl()
3095: +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path) nl()
3096: +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto) nl()
3097: Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar nl()
3098: Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz nl()
3099: )
3100:
3101: The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
3102: look at the output when using bf(--verbose) and put a / in front of the name
3103: (use the bf(--dry-run) option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
3104:
3105: manpagesection(PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE)
3106:
3107: Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
3108: sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves
3109: without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds
3110: this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
3111:
3112: quote(
3113: tt(rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest)nl()
3114: tt(rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest)nl()
3115: )
3116:
3117: However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
3118: files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
3119: receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include
3120: the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use bf(--delete-after),
3121: because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude
3122: rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
3123:
3124: quote(tt(rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest))
3125:
3126: However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
3127: either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command
3128: line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on
3129: the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the
3130: remote .rules files exclude themselves):
3131:
3132: verb(rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
3133: --delete host:src/dir /dest)
3134:
3135: In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
3136: transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
3137: merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
3138: per-directory merge rule.
3139:
3140: In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
3141: files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
3142: to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
3143: specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get
3144: deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else
3145: should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
3146:
3147: verb( rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
3148: host:src/dir /dest
3149: rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest)
3150:
3151: manpagesection(BATCH MODE)
3152:
3153: Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many
3154: identical systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a
3155: number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this
3156: source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other
3157: hosts. In order to do this using batch mode, rsync is run with the
3158: write-batch option to apply the changes made to the source tree to one
3159: of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync
3160: client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
3161: this operation against other, identical destination trees.
3162:
3163: Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file
3164: status, checksum, and data block generation more than once when
3165: updating multiple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can
3166: be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts
3167: at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually.
3168:
3169: To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
3170: with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch
3171: file, and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree
3172: using the information stored in the batch file.
3173:
3174: For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch
3175: option is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh"
3176: appended. This script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a
3177: destination tree using the associated batch file. It can be executed using
3178: a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate
3179: destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the original
3180: destination path. This is useful when the destination tree path on the
3181: current host differs from the one used to create the batch file.
3182:
3183: Examples:
3184:
3185: quote(
3186: tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
3187: tt($ scp foo* remote:)nl()
3188: tt($ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/)nl()
3189: )
3190:
3191: quote(
3192: tt($ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/)nl()
3193: tt($ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo)nl()
3194: )
3195:
3196: In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/
3197: and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and
3198: "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going
3199: into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples
3200: reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
3201:
3202: itemization(
3203: it() The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
3204: local -- you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the
3205: remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
3206: it() The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right
3207: rsync options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
3208: it() The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that
3209: the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first.
3210: This example avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
3211: bf(--read-batch) option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to
3212: make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
3213: standard input, such as the "bf(--exclude-from=-)" option).
3214: )
3215:
3216: Caveats:
3217:
3218: The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
3219: to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the
3220: batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees
3221: is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the file
3222: appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be attempted
3223: and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded with an
3224: error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-batch operation
3225: if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force the batched-update to
3226: always be attempted regardless of the file's size and date, use the bf(-I)
3227: option (when reading the batch).
3228: If an error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a
3229: partially updated state. In that case, rsync can
3230: be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to fix up the
3231: destination tree.
3232:
3233: The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the
3234: one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the
3235: protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync
3236: to handle. See also the bf(--protocol) option for a way to have the
3237: creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand.
3238: (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions
3239: older than that with newer versions will not work.)
3240:
3241: When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options
3242: to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same
3243: as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed.
3244: For instance bf(--write-batch) changes to bf(--read-batch),
3245: bf(--files-from) is dropped, and the
3246: bf(--filter)/bf(--include)/bf(--exclude) options are not needed unless
3247: one of the bf(--delete) options is specified.
3248:
3249: The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
3250: options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the
3251: shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude
3252: list if a change in what gets deleted by bf(--delete) is desired. A normal
3253: user can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way
3254: to run the appropriate bf(--read-batch) command for the batched data.
3255:
3256: The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
3257: version uses a new implementation.
3258:
3259: manpagesection(SYMBOLIC LINKS)
3260:
3261: Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
3262: link in the source directory.
3263:
3264: By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
3265: "skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
3266:
3267: If bf(--links) is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same
3268: target on the destination. Note that bf(--archive) implies
3269: bf(--links).
3270:
3271: If bf(--copy-links) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
3272: copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
3273:
3274: Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An
3275: example where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to
3276: ensure that the rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to
3277: bf(/etc/passwd) in the public section of the site. Using
3278: bf(--copy-unsafe-links) will cause any links to be copied as the file
3279: they point to on the destination. Using bf(--safe-links) will cause
3280: unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify
3281: bf(--links) for bf(--safe-links) to have any effect.)
3282:
3283: Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
3284: (start with bf(/)), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
3285: components to ascend from the directory being copied.
3286:
3287: Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is
3288: in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned,
3289: use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
3290:
3291: dit(bf(--copy-links)) Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no
3292: symlinks for any other options to affect).
3293:
3294: dit(bf(--links --copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files
3295: and duplicate all safe symlinks.
3296:
3297: dit(bf(--copy-unsafe-links)) Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
3298: skip all safe symlinks.
3299:
3300: dit(bf(--links --safe-links)) Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe
3301: ones.
3302:
3303: dit(bf(--links)) Duplicate all symlinks.
3304:
3305: manpagediagnostics()
3306:
3307: rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little
3308: cryptic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol
3309: version mismatch -- is your shell clean?".
3310:
3311: This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
3312: facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
3313: for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your
3314: remote shell like this:
3315:
3316: quote(tt(ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat))
3317:
3318: then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat
3319: should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
3320: rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
3321: data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing
3322: it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup
3323: scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements
3324: for non-interactive logins.
3325:
3326: If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then
3327: try specifying the bf(-vv) option. At this level of verbosity rsync will
3328: show why each individual file is included or excluded.
3329:
3330: manpagesection(EXIT VALUES)
3331:
3332: startdit()
3333: dit(bf(0)) Success
3334: dit(bf(1)) Syntax or usage error
3335: dit(bf(2)) Protocol incompatibility
3336: dit(bf(3)) Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
3337: dit(bf(4)) Requested action not supported: an attempt
3338: was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support
3339: them; or an option was specified that is supported by the client and
3340: not by the server.
3341: dit(bf(5)) Error starting client-server protocol
3342: dit(bf(6)) Daemon unable to append to log-file
3343: dit(bf(10)) Error in socket I/O
3344: dit(bf(11)) Error in file I/O
3345: dit(bf(12)) Error in rsync protocol data stream
3346: dit(bf(13)) Errors with program diagnostics
3347: dit(bf(14)) Error in IPC code
3348: dit(bf(20)) Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
3349: dit(bf(21)) Some error returned by code(waitpid())
3350: dit(bf(22)) Error allocating core memory buffers
3351: dit(bf(23)) Partial transfer due to error
3352: dit(bf(24)) Partial transfer due to vanished source files
3353: dit(bf(25)) The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
3354: dit(bf(30)) Timeout in data send/receive
3355: dit(bf(35)) Timeout waiting for daemon connection
3356: enddit()
3357:
3358: manpagesection(ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES)
3359:
3360: startdit()
3361: dit(bf(CVSIGNORE)) The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any
3362: ignore patterns in .cvsignore files. See the bf(--cvs-exclude) option for
3363: more details.
3364: dit(bf(RSYNC_ICONV)) Specify a default bf(--iconv) setting using this
3365: environment variable. (First supported in 3.0.0.)
3366: dit(bf(RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS)) Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the
3367: bf(--protect-args) option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make
3368: sure that it is disabled by default. (First supported in 3.1.0.)
3369: dit(bf(RSYNC_RSH)) The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to
3370: override the default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
3371: options are permitted after the command name, just as in the bf(-e) option.
3372: dit(bf(RSYNC_PROXY)) The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to
3373: redirect your rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a
3374: rsync daemon. You should set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
3375: dit(bf(RSYNC_PASSWORD)) Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required
3376: password allows you to run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync
3377: daemon without user intervention. Note that this does not supply a
3378: password to a remote shell transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that,
3379: consult the remote shell's documentation.
3380: dit(bf(USER) or bf(LOGNAME)) The USER or LOGNAME environment variables
3381: are used to determine the default username sent to an rsync daemon.
3382: If neither is set, the username defaults to "nobody".
3383: dit(bf(HOME)) The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's
3384: default .cvsignore file.
3385: enddit()
3386:
3387: manpagefiles()
3388:
3389: /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
3390:
3391: manpageseealso()
3392:
3393: bf(rsyncd.conf)(5)
3394:
3395: manpagebugs()
3396:
3397: times are transferred as *nix time_t values
3398:
3399: When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
3400: unmodified files.
3401: See the comments on the bf(--modify-window) option.
3402:
3403: file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
3404: values
3405:
3406: see also the comments on the bf(--delete) option
3407:
3408: Please report bugs! See the web site at
3409: url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/)
3410:
3411: manpagesection(VERSION)
3412:
3413: This man page is current for version 3.1.2 of rsync.
3414:
3415: manpagesection(INTERNAL OPTIONS)
3416:
3417: The options bf(--server) and bf(--sender) are used internally by rsync,
3418: and should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some
3419: awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
3420: when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For instance,
3421: the support directory of the rsync distribution has an example script
3422: named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a restricted
3423: ssh login.
3424:
3425: manpagesection(CREDITS)
3426:
3427: rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
3428: COPYING for details.
3429:
3430: A WEB site is available at
3431: url(http://rsync.samba.org/)(http://rsync.samba.org/). The site
3432: includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this
3433: manual page.
3434:
3435: The primary ftp site for rsync is
3436: url(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync)(ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync).
3437:
3438: We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program.
3439: Please contact the mailing-list at rsync@lists.samba.org.
3440:
3441: This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
3442: Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
3443:
3444: manpagesection(THANKS)
3445:
3446: Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
3447: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
3448: gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
3449:
3450: Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
3451: and David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
3452:
3453: manpageauthor()
3454:
3455: rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
3456: Many people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained
3457: by Wayne Davison.
3458:
3459: Mailing lists for support and development are available at
3460: url(http://lists.samba.org)(lists.samba.org)
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