Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man rsync

rsync(1) rsync(1)

NAME

rsync - faster, flexible replacement for rcp

SYNOPSIS

rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST

rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST

rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST

rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST

rsync [OPTION]... SRC

rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]

rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]

rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]

DESCRIPTION

rsync is a program that behaves in much the same way that rcp does, but

has many more options and uses the rsync remote-update protocol to

greatly speed up file transfers when the destination file is being updated.

The rsync remote-update protocol allows rsync to transfer just the dif-

ferences between two sets of files across the network connection, using

an efficient checksum-search algorithm described in the technical

report that accompanies this package.

Some of the additional features of rsync are:

o support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permis-

sions

o exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar

o a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore o can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh

o does not require super-user privileges

o pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs

o support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for

mirroring) GGEENNEERRAALL Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).

There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system:

using a remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or

contacting an rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell trans-

port is used whenever the source or destination path contains a single

colon (:) separator after a host specification. Contacting an rsync

daemon directly happens when the source or destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host specification, OR when an

rsync:// URL is specified (see also the "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES

VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for an exception to this latter

rule).

As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a desti-

nation, the files are listed in an output format similar to "ls -l".

As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote

host, the copy occurs locally (see also the --lliisstt-oonnllyy option).

SSEETTUUPP See the file README for installation instructions.

Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access

via a remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync

daemon-mode protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh

for its communications, but it may have been configured to use a dif-

ferent remote shell by default, such as rsh or remsh.

You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the -ee

command line option, or by setting the RSYNCRSH environment variable.

Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination

machines. UUSSAAGGEE

You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source

and a destination, one of which may be remote. Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:

rsync -t *.c foo:src/

This would transfer all files matching the pattern *.c from the current directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files

already exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update proto-

col is used to update the file by sending only the differences. See the tech report for details.

rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp

This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine.

The files are transferred in "archive" mode, which ensures that sym-

bolic links, devices, attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer. Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of the transfer.

rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp

A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing / on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the

attributes of the containing directory are transferred to the contain-

ing directory on the destination. In other words, each of the follow-

ing commands copies the files in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:

rsync -av /src/foo /dest

rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo

Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy the remote directory's contents into "/dest":

rsync -av host: /dest

rsync -av host::module /dest

You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and

destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an improved copy command.

Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a par-

ticular rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:

rsync somehost.mydomain.com::

See the following section for more details. AADDVVAANNCCEEDD UUSSAAGGEE The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host involves using quoted spaces in the SRC. Some examples:

rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest

This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest from an rsync daemon. Each

additional arg must include the same "modname/" prefix as the first one, and must be preceded by a single space. All other spaces are assumed to be a part of the filenames.

rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest

This would copy file1 and file2 into /dest using a remote shell. This

word-splitting is done by the remote shell, so if it doesn't work it

means that the remote shell isn't configured to split its args based on whitespace (a very rare setting, but not unknown). If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you'll need to either escape the whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand, or use wildcards in place of the spaces. Two examples of this are:

rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest

rsync -av host:file?name?with?spaces /dest

This latter example assumes that your shell passes through unmatched wildcards. If it complains about "no match", put the name in quotes. CCOONNNNEECCTTIINNGG TTOO AANN RRSSYYNNCC DDAAEEMMOONN

It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the trans-

port. In this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon,

typically using TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to

be running on the remote system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAE-

MON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS section below for information on that.)

Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell

except that: o you either use a double colon :: instead of a single colon to

separate the hostname from the path, or you use an rsync:// URL.

o the first word of the "path" is actually a module name.

o the remote daemon may print a message of the day when you con-

nect. o if you specify no path name on the remote daemon then the list of accessible paths on the daemon will be shown.

o if you specify no local destination then a listing of the speci-

fied files on the remote daemon is provided.

o you must not specify the --rrsshh (-ee) option.

An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":

rsync -av host::src /dest

Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt by setting the environment variable RSYNCPASSWORD to

the password you want to use or using the --ppaasssswwoorrdd-ffiillee option. This

may be useful when scripting rsync.

WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all

users. On those systems using --ppaasssswwoorrdd-ffiillee is recommended.

You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the envi-

ronment variable RSYNCPROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy. Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port 873.

UUSSIINNGG RRSSYYNNCC-DDAAEEMMOONN FFEEAATTUURREESS VVIIAA AA RREEMMOOTTEE-SSHHEELLLL CCOONNNNEECCTTIIOONN

It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such

as named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections

into a system (other than what is already required to allow remote-

shell access). Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote

shell and then spawning a single-use "daemon" server that expects to

read its config file in the home dir of the remote user. This can be

useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style transfer's data, but since

the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user, you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh to

tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync

daemon on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)

From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell con-

nection uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-dae-

mon transfer, with the only exception being that you must explicitly

set the remote shell program on the command-line with the --rrsshh==CCOOMMMMAANNDD

option. (Setting the RSYNCRSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:

rsync -av -rsh=ssh host::module /dest

If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that

the user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user

value (for a module that requires user-based authentication). This

means that you must give the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying

the remote-shell, as in this example that uses the short version of the

--rrsshh option:

rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest

The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be

used to log-in to the "module".

SSTTAARRTTIINNGG AANN RRSSYYNNCC DDAAEEMMOONN TTOO AACCCCEEPPTT CCOONNNNEECCTTIIOONNSS

In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have

a daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like

inetd to spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular

port). For full information on how to start a daemon that will han-

dling incoming socket connections, see the rrssyynnccdd..ccoonnff(5) man page -

that is the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full

details for how to run the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd con-

figurations).

If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer,

there is no need to manually start an rsync daemon.

EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS

Here are some examples of how I use rsync.

To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail folders, I use a cron job that runs

rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup

each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine "arvidsjaur".

To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile tar-

gets: get:

rsync -avuzb -exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .

put:

rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/

sync: get put this allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the connection. I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot of time as the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.

I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the com-

mand:

rsync -az -e ssh -delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge"

This is launched from cron every few hours. OOPPTTIIOONNSS SSUUMMMMAARRYY

Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer

to the detailed description below for a complete description.

-v, -verbose increase verbosity

-q, -quiet suppress non-error messages

-no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see caveat)

-c, -checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size

-a, -archive archive mode; same as -rlptgoD (no -H)

-no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. -no-D)

-r, -recursive recurse into directories

-R, -relative use relative path names

-no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with -relative

-b, -backup make backups (see -suffix & -backup-dir)

-backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR

-suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o -backup-dir)

-u, -update skip files that are newer on the receiver

-inplace update destination files in-place

-append append data onto shorter files

-d, -dirs transfer directories without recursing

-l, -links copy symlinks as symlinks

-L, -copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir

-copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed

-safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree

-k, -copy-dirlinks transform symlink to dir into referent dir

-K, -keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir

-H, -hard-links preserve hard links

-p, -perms preserve permissions

-executability preserve executability

-chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions

-o, -owner preserve owner (super-user only)

-g, -group preserve group

-devices preserve device files (super-user only)

-specials preserve special files

-D same as -devices -specials

-t, -times preserve times

-O, -omit-dir-times omit directories when preserving times

-super receiver attempts super-user activities

-S, -sparse handle sparse files efficiently

-n, -dry-run show what would have been transferred

-W, -whole-file copy files whole (without rsync algorithm)

-x, -one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries

-B, -block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size

-e, -rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use

-rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine

-existing skip creating new files on receiver

-ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver

-remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)

-del an alias for -delete-during

-delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs

-delete-before receiver deletes before transfer (default)

-delete-during receiver deletes during xfer, not before

-delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not before

-delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs

-ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors

-force force deletion of dirs even if not empty

-max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files

-max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE

-min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE

-partial keep partially transferred files

-partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR

-delay-updates put all updated files into place at end

-m, -prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from file-list

-numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name

-timeout=TIME set I/O timeout in seconds

-I, -ignore-times don't skip files that match size and time

-size-only skip files that match in size

-modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy

-T, -temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR

-y, -fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file

-compare-dest=DIR also compare received files relative to DIR

-copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files

-link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged

-z, -compress compress file data during the transfer

-compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level

-C, -cvs-exclude auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does

-f, -filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE

-F same as -filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'

repeated: -filter='- .rsync-filter'

-exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN

-exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE

-include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN

-include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE

-files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE

-0, -from0 all *from/filter files are delimited by 0s

-address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon

-port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number

-sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options

-blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell

-stats give some file-transfer stats

-8, -8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output

-h, -human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format

-progress show progress during transfer

-P same as -partial -progress

-i, -itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates

-out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT

-log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE

-log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT

-password-file=FILE read password from FILE

-list-only list the files instead of copying them

-bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second

-write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE

-only-write-batch=FILE like -write-batch but w/o updating dest

-read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE

-protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used

-checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)

-4, -ipv4 prefer IPv4

-6, -ipv6 prefer IPv6

-E, -extended-attributes copy extended attributes, resource forks

-version print version number

(-h) -help show this help (see below for -h comment)

Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are accepted:

-daemon run as an rsync daemon

-address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address

-bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second

-config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file

-no-detach do not detach from the parent

-port=PORT listen on alternate port number

-log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting

-log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting

-sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options

-v, -verbose increase verbosity

-4, -ipv4 prefer IPv4

-6, -ipv6 prefer IPv6

-h, -help show this help (if used after -daemon)

OOPPTTIIOONNSS

rsync uses the GNU long options package. Many of the command line

options have two variants, one short and one long. These are shown below, separated by commas. Some options only have a long variant. The '=' for options that take a parameter is optional; whitespace can be used instead.

--hheellpp Print a short help page describing the options available in

rsync and exit. For backward-compatibility with older versions

of rsync, the help will also be output if you use the -hh option

without any other args.

--vveerrssiioonn

print the rsync version number and exit.

-vv,, --vveerrbboossee

This option increases the amount of information you are given

during the transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single

-vv will give you information about what files are being trans-

ferred and a brief summary at the end. Two -vv flags will give

you information on what files are being skipped and slightly

more information at the end. More than two -vv flags should only

be used if you are debugging rsync.

Note that the names of the transferred files that are output are

done using a default --oouutt-ffoorrmmaatt of "%n%L", which tells you

just the name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it

points. At the single -vv level of verbosity, this does not men-

tion when a file gets its attributes changed. If you ask for an

itemized list of changed attributes (either --iitteemmiizzee-cchhaannggeess or

adding "%i" to the --oouutt-ffoorrmmaatt setting), the output (on the

client) increases to mention all items that are changed in any

way. See the --oouutt-ffoorrmmaatt option for more details.

-qq,, --qquuiieett

This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the transfer, notably suppressing information messages

from the remote server. This flag is useful when invoking rsync

from cron.

--nnoo-mmoottdd

This option affects the information that is output by the client

at the start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-

of-the-day (MOTD) text, but it also affects the list of modules

that the daemon sends in response to the "rsync host::" request

(due to a limitation in the rsync protocol), so omit this option

if you want to request the list of modules from the deamon.

-II,, --iiggnnoorree-ttiimmeess

Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same

size and have the same modification time-stamp. This option

turns off this "quick check" behavior, causing all files to be updated.

--ssiizzee-oonnllyy

Normally rsync will not transfer any files that are already the

same size and have the same modification time-stamp. With the

--ssiizzee-oonnllyy option, files will not be transferred if they have

the same size, regardless of timestamp. This is useful when

starting to use rsync after using another mirroring system which

may not preserve timestamps exactly.

--mmooddiiffyy-wwiinnddooww

When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as

being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window

value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT

filesystem (which represents times with a 2-second resolution),

--mmooddiiffyy-wwiinnddooww==11 is useful (allowing times to differ by up to 1

second).

-cc,, --cchheecckkssuumm

This forces the sender to checksum every regular file using a

128-bit MD4 checksum. It does this during the initial file-sys-

tem scan as it builds the list of all available files. The receiver then checksums its version of each file (if it exists

and it has the same size as its sender-side counterpart) in

order to decide which files need to be updated: files with either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for

transfer. Since this whole-file checksumming of all files on

both sides of the connection occurs in addition to the automatic checksum verifications that occur during a file's transfer, this option can be quite slow.

Note that rsync always verifies that each transferred file was

correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking its

whole-file checksum, but that automatic after-the-transfer veri-

fication has nothing to do with this option's before-the-trans-

fer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.

-aa,, --aarrcchhiivvee

This is equivalent to -rrllppttggooDD. It is a quick way of saying you

want recursion and want to preserve almost everything (with -H

being a notable omission). The only exception to the above

equivalence is when --ffiilleess-ffrroomm is specified, in which case -rr

is not implied.

Note that -aa ddooeess nnoott pprreesseerrvvee hhaarrddlliinnkkss, because finding multi-

ply-linked files is expensive. You must separately specify -HH.

-no-OPTION

You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the

option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a

"no-": only options that are implied by other options (e.g.

--nnoo-DD, --nnoo-ppeerrmmss) or have different defaults in various cir-

cumstances (e.g. --nnoo-wwhhoollee-ffiillee, --nnoo-bblloocckkiinngg-iioo, --nnoo-ddiirrss).

You may specify either the short or the long option name after

the "no-" prefix (e.g. --nnoo-RR is the same as --nnoo-rreellaattiivvee).

For example: if you want to use -aa (--aarrcchhiivvee) but don't want -oo

(--oowwnneerr), instead of converting -aa into -rrllppttggDD, you could

specify -aa --nnoo-oo (or -aa --nnoo-oowwnneerr).

The order of the options is important: if you specify --nnoo-rr

-aa, the -rr option would end up being turned on, the opposite of

-aa --nnoo-rr. Note also that the side-effects of the --ffiilleess-ffrroomm

option are NOT positional, as it affects the default state of

several options and slightly changes the meaning of -aa (see the

--ffiilleess-ffrroomm option for more details).

-rr,, --rreeccuurrssiivvee

This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also

--ddiirrss (-dd).

-RR,, --rreellaattiivvee

Use relative paths. This means that the full path names speci-

fied on the command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this command:

rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/

... this would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead you used

rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/

then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the

remote machine - the full path name is preserved. To limit the

amount of path information that is sent, you have a couple

options: (1) With a modern rsync on the sending side (beginning

with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into the source path, like this:

rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/

That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not

be abbreviated.) (2) For older rsync versions, you would need

to use a chdir to limit the source path. For example, when pushing files:

(cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)

(Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so

that the "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future com-

mands.) If you're pulling files, use this idiom (which doesn't

work with an rsync daemon):

rsync -avR -rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \

remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/

--nnoo-iimmpplliieedd-ddiirrss

This option affects the default behavior of the --rreellaattiivvee

option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied

directories from the source names are not included in the trans-

fer. This means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.

This even allows these implied path elements to have big differ-

ences, such as being a symlink to a directory on one side of the transfer, and a real directory on the other side.

For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told

rsync to transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories

"path" and "path/foo" are implied when --rreellaattiivvee is used. If

"path/foo" is a symlink to "bar" on the destination system, the

receiving rsync would ordinarily delete "path/foo", recreate it

as a directory, and receive the file into the new directory.

With --nnoo-iimmpplliieedd-ddiirrss, the receiving rsync updates

"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link preservation is to use the

--kkeeeepp-ddiirrlliinnkkss option (which will also affect symlinks to

directories in the rest of the transfer). In a similar but opposite scenario, if the transfer of "path/foo/file" is requested and "path/foo" is a symlink on the

sending side, running without --nnoo-iimmpplliieedd-ddiirrss would cause

rsync to transform "path/foo" on the receiving side into an

identical symlink, and then attempt to transfer "path/foo/file", which might fail if the duplicated symlink did not point to a directory on the receiving side. Another way to avoid this sending of a symlink as an implied directory is to use

--ccooppyy-uunnssaaffee-lliinnkkss, or --ccooppyy-ddiirrlliinnkkss (both of which also

affect symlinks in the rest of the transfer - see their

descriptions for full details).

-bb,, --bbaacckkuupp

With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and what (if any) suffix gets appended using

the --bbaacckkuupp-ddiirr and --ssuuffffiixx options.

Note that if you don't specify --bbaacckkuupp-ddiirr, (1) the

--oommiitt-ddiirr-ttiimmeess option will be implied, and (2) if --ddeelleettee is

also in effect (without --ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd), rsync will add a

"protect" filter-rule for the backup suffix to the end of all

your existing excludes (e.g. -f "P *~"). This will prevent pre-

viously backed-up files from being deleted. Note that if you

are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of

'*', the auto-added rule would never be reached).

--bbaacckkuupp-ddiirr==DDIIRR

In combination with the --bbaacckkuupp option, this tells rsync to

store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving

side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can addi-

tionally specify a backup suffix using the --ssuuffffiixx option (oth-

erwise the files backed up in the specified directory will keep their original filenames).

--ssuuffffiixx==SSUUFFFFIIXX

This option allows you to override the default backup suffix

used with the --bbaacckkuupp (-bb) option. The default suffix is a ~ if

no --bbaacckkuupp-ddiirr was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.

-uu,, --uuppddaattee

This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destina-

tion and have a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing destination file has a modify time equal

to the source file's, it will be updated if the sizes are dif-

ferent.)

In the current implementation of --uuppddaattee, a difference of file

format between the sender and receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a directory or a symlink where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur regardless of the timestamps. This might change in the future (feel free to comment on this on the mailing list if you have an opinion).

--iinnppllaaccee

This causes rsync not to create a new copy of the file and then

move it into place. Instead rsync will overwrite the existing

file, meaning that the rsync algorithm can't accomplish the full

amount of network reduction it might be able to otherwise (since it does not yet try to sort data matches). One exception to

this is if you combine the option with --bbaacckkuupp, since rsync is

smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for the transfer.

This option is useful for transfer of large files with block-

based changes or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network bound.

The option implies --ppaarrttiiaall (since an interrupted transfer does

not delete the file), but conflicts with --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr and

--ddeellaayy-uuppddaatteess. Prior to rsync 2.6.4 --iinnppllaaccee was also incom-

patible with --ccoommppaarree-ddeesstt and --lliinnkk-ddeesstt.

WARNING: The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during

the transfer (and possibly afterward if the transfer gets inter-

rupted), so you should not use this option to update files that

are in use. Also note that rsync will be unable to update a

file in-place that is not writable by the receiving user.

--aappppeenndd

This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto the

end of the file, which presumes that the data that already exists on the receiving side is identical with the start of the file on the sending side. If that is not true, the file will fail the checksum test, and the resend will do a normal

--iinnppllaaccee update to correct the mismatched data. Only files on

the receiving side that are shorter than the corresponding file on the sending side (as well as new files) are sent. Implies

--iinnppllaaccee, but does not conflict with --ssppaarrssee (though the

--ssppaarrssee option will be auto-disabled if a resend of the

already-existing data is required).

-dd,, --ddiirrss

Tell the sending side to include any directories that are

encountered. Unlike --rreeccuurrssiivvee, a directory's contents are not

copied unless the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this

option or the --rreeccuurrssiivvee option, rsync will skip all directo-

ries it encounters (and output a message to that effect for each

one). If you specify both --ddiirrss and --rreeccuurrssiivvee, --rreeccuurrssiivvee

takes precedence.

-ll,, --lliinnkkss

When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the des-

tination.

-LL,, --ccooppyy-lliinnkkss

When symlinks are encountered, the item that they point to (the referent) is copied, rather than the symlink. In older versions

of rsync, this option also had the side-effect of telling the

receiving side to follow symlinks, such as symlinks to directo-

ries. In a modern rsync such as this one, you'll need to spec-

ify --kkeeeepp-ddiirrlliinnkkss (-KK) to get this extra behavior. The only

exception is when sending files to an rsync that is too old to

understand -KK - in that case, the -LL option will still have the

side-effect of -KK on that older receiving rsync.

--ccooppyy-uunnssaaffee-lliinnkkss

This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that

point outside the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files, and so are any symlinks in the

source path itself when --rreellaattiivvee is used. This option has no

additional effect if --ccooppyy-lliinnkkss was also specified.

--ssaaffee-lliinnkkss

This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point out-

side the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also ignored.

Using this option in conjunction with --rreellaattiivvee may give unex-

pected results.

-KK,, --ccooppyy-ddiirrlliinnkkss

This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory. This is useful if

you don't want symlinks to non-directories to be affected, as

they would be using --ccooppyy-lliinnkkss.

Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a direc-

tory with a symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in the way of the new symlink, including

a directory hierarchy (as long as --ffoorrccee or --ddeelleettee is in

effect).

See also --kkeeeepp-ddiirrlliinnkkss for an analogous option for the receiv-

ing side.

-KK,, --kkeeeepp-ddiirrlliinnkkss

This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be deleted and replaced with a real directory.

For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that con-

tains a file "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar"

on the receiver. Without --kkeeeepp-ddiirrlliinnkkss, the receiver deletes

symlink "foo", recreates it as a directory, and receives the

file into the new directory. With --kkeeeepp-ddiirrlliinnkkss, the receiver

keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in "bar".

See also --ccooppyy-ddiirrlliinnkkss for an analogous option for the sending

side.

-HH,, --hhaarrdd-lliinnkkss

This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the transfer

and link together the corresponding files on the receiving side.

Without this option, hard-linked files in the transfer are

treated as though they were separate files.

Note that rsync can only detect hard links if both parts of the

link are in the list of files being sent.

-pp,, --ppeerrmmss

This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination

permissions to be the same as the source permissions. (See also

the --cchhmmoodd option for a way to modify what rsync considers to

be the source permissions.) When this option is off, permissions are set as follows: o Existing files (including updated files) retain their

existing permissions, though the --eexxeeccuuttaabbiilliittyy option

might change just the execute permission for the file. o New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's permissions masked with the receiving end's umask setting, and their special permission bits disabled

except in the case where a new directory inherits a set-

gid bit from its parent directory.

Thus, when --ppeerrmmss and --eexxeeccuuttaabbiilliittyy are both disabled,

rsync's behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utili-

ties, such as ccpp(1) and ttaarr(1). In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the

source permissions, use --ppeerrmmss. To give new files the destina-

tion-default permissions (while leaving existing files

unchanged), make sure that the --ppeerrmmss option is off and use

--cchhmmoodd==uuggoo==rrwwXX (which ensures that all non-masked bits get

enabled). If you'd care to make this latter behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as putting this

line in the file ~/.popt (this defines the -ss option, and

includes -no-g to use the default group of the destination

dir):

rsync alias -s -no-p -no-g -chmod=ugo=rwX

You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:

rsync -asv src/ dest/

(Caveat: make sure that -aa does not follow -ss, or it will re-

enable the "-no-*" options.)

The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-cre-

ated directories when --ppeerrmmss is off was added in rsync 2.6.7.

Older rsync versions erroneously preserved the three special

permission bits for newly-created files when --ppeerrmmss was off,

while overriding the destination's setgid bit setting on a

newly-created directory. (Keep in mind that it is the version

of the receiving rsync that affects this behavior.)

--eexxeeccuuttaabbiilliittyy

This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or non-

executability) of regular files when --ppeerrmmss is not enabled. A

regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability differs from that of the corresponding

source file, rsync modifies the destination file's permissions

as follows:

o To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its

'x' permissions.

o To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' per-

mission that has a corresponding 'r' permission enabled.

If --ppeerrmmss is enabled, this option is ignored.

--cchhmmoodd

This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated

"chmod" strings to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is treated as though it was the permissions that the sending side supplied for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on existing files if

--ppeerrmmss is not enabled.

In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the cchhmmoodd(1) manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example:

-chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X

It is also legal to specify multiple --cchhmmoodd options, as each

additional option is just appended to the list of changes to make.

See the --ppeerrmmss and --eexxeeccuuttaabbiilliittyy options for how the result-

ing permission value can be applied to the files in the trans-

fer.

-oo,, --oowwnneerr

This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination

file to be the same as the source file, but only if the receiv-

ing rsync is being run as the super-user (see also the --ssuuppeerr

option to force rsync to attempt super-user activities). With-

out this option, the owner is set to the invoking user on the receiving side. The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by

default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some cir-

cumstances (see also the --nnuummeerriicc-iiddss option for a full discus-

sion).

-gg,, --ggrroouupp

This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination

file to be the same as the source file. If the receiving pro-

gram is not running as the super-user (or if --nnoo-ssuuppeerr was

specified), only groups that the invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved. Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking user on the receiving side. The preservation of group information will associate matching names by default, but may fall back to using the ID number in

some circumstances (see also the --nnuummeerriicc-iiddss option for a full

discussion).

--ddeevviicceess

This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device

files to the remote system to recreate these devices. This

option has no effect if the receiving rsync is not run as the

super-user and --ssuuppeerr is not specified.

--ssppeecciiaallss

This option causes rsync to transfer special files such as named

sockets and fifos.

-DD The -DD option is equivalent to --ddeevviicceess --ssppeecciiaallss.

-tt,, --ttiimmeess

This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the

files and update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used, the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be effective; in other words, a

missing -tt or -aa will cause the next transfer to behave as if it

used -II, causing all files to be updated (though the rsync algo-

rithm will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't

actually changed, you're much better off using -tt).

-OO,, --oommiitt-ddiirr-ttiimmeess

This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modi-

fication times (see --ttiimmeess). If NFS is sharing the directories

on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use -OO. This option

is inferred if you use --bbaacckkuupp without --bbaacckkuupp-ddiirr.

--ssuuppeerr

This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities

even if the receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These

activities include: preserving users via the --oowwnneerr option,

preserving all groups (not just the current user's groups) via

the --ggrroouuppss option, and copying devices via the --ddeevviicceess

option. This is useful for systems that allow such activities

without being the super-user, and also for ensuring that you

will get errors if the receiving side isn't being running as the

super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user

can use --nnoo-ssuuppeerr.

-SS,, --ssppaarrssee

Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less

space on the destination. Conflicts with --iinnppllaaccee because it's

not possible to overwrite data in a sparse fashion.

NOTE: Don't use this option when the destination is a Solaris

"tmpfs" filesystem. It doesn't seem to handle seeks over null regions correctly and ends up corrupting the files.

-nn,, --ddrryy-rruunn

This tells rsync to not do any file transfers, instead it will

just report the actions it would have taken.

-WW,, --wwhhoollee-ffiillee

With this option the incremental rsync algorithm is not used and

the whole file is sent as-is instead. The transfer may be

faster if this option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk" is actually a networked

filesystem). This is the default when both the source and des-

tination are specified as local paths.

-xx,, --oonnee-ffiillee-ssyysstteemm

This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when

recursing. This does not limit the user's ability to specify

items to copy from multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion

through the hierarchy of each directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the receiving side during

deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a "bind" mount to

the same device as being on the same filesystem.

If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directo-

ries from the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory

at each mount-point it encounters (using the attributes of the

mounted directory because those of the underlying mount-point

directory are inaccessible).

If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via --ccooppyy-lliinnkkss or

--ccooppyy-uunnssaaffee-lliinnkkss), a symlink to a directory on another device

is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are

unaffected by this option.

--eexxiissttiinngg,, --iiggnnoorree-nnoonn-eexxiissttiinngg

This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories)

that do not exist yet on the destination. If this option is

combined with the --iiggnnoorree-eexxiissttiinngg option, no files will be

updated (which can be useful if all you want to do is to delete extraneous files).

--iiggnnoorree-eexxiissttiinngg

This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on

the destination (this does not ignore existing directores, or

nothing would get done). See also --eexxiissttiinngg.

--rreemmoovvee-ssoouurrccee-ffiilleess

This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files

(meaning non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and

have been successfully duplicated on the receiving side.

--ddeelleettee

This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving

side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are being synchronized. You must have asked

rsync to send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without

using a wildcard for the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*")

since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and rsync thus gets

a request to transfer individual files, not the files' parent directory. Files that are excluded from transfer are also

excluded from being deleted unless you use the --ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd

option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).

Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless

--rreeccuurrssiivvee was in effect. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will

also occur when --ddiirrss (-dd) is in effect, but only for directo-

ries whose contents are being copied. This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very

good idea to run first using the --ddrryy-rruunn option (-nn) to see

what files would be deleted to make sure important files aren't listed. If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override this with the

--iiggnnoorree-eerrrroorrss option.

The --ddeelleettee option may be combined with one of the

-delete-WHEN options without conflict, as well as

--ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd. However, if none of the -delete-WHEN

options are specified, rsync will currently choose the

--ddeelleettee-bbeeffoorree algorithm. A future version may change this to

choose the --ddeelleettee-dduurriinngg algorithm. See also --ddeelleettee-aafftteerr.

--ddeelleettee-bbeeffoorree

Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done

before the transfer starts. This is the default if --ddeelleettee or

--ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd is specified without one of the -delete-WHEN

options. See --ddeelleettee (which is implied) for more details on

file-deletion.

Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the transfer, and this delay might cause the

transfer to timeout (if --ttiimmeeoouutt was specified).

--ddeelleettee-dduurriinngg,, --ddeell

Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done

incrementally as the transfer happens. This is a faster method

than choosing the before- or after-transfer algorithm, but it is

only supported beginning with rsync version 2.6.4. See --ddeelleettee

(which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.

--ddeelleettee-aafftteerr

Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done

after the transfer has completed. This is useful if you are

sending new per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer

and you want their exclusions to take effect for the delete

phase of the current transfer. See --ddeelleettee (which is implied)

for more details on file-deletion.

--ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd

In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side that are

not on the sending side, this tells rsync to also delete any

files on the receiving side that are excluded (see --eexxcclluuddee).

See the FILTER RULES section for a way to make individual exclu-

sions behave this way on the receiver, and for a way to protect

files from --ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd. See --ddeelleettee (which is implied)

for more details on file-deletion.

--iiggnnoorree-eerrrroorrss

Tells --ddeelleettee to go ahead and delete files even when there are

I/O errors.

--ffoorrccee

This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it

is to be replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if

deletions are not active (see --ddeelleettee for details).

Note for older rsync versions: --ffoorrccee used to still be required

when using --ddeelleettee-aafftteerr, and it used to be non-functional

unless the --rreeccuurrssiivvee option was also enabled.

--mmaaxx-ddeelleettee==NNUUMM

This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directo-

ries (NUM must be non-zero). This is useful when mirroring very

large trees to prevent disasters.

--mmaaxx-ssiizzee==SSIIZZEE

This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger

than the specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a fractional

value (e.g. "--mmaaxx-ssiizzee==11..55mm").

The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024), "M" (or "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024*1024), and "G" (or

"GiB") is a gibibyte (1024*1024*1024). If you want the multi-

plier to be 1000 instead of 1024, use "KB", "MB", or "GB".

(Note: lower-case is also accepted for all values.) Finally, if

the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will be offset

by one byte in the indicated direction.

Examples: -max-size=1.5mb-1 is 1499999 bytes, and

-max-size=2g+1 is 2147483649 bytes.

--mmiinn-ssiizzee==SSIIZZEE

This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller

than the specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring

small, junk files. See the --mmaaxx-ssiizzee option for a description

of SIZE.

-BB,, --bblloocckk-ssiizzee==BBLLOOCCKKSSIIZZEE

This forces the block size used in the rsync algorithm to a

fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being updated. See the technical report for details.

-ee,, --rrsshh==CCOOMMMMAANNDD

This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use for communication between the local and remote

copies of rsync. Typically, rsync is configured to use ssh by

default, but you may prefer to use rsh on a local network. If this option is used with [[uusseerr@@]]hhoosstt::::mmoodduullee//ppaatthh, then the

remote shell COMMAND will be used to run an rsync daemon on the

remote host, and all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather than through a direct socket

connection to a running rsync daemon on the remote host. See

the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CON-

NECTION" above.

Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that

COMMAND is presented to rsync as a single argument. You must

use spaces (not tabs or other whitespace) to separate the com-

mand and args from each other, and you can use single- and/or

double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but not back-

slashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-

quoted string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-

quotes (though you need to pay attention to which quotes your

shell is parsing and which quotes rsync is parsing). Some exam-

ples:

-e 'ssh -p 2234'

-e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'

(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific

connect options in their .ssh/config file.) You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNCRSH environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as

-ee.

See also the --bblloocckkiinngg-iioo option which is affected by this

option.

--rrssyynncc-ppaatthh==PPRROOGGRRAAMM

Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote

machine to start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the

default remote-shell's path (e.g.

-rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync). Note that PROGRAM is run

with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or

command sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not cor-

rupt the standard-in & standard-out that rsync is using to com-

municate. One tricky example is to set a different default directory on

the remote machine for use with the --rreellaattiivvee option. For

instance:

rsync -avR -rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" hst:c/d /e/

-CC,, --ccvvss-eexxcclluuddee

This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses the same algorithm that CVS uses to determine if a file should be ignored. The exclude list is initialized to: RCS SCCS CVS CVS.adm RCSLOG cvslog.* tags TAGS

.make.state .nsedepinfo *~ #* .#* ,* $* *$ *.old *.bak

*.BAK *.orig *.rej .del-* *.a *.olb *.o *.obj *.so *.exe

*.Z *.elc *.ln core .svn/

then files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list

and any files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are delimited by whitespace). Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore file and matches one of the patterns listed therein.

Unlike rsync's filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on

whitespace. See the ccvvss(1) manual for more information.

If you're combining -CC with your own --ffiilltteerr rules, you should

note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own

rules, regardless of where the -CC was placed on the command-

line. This makes them a lower priority than any rules you spec-

ified explicitly. If you want to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules, you should omit

the -CC as a command-line option and use a combination of --ffiill-

tteerr==::CC and --ffiilltteerr==-CC (either on your command-line or by

putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your

other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scan-

ning for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time

import of the CVS excludes mentioned above.

-ff,, --ffiilltteerr==RRUULLEE

This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude cer-

tain files from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in combination with a recursive transfer.

You may use as many --ffiilltteerr options on the command line as you

like to build up the list of files to exclude. See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.

-FF The -FF option is a shorthand for adding two --ffiilltteerr rules to

your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:

-filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'

This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files

that have been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their

rules to filter the files in the transfer. If -FF is repeated,

it is a shorthand for this rule:

-filter='exclude .rsync-filter'

This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the

transfer. See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options work.

--eexxcclluuddee==PPAATTTTEERRNN

This option is a simplified form of the --ffiilltteerr option that

defaults to an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-

parsing syntax of normal filter rules. See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.

--eexxcclluuddee-ffrroomm==FFIILLEE

This option is related to the --eexxcclluuddee option, but it specifies

a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank

lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are

ignored. If FILE is -, the list will be read from standard

input.

--iinncclluuddee==PPAATTTTEERRNN

This option is a simplified form of the --ffiilltteerr option that

defaults to an include rule and does not allow the full rule-

parsing syntax of normal filter rules. See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.

--iinncclluuddee-ffrroomm==FFIILLEE

This option is related to the --iinncclluuddee option, but it specifies

a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank

lines in the file and lines starting with ';' or '#' are

ignored. If FILE is -, the list will be read from standard

input.

--ffiilleess-ffrroomm==FFIILLEE

Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files

to transfer (as read from the specified FILE or - for standard

input). It also tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make

transferring just the specified files and directories easier:

o The --rreellaattiivvee (-RR) option is implied, which preserves

the path information that is specified for each item in

the file (use --nnoo-rreellaattiivvee or --nnoo-RR if you want to turn

that off).

o The --ddiirrss (-dd) option is implied, which will create

directories specified in the list on the destination

rather than noisily skipping them (use --nnoo-ddiirrss or

--nnoo-dd if you want to turn that off).

o The --aarrcchhiivvee (-aa) option's behavior does not imply

--rreeccuurrssiivvee (-rr), so specify it explicitly, if you want

it.

o These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so

the position of the --ffiilleess-ffrroomm option on the command-

line has no bearing on how other options are parsed (e.g.

-aa works the same before or after --ffiilleess-ffrroomm, as does

--nnoo-RR and all other options).

The file names that are read from the FILE are all relative to

the source dir - any leading slashes are removed and no ".."

references are allowed to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:

rsync -a -files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup

If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the directory would also be sent (without

needing to be explicitly mentioned in the file - this began in

version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the -rr option was enabled,

that dir's entire hierarchy would also be transferred (keep in

mind that -rr needs to be specified explicitly with --ffiilleess-ffrroomm,

since it is not implied by -aa). Also note that the effect of

the (enabled by default) --rreellaattiivvee option is to duplicate only

the path info that is read from the file - it does not force

the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).

In addition, the --ffiilleess-ffrroomm file can be read from the remote

host instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a

short-cut, you can specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the

remote end of the transfer". For example:

rsync -a -files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy

This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list

file that was located on the remote "src" host.

-00,, --ffrroomm00

This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file

are terminated by a null ('\0') character, not a NL, CR, or

CR+LF. This affects --eexxcclluuddee-ffrroomm, --iinncclluuddee-ffrroomm,

--ffiilleess-ffrroomm, and any merged files specified in a --ffiilltteerr rule.

It does not affect --ccvvss-eexxcclluuddee (since all names read from a

.cvsignore file are split on whitespace).

-TT,, --tteemmpp-ddiirr==DDIIRR

This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory

when creating temporary copies of the files transferred on the

receiving side. The default behavior is to create each tempo-

rary file in the same directory as the associated destination file. This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer. In this case (i.e. when the scratch

directory in on a different disk partition), rsync will not be

able to rename each received temporary file over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the destination file, which means that the destination file will contain truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place) it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the new version on the disk at the same time. If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk space, you may wish to combine it with the

--ddeellaayy-uuppddaatteess option, which will ensure that all copied files

get put into subdirectories in the destination hierarchy, await-

ing the end of the transfer. If you don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination partition,

another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about

disk space is to use the --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr option with a relative

path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy

of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync

will use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the

copied file, and then rename it into place from there. (Specify-

ing a --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr with an absolute path does not have this

side-effect.)

-yy,, --ffuuzzzzyy

This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for

any destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same directory as the destination file for either a

file that has an identical size and modified-time, or a simi-

larly-named file. If found, rsync uses the fuzzy basis file to

try to speed up the transfer.

Note that the use of the --ddeelleettee option might get rid of any

potential fuzzy-match files, so either use --ddeelleettee-aafftteerr or

specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.

--ccoommppaarree-ddeesstt==DDIIRR

This option instructs rsync to use DIR on the destination

machine as an additional hierarchy to compare destination files

against doing transfers (if the files are missing in the desti-

nation directory). If a file is found in DIR that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup.

Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --ccoommppaarree-ddeesstt directories

may be provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in

the order specified for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from

one of the DIRs will be selected to try to speed up the trans-

fer. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination

directory. See also --ccooppyy-ddeesstt and --lliinnkk-ddeesstt.

--ccooppyy-ddeesstt==DDIIRR

This option behaves like --ccoommppaarree-ddeesstt, but rsync will also

copy unchanged files found in DIR to the destination directory using a local copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while leaving existing files intact, and then doing

a flash-cutover when all files have been successfully trans-

ferred.

Multiple --ccooppyy-ddeesstt directories may be provided, which will

cause rsync to search the list in the order specified for an

unchanged file. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the DIRs will be selected to try to speed up the transfer. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination

directory. See also --ccoommppaarree-ddeesstt and --lliinnkk-ddeesstt.

--lliinnkk-ddeesstt==DDIIRR

This option behaves like --ccooppyy-ddeesstt, but unchanged files are

hard linked from DIR to the destination directory. The files must be identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:

rsync -av -link-dest=$PWD/priordir host:srcdir/ newdir/

Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple --lliinnkk-ddeesstt directories may

be provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the

order specified for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from

one of the DIRs will be selected to try to speed up the trans-

fer.

Note that if you combine this option with --iiggnnoorree-ttiimmeess, rsync

will not link any files together because it only links identical files together as a substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after the file is updated. If DIR is a relative path, it is relative to the destination

directory. See also --ccoommppaarree-ddeesstt and --ccooppyy-ddeesstt.

Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could

prevent --lliinnkk-ddeesstt from working properly for a non-super-user

when -oo was specified (or implied by -aa). You can work-around

this bug by avoiding the -oo option when sending to an old rsync.

-zz,, --ccoommpprreessss

With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent

to the destination machine, which reduces the amount of data

being transmitted - something that is useful over a slow con-

nection. Note that this option typically achieves better compression ratios than can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing transport because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the matching data blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.

--ccoommpprreessss-lleevveell==NNUUMM

Explicitly set the compression level to use (see --ccoommpprreessss)

instead of letting it default. If NUM is non-zero, the --ccoomm-

pprreessss option is implied.

--nnuummeerriicc-iiddss

With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs

rather than using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.

By default rsync will use the username and groupname to deter-

mine what ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are never mapped via user/group names even if

the --nnuummeerriicc-iiddss option is not specified.

If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used instead. See also the comments on the

"use chroot" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage for information

on how the chroot setting affects rsync's ability to look up the

names of the users and groups and what you can do about it.

--ttiimmeeoouutt==TTIIMMEEOOUUTT

This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds.

If no data is transferred for the specified time then rsync will

exit. The default is 0, which means no timeout.

--aaddddrreessss

By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connect-

ing to an rsync daemon. The --aaddddrreessss option allows you to

specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. See

also this option in the --ddaaeemmoonn mode section.

--ppoorrtt==PPOORRTT

This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default of 873. This is only needed if you are using the

double-colon (::) syntax to connect with an rsync daemon (since

the URL syntax has a way to specify the port as a part of the

URL). See also this option in the --ddaaeemmoonn mode section.

--ssoocckkooppttss

This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the man page for the setsockopt() system call for details on some of the options you may be able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only affects direct socket

connections to a remote rsync daemon. This option also exists

in the --ddaaeemmoonn mode section.

--bblloocckkiinngg-iioo

This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote

shell transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh,

rsync defaults to using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to

using non-blocking I/O. (Note that ssh prefers non-blocking

I/O.)

-ii,, --iitteemmiizzee-cchhaannggeess

Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each file, including attribute changes. This is exactly

the same as specifying --oouutt-ffoorrmmaatt==''%%ii %%nn%%LL''. If you repeat

the option, unchanged files will also be output, but only if the

receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7 (you can use -vvvv with

older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the output of

other verbose messages).

The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 9 letters long.

The general format is like the string YYXXccssttppooggzz, where YY is replaced by the type of update being done, XX is replaced by the

file-type, and the other letters represent attributes that may

be output if they are being modified. The update types that replace the YY are as follows: o A << means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent). o A >> means that a file is being transferred to the local host (received). o A cc means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.). o A hh means that the item is a hard link to another item

(requires --hhaarrdd-lliinnkkss).

o A .. means that the item is not being updated (though it might have attributes that are being modified).

The file-types that replace the XX are: ff for a file, a dd for a

directory, an LL for a symlink, a DD for a device, and a SS for a special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos). The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that will be output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or a "." for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created item replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the dots with spaces, and (3) an

unknown attribute replaces each letter with a "?" (this can hap-

pen when talking to an older rsync).

The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows: o A cc means the checksum of the file is different and will

be updated by the file transfer (requires --cchheecckkssuumm).

o A ss means the size of the file is different and will be updated by the file transfer. o A tt means the modification time is different and is being

updated to the sender's value (requires --ttiimmeess). An

alternate value of TT means that the time will be set to the transfer time, which happens anytime a symlink is transferred, or when a file or device is transferred

without --ttiimmeess.

o A pp means the permissions are different and are being

updated to the sender's value (requires --ppeerrmmss).

o An oo means the owner is different and is being updated to

the sender's value (requires --oowwnneerr and super-user priv-

ileges). o A gg means the group is different and is being updated to

the sender's value (requires --ggrroouupp and the authority to

set the group). o The zz slot is reserved for future use.

One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i"

will output the string "*deleting" for each item that is being

removed (assuming that you are talking to a recent enough rsync

that it logs deletions instead of outputting them as a verbose message).

--oouutt-ffoorrmmaatt==FFOORRMMAATT

This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs

to the user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string

containing embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed

with a percent (%) character. For a list of the possible escape

characters, see the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf man-

page. Specifying this option will mention each file, dir, etc. that

gets updated in a significant way (a transferred file, a recre-

ated symlink/device, or a touched directory). In addition, if

the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in the string, the

logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4).

See the --iitteemmiizzee-cchhaannggeess option for a description of the output

of "%i".

The --vveerrbboossee option implies a format of "%n%L", but you can use

--oouutt-ffoorrmmaatt without --vveerrbboossee if you like, or you can override

the format of its per-file output using this option.

Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's trans-

fer unless one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested,

in which case the logging is done at the end of the file's

transfer. When this late logging is in effect and --pprrooggrreessss is

also specified, rsync will also output the name of the file

being transferred prior to its progress information (followed,

of course, by the out-format output).

--lloogg-ffiillee==FFIILLEE

This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file.

This is similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be

requested for the client side and/or the server side of a non-

daemon transfer. If specified as a client option, transfer log-

ging will be enabled with a default format of "%i %n%L". See

the --lloogg-ffiillee-ffoorrmmaatt option if you wish to override this.

Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is happening:

rsync -av -rsync-path="rsync -log-file=/tmp/rlog" src/ dest/

This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing unexpectedly.

--lloogg-ffiillee-ffoorrmmaatt==FFOORRMMAATT

This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is

put into the file specified by the --lloogg-ffiillee option (which must

also be specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the possible escape characters, see

the "log format" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.

--ssttaattss

This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the

file transfer, allowing you to tell how effective the rsync

algorithm is for your data. The current statistics are as follows: o NNuummbbeerr ooff ffiilleess is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense), which includes directories, symlinks, etc. o NNuummbbeerr ooff ffiilleess ttrraannssffeerrrreedd is the count of normal files

that were updated via the rsync algorithm, which does not

include created dirs, symlinks, etc. o TToottaall ffiillee ssiizzee is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer. This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does include the size of symlinks. o TToottaall ttrraannssffeerrrreedd ffiillee ssiizzee is the total sum of all files sizes for just the transferred files.

o LLiitteerraall ddaattaa is how much unmatched file-update data we

had to send to the receiver for it to recreate the updated files. o MMaattcchheedd ddaattaa is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating the updated files.

o FFiillee lliisstt ssiizzee is how big the file-list data was when the

sender sent it to the receiver. This is smaller than the

in-memory size for the file list due to some compressing

of duplicated data when rsync sends the list.

o FFiillee lliisstt ggeenneerraattiioonn ttiimmee is the number of seconds that the sender spent creating the file list. This requires a

modern rsync on the sending side for this to be present.

o FFiillee lliisstt ttrraannssffeerr ttiimmee is the number of seconds that the sender spent sending the file list to the receiver.

o TToottaall bbyytteess sseenntt is the count of all the bytes that rsync

sent from the client side to the server side.

o TToottaall bbyytteess rreecceeiivveedd is the count of all non-message

bytes that rsync received by the client side from the

server side. "Non-message" bytes means that we don't

count the bytes for a verbose message that the server sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.

-88,, --88-bbiitt-oouuttppuutt

This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in

the output instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current locale and escaping the invalid ones. All

control characters (but never tabs) are always escaped, regard-

less of this option's setting. The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal

backslash (\) and a hash (#), followed by exactly 3 octal dig-

its. For example, a newline would output as "\#012". A literal

backslash that is in a filename is not escaped unless it is fol-

lowed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).

-hh,, --hhuummaann-rreeaaddaabbllee

Output numbers in a more human-readable format. This makes big

numbers output using larger units, with a K, M, or G suffix. If this option was specified once, these units are K (1000), M (1000*1000), and G (1000*1000*1000); if the option is repeated, the units are powers of 1024 instead of 1000.

--ppaarrttiiaall

By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if

the transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more

desirable to keep partially transferred files. Using the --ppaarr-

ttiiaall option tells rsync to keep the partial file which should

make a subsequent transfer of the rest of the file much faster.

--ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr==DDIIRR

A better way to keep partial files than the --ppaarrttiiaall option is

to specify a DIR that will be used to hold the partial data (instead of writing it out to the destination file). On the

next transfer, rsync will use a file found in this dir as data

to speed up the resumption of the transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.

Note that if --wwhhoollee-ffiillee is specified (or implied), any par-

tial-dir file that is found for a file that is being updated

will simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without

using the incremental rsync algorithm).

Rsync will create the DIR if it is missing (just the last dir -

not the whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path

(such as "--ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr==..rrssyynncc-ppaarrttiiaall") to have rsync create

the partial-directory in the destination file's directory when

needed, and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted.

If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add

an exclude rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This

will prevent the sending of any partial-dir files that may exist

on the sending side, and will also prevent the untimely deletion

of partial-dir items on the receiving side. An example: the

above --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr option would add the equivalent of

"--eexxcclluuddee==..rrssyynncc-ppaarrttiiaall//" at the end of any other filter

rules. If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add

your own exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because

(1) the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your

other rules, or (2) you may wish to override rsync's exclude

choice. For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any

left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you should

specify --ddeelleettee-aafftteerr and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. -ff ''RR

..rrssyynncc-ppaarrttiiaall//''. (Avoid using --ddeelleettee-bbeeffoorree or --ddeelleettee-dduurr-

iinngg unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over par-

tial-dir data during the current run.)

IMPORTANT: the --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr should not be writable by other

users or it is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".

You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNCPARTIALDIR

environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not

force --ppaarrttiiaall to be enabled, but rather it affects where par-

tial files go when --ppaarrttiiaall is specified. For instance,

instead of using --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr==..rrssyynncc-ttmmpp along with --pprrooggrreessss,

you could set RSYNCPARTIALDIR=.rsync-tmp in your environment

and then just use the -PP option to turn on the use of the

.rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the

--ppaarrttiiaall option does not look for this environment value are

(1) when --iinnppllaaccee was specified (since --iinnppllaaccee conflicts with

--ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr), and (2) when --ddeellaayy-uuppddaatteess was specified (see

below).

For the purposes of the daemon-config's "refuse options" set-

ting, --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr does not imply --ppaarrttiiaall. This is so that a

refusal of the --ppaarrttiiaall option can be used to disallow the

overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while

still allowing the safer idiom provided by --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr.

--ddeellaayy-uuppddaatteess

This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a directory named ".~tmp~" in each file's destination directory, but if you've specified

the --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr option, that directory will be used instead.

See the comments in the --ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr section for a discussion

of how this ".~tmp~" dir will be excluded from the transfer, and

what you can do if you wnat rsync to cleanup old ".~tmp~" dirs

that might be lying around. Conflicts with --iinnppllaaccee and

--aappppeenndd.

This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you should not use an absolute path to

--ppaarrttiiaall-ddiirr unless (1) there is no chance of any of the files

in the transfer having the same name (since all the updated

files will be put into a single directory if the path is abso-

lute) and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).

This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty direc-

tories from the file-list, including nested directories that

have no non-directory children. This is useful for avoiding the

creation of a bunch of useless directories when the sending

rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of files using

include/exclude/filter rules.

Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also

affects what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from being deleted (because an exclude hides source files and protects destination files). You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from

the file-list by using a global "protect" filter. For instance,

this option would ensure that the directory "emptydir" was kept

in the file-list:

-filter 'protect emptydir/'

Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating the necessary destination directories to hold the

.pdf files, and ensures that any superfluous files and directo-

ries in the destination are removed (note the hide filter of

non-directories being used instead of an exclude):

rsync -avm -del -include='.pdf' -f 'hide,! /' src/ dest

If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the

more time-honored options of "-include='*/' -exclude='*'"

would work fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more

natural to you).

--pprrooggrreessss

This option tells rsync to print information showing the

progress of the transfer. This gives a bored user something to

watch. Implies --vveerrbboossee if it wasn't already specified.

While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a

progress line that looks like this:

782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04

In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or

63% of the sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate

of 110.64 kilobytes per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate is maintained until the end. These statistics can be misleading if the incremental transfer algorithm is in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it was finishing the matched part of the file.

When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress

line with a summary line that looks like this:

1238099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfer#5, to-check=169/396)

In this example, the file was 1238099 bytes long in total, the average rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was

the 5th transfer of a regular file during the current rsync ses-

sion, and there are 169 more files for the receiver to check (to

see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining out of the 396

total files in the file-list.

-PP The -PP option is equivalent to --ppaarrttiiaall --pprrooggrreessss. Its pur-

pose is to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.

--ppaasssswwoorrdd-ffiillee

This option allows you to provide a password in a file for

accessing a remote rsync daemon. Note that this option is only

useful when accessing an rsync daemon using the built in trans-

port, not when using a remote shell as the transport. The file must not be world readable. It should contain just the password as a single line.

--lliisstt-oonnllyy

This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into

a file-listing command, (2) to be able to specify more than one

local source arg (note: be sure to include the destination), or

(3) to avoid the automatically added "-rr --eexxcclluuddee==''//**//**''"

options that rsync usually uses as a compatibility kluge when

generating a non-recursive listing. Caution: keep in mind that

a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the shell into mul-

tiple args, so it is never safe to try to list such an arg with-

out using this option. For example:

rsync -av -list-only foo* dest/

--bbwwlliimmiitt==KKBBPPSS

This option allows you to specify a maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second. This option is most effective when using

rsync with large files (several megabytes and up). Due to the

nature of rsync transfers, blocks of data are sent, then if

rsync determines the transfer was too fast, it will wait before

sending the next data block. The result is an average transfer rate equaling the specified limit. A value of zero specifies no limit.

--wwrriittee-bbaattcchh==FFIILLEE

Record a file that can later be applied to another identical

destination with --rreeaadd-bbaattcchh. See the "BATCH MODE" section for

details, and also the --oonnllyy-wwrriittee-bbaattcchh option.

--oonnllyy-wwrriittee-bbaattcchh==FFIILLEE

Works like --wwrriittee-bbaattcchh, except that no updates are made on the

destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the changes to the destination system via some other

means and then apply the changes via --rreeaadd-bbaattcchh.

Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the whole process to get the rest of the

changes (as long as you don't mind a partially updated destina-

tion system while the multi-update cycle is happening).

Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).

--rreeaadd-bbaattcchh==FFIILLEE

Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously gen-

erated by --wwrriittee-bbaattcchh. If FILE is -, the batch data will be

read from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.

--pprroottooccooll==NNUUMM

Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a batch file that is compatible with an older version

of rsync. For instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the

--wwrriittee-bbaattcchh option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to

run the --rreeaadd-bbaattcchh option, you should use "-protocol=28" when

creating the batch file to force the older protocol version to

be used in the batch file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync

on the reading system).

-44,, --iippvv44 or -66,, --iippvv66

Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets. This

only affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as

the outgoing socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon.

See also these options in the --ddaaeemmoonn mode section.

--cchheecckkssuumm-sseeeedd==NNUUMM

Set the MD4 checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is included in each block and file MD4 checksum calculation. By default the checksum seed is generated by the server and defaults to the current time() . This option is used

to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for applica-

tions that want repeatable block and file checksums, or in the case where the user wants a more random checksum seed. Note

that setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to use the default of time()

for checksum seed.

-EE,, --eexxtteennddeedd-aattttrriibbuutteess

Apple specific option to copy extended attributes, resource forks, and ACLs. Requires at least Mac OS X 10.4 or suitably

patched rsync.

DDAAEEMMOONN OOPPTTIIOONNSS

The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:

--ddaaeemmoonn

This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you

start running may be accessed using an rsync client using the

hhoosstt::::mmoodduullee or rrssyynncc::////hhoosstt//mmoodduullee// syntax.

If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is

being run via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a background daemon. The daemon will read

the config file (rsyncd.conf) on each connect made by a client

and respond to requests accordingly. See the rrssyynnccdd..ccoonnff(5) man page for more details.

--aaddddrreessss

By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a

daemon with the --ddaaeemmoonn option. The --aaddddrreessss option allows

you to specify a specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting possible in conjunction with the

--ccoonnffiigg option. See also the "address" global option in the

rsyncd.conf manpage.

--bbwwlliimmiitt==KKBBPPSS

This option allows you to specify a maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second for the data the daemon sends. The client

can still specify a smaller --bbwwlliimmiitt value, but their requested

value will be rounded down if they try to exceed it. See the client version of this option (above) for some extra details.

--ccoonnffiigg==FFIILLEE

This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This

is only relevant when --ddaaeemmoonn is specified. The default is

/etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote

shell program and the remote user is not the super-user; in that

case the default is rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typi-

cally $HOME).

--nnoo-ddeettaacchh

When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not

detach itself and become a background process. This option is required when running as a service on Cygwin, and may also be

useful when rsync is supervised by a program such as ddaaeemmoonnttoooollss

or AIX's SSyysstteemm RReessoouurrccee CCoonnttrroolllleerr. --nnoo-ddeettaacchh is also recom-

mended when rsync is run under a debugger. This option has no

effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.

--ppoorrtt==PPOORRTT

This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on rather than the default of 873. See also the "port"

global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.

--lloogg-ffiillee==FFIILLEE

This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file

name instead of using the "log file" setting in the config file.

--lloogg-ffiillee-ffoorrmmaatt==FFOORRMMAATT

This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT

string instead of using the "log format" setting in the config file. It also enables "transfer logging" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer logging is turned off.

--ssoocckkooppttss

This overrides the ssoocckkeett ooppttiioonnss setting in the rsyncd.conf

file and has the same syntax.

-vv,, --vveerrbboossee

This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs

during its startup phase. After the client connects, the dae-

mon's verbosity level will be controlled by the options that the

client used and the "max verbosity" setting in the module's con-

fig section.

-44,, --iippvv44 or -66,, --iippvv66

Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sock-

ets that the rsync daemon will use to listen for connections.

One of these options may be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is using the port, try

specifying --iippvv66 or --iippvv44 when starting the daemon).

-hh,, --hheellpp

When specified after --ddaaeemmoonn, print a short help page describ-

ing the options available for starting an rsync daemon.

FFIILLTTEERR RRUULLEESS

The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to trans-

fer (include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).

As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks

each name to be transferred against the list of include/exclude pat-

terns in turn, and the first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.

Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the com-

mand-line. Filter rules have the following syntax:

RULE [PATTERNORFILENAME]

RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERNORFILENAME]

You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as

described below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the

RULE from the MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that fol-

lows (when present) must come after either a single space or an under-

score (). Here are the available rule prefixes:

eexxcclluuddee,, - specifies an exclude pattern.

iinncclluuddee,, ++ specifies an include pattern.

mmeerrggee,, .. specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.

ddiirr-mmeerrggee,, :: specifies a per-directory merge-file.

hhiiddee,, HH specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer. sshhooww,, SS files that match the pattern are not hidden.

pprrootteecctt,, PP specifies a pattern for protecting files from dele-

tion. rriisskk,, RR files that match the pattern are not protected. cclleeaarr,, !! clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg) When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are

comment lines that start with a "#".

Note that the --iinncclluuddee/--eexxcclluuddee command-line options do not allow the

full range of rule parsing as described above - they only allow the

specification of include/exclude patterns plus a "!" token to clear the list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file).

If a pattern does not begin with "- " (dash, space) or "+ " (plus,

space), then the rule will be interpreted as if "+ " (for an include

option) or "- " (for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A

--ffiilltteerr option, on the other hand, must always contain either a short

or long rule name at the start of the rule.

Note also that the --ffiilltteerr, --iinncclluuddee, and --eexxcclluuddee options take one

rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on

the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the --ffiilltteerr option, or

the --iinncclluuddee-ffrroomm/--eexxcclluuddee-ffrroomm options.

IINNCCLLUUDDEE//EEXXCCLLUUDDEE PPAATTTTEERRNN RRUULLEESS You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+",

"-", etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section

above). The include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is

matched against the names of the files that are going to be trans-

ferred. These patterns can take several forms:

o if the pattern starts with a / then it is anchored to a particu-

lar spot in the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the pathname. This is similar to a leading ^ in regular expressions. Thus "/foo" would match a file named "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for a global rule)

or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule). An

unqualified "foo" would match any file or directory named "foo"

anywhere in the tree because the algorithm is applied recur-

sively from the top down; it behaves as if each path component

gets a turn at being the end of the file name. Even the unan-

chored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where

a "foo" was found within a directory named "sub". See the sec-

tion on ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.

o if the pattern ends with a / then it will only match a direc-

tory, not a file, link, or device.

o rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard

matching by checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters: '*', '?', and '[' .

o a '*' matches any non-empty path component (it stops at

slashes). o use '**' to match anything, including slashes. o a '?' matches any character except a slash (/).

o a '[' introduces a character class, such as [a-z] or

[[:alpha:]].

o in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wild-

card character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. o if the pattern contains a / (not counting a trailing /) or a "**", then it is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If the pattern doesn't contain a / or a "**", then it is matched only against the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the starting directory on down.) o a trailing "dirname/***" will match both the directory (as if

"dirname/" had been specified) and all the files in the direc-

tory (as if "dirname/**" had been specified). (This behavior is new for version 2.6.7.)

Note that, when using the --rreeccuurrssiivvee (-rr) option (which is implied by

-aa), every subcomponent of every path is visited from the top down, so

include/exclude patterns get applied recursively to each subcomponent's full name (e.g. to include "/foo/bar/baz" the subcomponents "/foo" and

"/foo/bar" must not be excluded). The exclude patterns actually short-

circuit the directory traversal stage when rsync finds the files to

send. If a pattern excludes a particular parent directory, it can ren-

der a deeper include pattern ineffectual because rsync did not descend

through that excluded section of the hierarchy. This is particularly important when using a trailing '*' rule. For instance, this won't work:

+ /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found

+ /file-is-included

- *

This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '*'

rule, so rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or

"some/path" directories. One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by using a single rule: "+ */" (put it

somewhere before the "- *" rule), and perhaps use the

--pprruunnee-eemmppttyy-ddiirrss option. Another solution is to add specific include

rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For instance, this set of rules works fine: + /some/ + /some/path/

+ /some/path/this-file-is-found

+ /file-also-included

- *

Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:

o "- *.o" would exclude all filenames matching *.o

o "- /foo" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the

transfer-root directory

o "- foo/" would exclude any directory named foo

o "- /foo/*/bar" would exclude any file named bar which is at two

levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root direc-

tory

o "- /foo/**/bar" would exclude any file named bar two or more

levels below a directory named foo in the transfer-root direc-

tory

o The combination of "+ */", "+ *.c", and "- *" would include all

directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the

--pprruunnee-eemmppttyy-ddiirrss option)

o The combination of "+ foo/", "+ foo/bar.c", and "- *" would

include only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it would be excluded by the "*")

MMEERRGGEE-FFIILLEE FFIILLTTEERR RRUULLEESS

You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a

merge (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER

RULES section above).

There are two kinds of merged files - single-instance ('.') and per-

directory (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and

its rules are incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "."

rule. For per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory

that it traverses for the named file, merging its contents when the

file exists into the current list of inherited rules. These per-direc-

tory rule files must be created on the sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred to the receiving side

if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted (see PER-DIREC-

TORY RULES AND DELETE below). Some examples:

merge /etc/rsync/default.rules

. /etc/rsync/default.rules

dir-merge .per-dir-filter

dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes

:n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes

The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:

o A - specifies that the file should consist of only exclude pat-

terns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.

o A ++ specifies that the file should consist of only include pat-

terns, with no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.

o A CC is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-

compatible manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also

allows the list-clearing token (!) to be specified. If no file-

name is provided, ".cvsignore" is assumed.

o A ee will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g.

"dir-merge,e .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".

o An nn specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirecto-

ries.

o A ww specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace

instead of the normal line-splitting. This also turns off com-

ments. Note: the space that separates the prefix from the rule

is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is parsed as two rules

(assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).

o You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-"

rules (below) in order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that modifier set. For instance,

"merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-

path excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each

make all their per-directory rules apply only on the sending

side.

The following modifiers are accepted after a "+" or "-":

o A "/" specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the absolute pathname of the current item. For example,

"-/ /etc/passwd" would exclude the passwd file any time the

transfer was sending files from the "/etc" directory, and "-/

subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current transfer. o A "!" specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if

the pattern fails to match. For instance, "-! */" would exclude

all non-directories.

o A CC is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules

should be inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg

should follow. o An ss is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from being transferred. The default is for a rule to affect

both sides unless --ddeelleettee-eexxcclluuddeedd was specified, in which case

default rules become sender-side only. See also the hide (H)

and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify send-

ing-side includes/excludes.

o An rr is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See the ss modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules, which are an alternate way

to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.

Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the direc-

tory where the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used.

Each subdirectory's rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory

rules from its parents, which gives the newest rules a higher priority

than the inherited rules. The entire set of dir-merge rules are

grouped together in the spot where the merge-file was specified, so it

is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that got specified

earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule ("!")

is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules

for the current merge file.

Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being

inherited is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a

per-directory merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so

a pattern "/foo" would only match the file "foo" in the directory where

the dir-merge filter file was found.

Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via --ffiilltteerr==""..

ffiillee""::

merge /home/user/.global-filter

- *.gz

dir-merge .rules

+ *.[ch]

- *.o

This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at

the start of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-

directory filter file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the transfer).

If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent

directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the par-

ent dirs from that starting point to the transfer directory for the

indicated per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter

(see -FF):

-filter=': /.rsync-filter'

That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all direc-

tories from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an

rsync daemon, the root is always the same as the module's "path".)

Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:

rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir

rsync -av -filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir

rsync -av -filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir

The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and

"/src" before the normal scan begins looking for the file in

"/src/path" and its subdirectories. The last command avoids the par-

ent-dir scan and only looks for the ".rsync-filter" files in each

directory that is a part of the transfer. If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns,

you should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsig-

nore file, but parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to

affect where the --ccvvss-eexxcclluuddee (-CC) option's inclusion of the per-

directory .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the

":C" wherever you like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would

add the dir-merge rule for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your

other rules (giving it a lower priority than your command-line rules).

For example:

cat < + foo.o :C
- .old
EOT
rsync -avC -include=foo.o -f :C -exclude='.old' a/ b

Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge
all the per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather
than at the end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the
rules that follow the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS exclude rules (i.e. the default list of
exclusions, the contents of $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIG-
NORE) you should omit the -CC command-line option and instead insert a
"-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g. "-filter=-C".

LLIISSTT-CCLLEEAARRIINNGG FFIILLTTEERR RRUULLEE
You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current" list is either the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered
while parsing the filter options) or a set of per-directory rules
(which are inherited in their own sub-list, so a subdirectory can use
this to clear out the parent's rules). AANNCCHHOORRIINNGG IINNCCLLUUDDEE//EEXXCCLLUUDDEE PPAATTTTEERRNNSS As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at
the "root of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which
are anchored at the merge-file's directory). If you think of the
transfer as a subtree of names that are being sent from sender to
receiver, the transfer-root is where the tree starts to be duplicated
in the destination directory. This root governs where patterns that start with a / match.
Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the
trailing slash on a source path or changing your use of the --rreellaattiivvee
option affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following examples demonstrate this. Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:

Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
+/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
+/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
+/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
+/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
Target file: /dest/foo/bar Target file: /dest/bar/baz
Example cmd: rsync -a -relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
+/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
+/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a -relative me/foo you/ /dest
+/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
+/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at
the output when using --vveerrbboossee and put a / in front of the name (use
the --ddrryy-rruunn option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).

PPEERR-DDIIRREECCTTOORRYY RRUULLEESS AANNDD DDEELLEETTEE
Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the
sending side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files them-
selves without affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' mod-
ifier adds this exclude for you, as seen in these two equivalent com-
mands:
rsync -av -filter=': .excl' -exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
rsync -av -filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way
is to include the per-directory merge files in the transfer and use
--ddeelleettee-aafftteerr, because this ensures that the receiving side gets all
the same exclude rules as the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
rsync -avF -delete-after host:src/dir /dest
However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need
to either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the com-
mand line), or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge
files on the receiving side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files exclude themselves):
rsync -av -filter=': .rules' -filter='. /my/extra.rules'
-delete host:src/dir /dest
In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules merged from the .rules files because they were specified after
the per-directory merge rule.

In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter
files from the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files
to control what gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must
specifically exclude the per-directory merge files (so that they don't
get deleted) and then put rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like one of these commands:
rsync -av -filter=':e /.rsync-filter' -delete \
host:src/dir /dest
rsync -avFF -delete host:src/dir /dest
BBAATTCCHH MMOODDEE
Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identi-
cal systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do
this using batch mode, rsync is run with the write-batch option to
apply the changes made to the source tree to one of the destination
trees. The write-batch option causes the rsync client to store in a
"batch file" all the information needed to repeat this operation against other, identical destination trees.
To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync
with the read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file,
and the destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information stored in the batch file.
For convenience, one additional file is creating when the write-batch
option is used. This file's name is created by appending ".sh" to the
batch filename. The .sh file contains a command-line suitable for
updating a destination tree using that batch file. It can be executed
using a Bourne (or Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alter-
nate destination tree pathname which is then used instead of the origi-
nal path. This is useful when the destination tree path differs from the original destination tree path. Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multi-
ple destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the same data to every host individually. Examples:
$ rsync -write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
$ scp foo* remote:
$ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/

$ rsync -write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
$ ssh remote rsync -read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/
In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from
/source/dir/ and the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the flexibility you have in how you deal with batches: o The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be
local - you can push or pull data to/from a remote host using
either the remote-shell syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as
desired. o The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the
right rsync options when running the read-batch command on the
remote host. o The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example avoids the foo.sh script because it
needed to use a modified --rreeaadd-bbaattcchh option, but you could edit
the script file if you wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use standard input, such as
the "--eexxcclluuddee-ffrroomm==-" option).
Caveats:
The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating
to be identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the update might be discarded with a warning (if the
file appears to be up-to-date already) or the file-update may be
attempted and then, if the file fails to verify, the update discarded
with an error. This means that it should be safe to re-run a read-
batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish to force
the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's size
and date, use the -II option (when reading the batch). If an error
occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode
of operation to fix up the destination tree.
The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as
the one used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error
if the protocol version in the batch file is too new for the batch-
reading rsync to handle. See also the --pprroottooccooll option for a way to
have the creating rsync generate a batch file that an older rsync can
understand. (Note that batch files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with newer versions will not work.)
When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain
options to match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to
the same as the batch-writing command. Other options can (and should)
be changed. For instance --wwrriittee-bbaattcchh changes to --rreeaadd-bbaattcchh,
--ffiilleess-ffrroomm is dropped, and the --ffiilltteerr/--iinncclluuddee/--eexxcclluuddee options
are not needed unless one of the --ddeelleettee options is specified.

The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any fil-
ter/include/exclude options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a change in what gets deleted by
--ddeelleettee is desired. A normal user can ignore this detail and just use
the shell script as an easy way to run the appropriate --rreeaadd-bbaattcchh
command for the batched data.
The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
version uses a new implementation. SSYYMMBBOOLLIICC LLIINNKKSS
Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
link in the source directory. By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message
"skipping non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.

If --lliinnkkss is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same tar-
get on the destination. Note that --aarrcchhiivvee implies --lliinnkkss.

If --ccooppyy-lliinnkkss is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by copying
their referent, rather than the symlink.
rsync also distinguishes "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An exam-
ple where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes ensure
the rsync module they copy does not include symbolic links to
//eettcc//ppaasssswwdd in the public section of the site. Using
--ccooppyy-uunnssaaffee-lliinnkkss will cause any links to be copied as the file they
point to on the destination. Using --ssaaffee-lliinnkkss will cause unsafe
links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you must specify --lliinnkkss
for --ssaaffee-lliinnkkss to have any effect.)
Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with //), empty, or if they contain enough ""...."" components to ascend from the directory being copied. Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list
is in order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't men-
tioned, use the first line that is a complete subset of your options:
--ccooppyy-lliinnkkss
Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no symlinks for any other options to affect).
--lliinnkkss --ccooppyy-uunnssaaffee-lliinnkkss
Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and duplicate all safe sym-
links.
--ccooppyy-uunnssaaffee-lliinnkkss
Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily skip all safe sym-
links.
--lliinnkkss --ssaaffee-lliinnkkss
Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.
--lliinnkkss
Duplicate all symlinks. DIAGNOSTICS
rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryp-
tic. The one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol ver-
sion mismatch - is your shell clean?".
This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell
facility producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using
for its transport. The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this: ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from
rsync then you will probably find that out.dat contains some text or
data. Look at the contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is incorrectly configured shell startup scripts
(such as .cshrc or .profile) that contain output statements for non-
interactive logins.
If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specify-
ing the -vvvv option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why
each individual file is included or excluded. EEXXIITT VVAALLUUEESS 00 Success 11 Syntax or usage error 22 Protocol incompatibility 33 Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
44 Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipu-
late 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an
option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server.
55 Error starting client-server protocol

66 Daemon unable to append to log-file
1100 Error in socket I/O 1111 Error in file I/O
1122 Error in rsync protocol data stream
1133 Errors with program diagnostics 1144 Error in IPC code 2200 Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT 2211 Some error returned by waitpid() 2222 Error allocating core memory buffers 2233 Partial transfer due to error 2244 Partial transfer due to vanished source files
2255 The -max-delete limit stopped deletions
3300 Timeout in data send/receive ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES CCVVSSIIGGNNOORREE
The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore pat-
terns in .cvsignore files. See the --ccvvss-eexxcclluuddee option for more
details. RRSSYYNNCCRRSSHH The RSYNCRSH environment variable allows you to override the
default shell used as the transport for rsync. Command line
options are permitted after the command name, just as in the -ee
option. RRSSYYNNCCPPRROOXXYY The RSYNCPROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your
rsync client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync dae-
mon. You should set RSYNCPROXY to a hostname:port pair. RRSSYYNNCCPPAASSSSWWOORRDD Setting RSYNCPASSWORD to the required password allows you to
run authenticated rsync connections to an rsync daemon without
user intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to a shell transport such as ssh.
USER r LOGNAME
The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine
the default username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is
set, the username defaults to "nobody". HHOOMMEE The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore file. FILES
/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf

SEE ALSO
rrssyynnccdd..ccoonnff(5)
BUGS
times are transferred as *nix timet values
When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified
files. See the comments on the --mmooddiiffyy-wwiinnddooww option.
file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values
see also the comments on the --ddeelleettee option

Please report bugs! See the website at http://rsync.samba.org/
VVEERRSSIIOONN
This man page is current for version 2.6.9 of rsync.
IINNTTEERRNNAALL OOPPTTIIOONNSS
The options --sseerrvveerr and --sseennddeerr are used internally by rsync, and
should never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as
when setting up a login that can only run an rsync command. For
instance, the support directory of the rsync distribution has an exam-
ple script named rrsync (for restricted rsync) that can be used with a
restricted ssh login. CCRREEDDIITTSS
rsync is distributed under the GNU public license. See the file COPY-
ING for details.
A WEB site is available at http://rsync.samba.org/. The site includes
an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
page.
The primary ftp site for rsync is ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync.
We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by
Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler.
TTHHAANNKKSS Thanks to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell
and David Bell for helpful suggestions, patches and testing of rsync.
I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have. Especial thanks also to: David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, Wayne Davison, J.W. Schultz. AUTHOR
rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras.
Many people have later contributed to it. Mailing lists for support and development are available at http://lists.samba.org
6 Nov 2006 rsync(1)