3 rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
9 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
11 Access via remote shell:
13 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
15 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
17 Access via rsync daemon:
19 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
22 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
23 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26 Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
29 The online version of this manpage (that includes cross-linking of topics)
30 is available at <https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1>.
34 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
35 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
36 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
37 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
38 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
39 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
40 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
41 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
44 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
45 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
46 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
47 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
48 the file's data does not need to be updated.
50 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
52 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
53 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
54 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
55 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
56 - does not require super-user privileges
57 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
58 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
62 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
63 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
65 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
66 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
67 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
68 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
69 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
70 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
71 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the [USING
72 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) section for an
73 exception to this latter rule).
75 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
76 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
78 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
79 the copy occurs locally (see also the [`--list-only`](#opt) option).
81 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
82 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
83 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
87 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
89 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
90 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
91 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
92 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
93 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
95 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the [`-e`](#opt)
96 command line option, or by setting the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#) environment variable.
98 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
102 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
103 destination, one of which may be remote.
105 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
107 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
109 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
110 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
111 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
112 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
113 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
114 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
115 same as all other Posix-style programs).
117 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
119 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
121 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
122 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
123 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
126 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
128 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
130 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
131 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
134 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
136 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
137 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
139 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
140 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
141 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
143 > rsync -av host: /dest
144 > rsync -av host::module /dest
146 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
147 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
148 improved copy command.
150 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
151 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
153 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
155 See the following section for more details.
157 ## SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
159 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
160 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
161 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames. It can, however,
162 confuse someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what
163 was given on the command-line.
165 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
166 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
167 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
168 does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
170 ## MULTI-HOST SECURITY
172 Rsync takes steps to ensure that the file requests that are shared in a
173 transfer are protected against various security issues. Most of the potential
174 problems arise on the receiving side where rsync takes steps to ensure that the
175 list of files being transferred remains within the bounds of what was
178 Toward this end, rsync 3.1.2 and later have aborted when a file list contains
179 an absolute or relative path that tries to escape out of the top of the
180 transfer. Also, beginning with version 3.2.5, rsync does two more safety
181 checks of the file list to (1) ensure that no extra source arguments were added
182 into the transfer other than those that the client requested and (2) ensure
183 that the file list obeys the exclude rules that were sent to the sender.
185 For those that don't yet have a 3.2.5 client rsync (or those that want to be
186 extra careful), it is safest to do a copy into a dedicated destination
187 directory for the remote files when you don't trust the remote host. For
188 example, instead of doing an rsync copy into your home directory:
190 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~
192 Dedicate a "host1-files" dir to the remote content:
194 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~/host1-files
196 See the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option for additional details.
198 CAUTION: it is not particularly safe to use rsync to copy files from a
199 case-preserving filesystem to a case-ignoring filesystem. If you must perform
200 such a copy, you should either disable symlinks via `--no-links` or enable the
201 munging of symlinks via [`--munge-links`](#opt) (and make sure you use the
202 right local or remote option). This will prevent rsync from doing potentially
203 dangerous things if a symlink name overlaps with a file or directory. It does
204 not, however, ensure that you get a full copy of all the files (since that may
205 not be possible when the names overlap). A potentially better solution is to
206 list all the source files and create a safe list of filenames that you pass to
207 the [`--files-from`](#opt) option. Any files that conflict in name would need
208 to be copied to different destination directories using more than one copy.
210 While a copy of a case-ignoring filesystem to a case-ignoring filesystem can
211 work out fairly well, if no `--delete-during` or `--delete-before` option is
212 active, rsync can potentially update an existing file on the receiveing side
213 without noticing that the upper-/lower-case of the filename should be changed
218 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
219 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
220 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
222 > rsync -aiv host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
223 > rsync -aiv host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/extra /dest/
224 > rsync -aiv host::modname/first ::extra-file{1,2} /dest/
226 Note that a daemon connection only supports accessing one module per copy
227 command, so if the start of a follow-up path doesn't begin with the
228 modname of the first path, it is assumed to be a path in the module (such as
229 the extra-file1 & extra-file2 that are grabbed above).
231 Really old versions of rsync (2.6.9 and before) only allowed specifying one
232 remote-source arg, so some people have instead relied on the remote-shell
233 performing space splitting to break up an arg into multiple paths. Such
234 unintuitive behavior is no longer supported by default (though you can request
235 it, as described below).
237 Starting in 3.2.4, filenames are passed to a remote shell in such a way as to
238 preserve the characters you give it. Thus, if you ask for a file with spaces
239 in the name, that's what the remote rsync looks for:
241 > rsync -aiv host:'a simple file.pdf' /dest/
243 If you use scripts that have been written to manually apply extra quoting to
244 the remote rsync args (or to require remote arg splitting), you can ask rsync
245 to let your script handle the extra escaping. This is done by either adding
246 the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to the rsync runs in the script (which requires
247 a new rsync) or exporting [RSYNC_OLD_ARGS](#)=1 and [RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS](#)=0
248 (which works with old or new rsync versions).
250 ## CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
252 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
253 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
254 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
255 system, so refer to the [STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS](#)
256 section below for information on that.)
258 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
261 - Use either double-colon syntax or rsync:// URL syntax instead of the
262 single-colon (remote shell) syntax.
263 - The first element of the "path" is actually a module name.
264 - Additional remote source args can use an abbreviated syntax that omits the
265 hostname and/or the module name, as discussed in [ADVANCED USAGE](#).
266 - The remote daemon may print a "message of the day" when you connect.
267 - If you specify only the host (with no module or path) then a list of
268 accessible modules on the daemon is output.
269 - If you specify a remote source path but no destination, a listing of the
270 matching files on the remote daemon is output.
271 - The [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option must be omitted to avoid changing the
272 connection style from using a socket connection to [USING RSYNC-DAEMON
273 FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#).
275 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
277 > rsync -av host::src /dest
279 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
280 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
281 by setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_PASSWORD`](#) to the password you
282 want to use or using the [`--password-file`](#opt) option. This may be useful
283 when scripting rsync.
285 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
286 those systems using [`--password-file`](#opt) is recommended.
288 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
289 variable [`RSYNC_PROXY`](#) to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy.
290 Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port
293 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
294 setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#) to the commands you
295 wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
296 contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
297 command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
299 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
300 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
301 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
303 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
304 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
306 Note also that if the [`RSYNC_SHELL`](#) environment variable is set, that
307 program will be used to run the `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG` command instead of using
308 the default shell of the **system()** call.
310 ## USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
312 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
313 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
314 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
315 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
316 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
317 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
318 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
319 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
320 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
321 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
322 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
324 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
325 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
326 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
327 program on the command-line with the [`--rsh=COMMAND`](#opt) option. (Setting the
328 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
330 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
332 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
333 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
334 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
335 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
336 example that uses the short version of the [`--rsh`](#opt) option:
338 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
340 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
341 log-in to the "module".
343 In this setup, the daemon is started by the ssh command that is accessing the
344 system (which can be forced via the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file, if desired).
345 However, when accessing a daemon directly, it needs to be started beforehand.
347 ## STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
349 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
350 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
351 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
352 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
353 connections, see the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage -- that is
354 the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run
355 the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
357 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
358 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
362 Here are some examples of how rsync can be used.
364 To backup a home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail
365 folders, a per-user cron job can be used that runs this each day:
367 > rsync -aiz . bkhost:backup/joe/
369 To move some files from a remote host to the local host, you could run:
371 > rsync -aiv --remove-source-files rhost:/tmp/{file1,file2}.c ~/src/
375 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Each option also
376 has its own detailed description later in this manpage.
378 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
379 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
382 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
383 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
384 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
385 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
386 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
387 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
388 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
389 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
390 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
391 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
392 --relative, -R use relative path names
393 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
394 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
395 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
396 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
397 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
398 --inplace update destination files in-place
399 --append append data onto shorter files
400 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
401 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
402 --old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
403 --mkpath create the destination's path component
404 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
405 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
406 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
407 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
408 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
409 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
410 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
411 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
412 --perms, -p preserve permissions
413 --executability, -E preserve executability
414 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
415 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
416 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
417 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
418 --group, -g preserve group
419 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
420 --copy-devices copy device contents as a regular file
421 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
422 --specials preserve special files
423 -D same as --devices --specials
424 --times, -t preserve modification times
425 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
426 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
427 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
428 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
429 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
430 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
431 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
432 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
433 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
434 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
435 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
436 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
437 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
438 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
439 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
440 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
441 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
442 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
443 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
444 --del an alias for --delete-during
445 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
446 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
447 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
448 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
449 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
450 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
451 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
452 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
453 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
454 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
455 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
456 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
457 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
458 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
459 --partial keep partially transferred files
460 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
461 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
462 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
463 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
464 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
465 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
466 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
467 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
468 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
469 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
470 --size-only skip files that match in size
471 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
472 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
473 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
474 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
475 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
476 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
477 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
478 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
479 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
480 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
481 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
482 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
483 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
484 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
485 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
486 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
487 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
488 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
489 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
490 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
491 --old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
492 --secluded-args, -s use the protocol to safely send the args
493 --trust-sender trust the remote sender's file list
494 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
495 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
496 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
497 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
498 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
499 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
500 --stats give some file-transfer stats
501 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
502 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
503 --progress show progress during transfer
504 -P same as --partial --progress
505 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
506 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
507 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
508 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
509 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
510 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
511 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
512 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
513 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
514 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
515 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
516 --fsync fsync every written file
517 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
518 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
519 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
520 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
521 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
522 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
523 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
524 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
525 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
526 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
529 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
532 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
535 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
536 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
537 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
538 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
539 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
540 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
541 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
542 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
543 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
544 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
545 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
546 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
547 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
548 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
553 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
554 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
555 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
556 Some options only have a long variant, not a short.
558 If the option takes a parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long
559 variant, even though it must also be specified for the short. When specifying
560 a parameter, you can either use the form `--option=param`, `--option param`,
561 `-o=param`, `-o param`, or `-oparam` (the latter choices assume that your
562 option has a short variant).
564 The parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the
565 shell's command-line parsing. Also keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in
566 a pathname is substituted by your shell, so make sure that you separate the
567 option name from the pathname using a space if you want the local shell to
570 [comment]: # (Some markup below uses a literal non-breakable space when a backtick string)
571 [comment]: # (needs to contain a space since markdown strips spaces from the start/end)
573 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
577 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
578 You can also use `-h` for `--help` when it is used without any other
579 options (since it normally means [`--human-readable`](#opt)).
583 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit. When repeated, the
584 information is output is a JSON format that is still fairly readable
587 The output includes a list of compiled-in capabilities, a list of
588 optimizations, the default list of checksum algorithms, the default list of
589 compression algorithms, the default list of daemon auth digests, a link to
590 the rsync web site, and a few other items.
594 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
595 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
596 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
597 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
598 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
599 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
601 The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
602 rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
603 received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
604 transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
605 second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
606 file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
607 value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
608 sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
609 number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
610 human-readable by using the [`--human-readable`](#opt) (or
611 `--no-human-readable`) options.
613 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
614 of [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) options. You can choose to use
615 these newer options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as
616 any fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both
617 [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) have a way to ask for help that
618 tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
620 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
621 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
622 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
623 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
624 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
628 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
629 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
630 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
631 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
632 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
633 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
634 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
636 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
637 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
639 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the [`--out-format`](#opt)
640 and [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options. See those options for more
641 information on what is output and when.
643 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
644 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
645 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
646 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
650 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
651 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
652 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
653 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
654 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
655 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
656 the verbose level. Some examples:
658 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
659 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
661 Note that some debug messages will only be output when the [`--stderr=all`](#opt)
662 option is specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
664 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
665 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
666 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
667 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
668 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
669 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
671 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
673 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
675 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
676 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
677 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
679 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
680 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
681 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
682 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
683 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
686 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
687 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
688 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
689 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
690 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
691 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
692 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows [`--debug`](#opt) to
693 enable some extra I/O related messages.
695 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
696 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
697 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
698 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
699 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
700 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
701 been around for several releases.
703 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
704 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
705 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
706 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
707 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
711 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
712 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
713 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
717 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
718 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
719 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
720 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
721 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
724 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
726 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
727 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
728 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
730 This option can be confusing compared to [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) and
731 [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) in that that they cause rsync to transfer
732 fewer files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
736 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
737 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
738 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
739 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
740 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
743 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
745 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
746 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
747 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
748 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
749 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
750 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
751 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
753 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
754 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
756 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
757 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
759 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
760 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
761 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
763 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
765 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
766 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
767 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
768 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
769 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
770 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
771 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
772 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
773 transfer changed files)
775 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
776 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
777 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
778 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
779 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
781 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
782 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
783 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
784 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
785 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
787 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
788 can be overridden using either the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`)
789 option or an environment variable that is discussed in that option's
794 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
795 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
796 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
797 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
799 The only exception to the above equivalence is when [`--files-from`](#opt)
800 is specified, in which case [`-r`](#opt) is not implied.
804 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
805 with "no-". Not all positive options have a negated opposite, but a lot
806 do, including those that can be used to disable an implied option (e.g.
807 `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have different defaults in various circumstances
808 (e.g. [`--no-whole-file`](#opt), `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). Every
809 valid negated option accepts both the short and the long option name after
810 the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as `--no-relative`).
812 As an example, if you want to use [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) but don't want
813 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you
814 can specify `-a --no-o` (aka `--archive --no-owner`).
816 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the `-r`
817 option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`. Note
818 also that the side-effects of the [`--files-from`](#opt) option are NOT
819 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
820 changes the meaning of [`-a`](#opt) (see the [`--files-from`](#opt) option
823 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
825 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also
826 [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) for an option that allows the scanning of a single
829 See the [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) option for a discussion of the
830 incremental recursion for creating the list of files to transfer.
832 0. `--inc-recursive`, `--i-r`
834 This option explicitly enables on incremental recursion when scanning for
835 files, which is enabled by default when using the [`--recursive`](#opt)
836 option and both sides of the transfer are running rsync 3.0.0 or newer.
838 Incremental recursion uses much less memory than non-incremental, while
839 also beginning the transfer more quickly (since it doesn't need to scan the
840 entire transfer hierarchy before it starts transferring files). If no
841 recursion is enabled in the source files, this option has no effect.
843 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
844 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include:
845 - [`--delete-before`](#opt) (the old default of [`--delete`](#opt))
846 - [`--delete-after`](#opt)
847 - [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt)
848 - [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
850 In order to make [`--delete`](#opt) compatible with incremental recursion,
851 rsync 3.0.0 made [`--delete-during`](#opt) the default delete mode (which
852 was first added in 2.6.4).
854 One side-effect of incremental recursion is that any missing
855 sub-directories inside a recursively-scanned directory are (by default)
856 created prior to recursing into the sub-dirs. This earlier creation point
857 (compared to a non-incremental recursion) allows rsync to then set the
858 modify time of the finished directory right away (without having to delay
859 that until a bunch of recursive copying has finished). However, these
860 early directories don't yet have their completed mode, mtime, or ownership
861 set -- they have more restrictive rights until the subdirectory's copying
862 actually begins. This early-creation idiom can be avoided by using the
863 [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option.
865 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the
866 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) (`--no-i-r`) option.
868 0. `--no-inc-recursive`, `--no-i-r`
870 Disables the new incremental recursion algorithm of the
871 [`--recursive`](#opt) option. This makes rsync scan the full file list
872 before it begins to transfer files. See [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) for more
875 0. `--relative`, `-R`
877 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
878 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
879 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
880 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
883 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
885 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
888 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
890 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
891 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
892 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
895 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
896 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
897 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
898 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
899 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
900 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
901 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
902 the [`--no-implied-dirs`](#opt) option.
904 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
905 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
906 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
907 the source path, like this:
909 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
911 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
912 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
913 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
914 path. For example, when pushing files:
916 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
918 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
919 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
920 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
921 non-daemon transfer):
923 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
924 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
926 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
928 This option affects the default behavior of the [`--relative`](#opt) option. When
929 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
930 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
931 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
932 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
933 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
934 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
936 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
937 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
938 are implied when [`--relative`](#opt) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
939 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
940 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
941 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
942 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
943 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
944 preservation is to use the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option (which will also affect
945 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
947 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
948 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
949 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
953 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
954 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
955 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the [`--backup-dir`](#opt) and
956 [`--suffix`](#opt) options.
958 If you don't specify [`--backup-dir`](#opt):
960 1. the [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option will be forced on
961 2. the use of [`--delete`](#opt) (without [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)),
962 causes rsync to add a "protect" [filter-rule](#FILTER_RULES) for the
963 backup suffix to the end of all your existing filters that looks like
964 this: `-f "P *~"`. This rule prevents previously backed-up files from
967 Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to
968 manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the
969 list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g. if your
970 rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule
971 would never be reached).
973 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
975 This implies the [`--backup`](#opt) option, and tells rsync to store all
976 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
977 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
978 using the [`--suffix`](#opt) option (otherwise the files backed up in the
979 specified directory will keep their original filenames).
981 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
982 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
983 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
984 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
985 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
989 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
990 [`--backup`](#opt) (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no
991 [`--backup-dir`](#opt) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
995 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
996 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
997 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
998 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
1000 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
1001 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
1002 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
1003 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
1004 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
1005 regardless of the timestamps.
1007 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1008 exclude side effects.
1010 A caution for those that choose to combine [`--inplace`](#opt) with
1011 `--update`: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the
1012 receiving side that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the
1013 transfer will probably **not** continue the interrupted file. As such, it
1014 is usually best to avoid combining this with[ `--inplace`](#opt) unless you
1015 have implemented manual steps to handle any interrupted in-progress files.
1019 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
1020 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
1021 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
1022 updated data directly to the destination file.
1024 This has several effects:
1026 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
1027 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
1028 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
1029 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
1031 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
1032 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
1034 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
1035 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
1037 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
1038 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
1039 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
1040 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
1041 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
1042 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use [`--backup`](#opt),
1043 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
1046 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
1047 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
1049 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
1050 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
1051 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
1052 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
1054 The option implies [`--partial`](#opt) (since an interrupted transfer does
1055 not delete the file), but conflicts with [`--partial-dir`](#opt) and
1056 [`--delay-updates`](#opt). Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also
1057 incompatible with [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
1061 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
1062 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
1063 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
1064 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
1065 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
1066 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
1068 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
1069 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
1070 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
1071 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
1072 that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
1073 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
1074 "diminished" file when this happens).
1076 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
1077 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
1078 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
1081 0. `--append-verify`
1083 This special copy mode works like [`--append`](#opt) except that all the
1084 data in the file is included in the checksum verification (making it less
1085 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
1086 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
1087 files. See the [`--append`](#opt) option for more details.
1089 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the [`--append`](#opt) option worked like
1090 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
1091 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
1092 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
1096 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
1097 Unlike [`--recursive`](#opt), a directory's contents are not copied unless
1098 the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g.
1099 ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
1100 [`--recursive`](#opt) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters
1101 (and output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
1102 `--dirs` and [`--recursive`](#opt), `--recursive` takes precedence.
1104 The `--dirs` option is implied by the [`--files-from`](#opt) option or the
1105 [`--list-only`](#opt) option (including an implied [`--list-only`](#opt)
1106 usage) if [`--recursive`](#opt) wasn't specified (so that directories are
1107 seen in the listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to
1110 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs`
1111 (`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
1112 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1116 Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
1117 to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
1118 in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
1119 supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
1120 treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
1121 same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
1124 For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
1125 directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
1127 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
1129 If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
1130 sub/dir/bar directory:
1132 > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
1136 Add symlinks to the transferred files instead of noisily ignoring them with
1137 a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink encountered. You can
1138 alternately silence the warning by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1140 The default handling of symlinks is to recreate each symlink's unchanged
1141 value on the receiving side.
1143 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1145 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1147 The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
1148 referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
1149 references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
1150 is dropped from the transfer.
1152 This option supersedes any other options that affect symlinks in the
1153 transfer, since there are no symlinks left in the transfer.
1155 This option does not change the handling of existing symlinks on the
1156 receiving side, unlike versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3 which had the
1157 side-effect of telling the receiving side to also follow symlinks. A
1158 modern rsync won't forward this option to a remote receiver (since only the
1159 sender needs to know about it), so this caveat should only affect someone
1160 using an rsync client older than 2.6.7 (which is when `-L` stopped being
1161 forwarded to the receiver).
1163 See the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) (`-K`) if you need a symlink to a
1164 directory to be treated as a real directory on the receiving side.
1166 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1168 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1170 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1171 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1172 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when [`--relative`](#opt)
1175 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1176 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1177 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1178 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1179 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1180 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1181 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1184 Note that safe symlinks are only copied if [`--links`](#opt) was also
1185 specified or implied. The `--copy-unsafe-links` option has no extra effect
1186 when combined with [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1188 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1192 This tells the receiving rsync to ignore any symbolic links in the transfer
1193 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
1196 Since this ignoring is happening on the receiving side, it will still be
1197 effective even when the sending side has munged symlinks (when it is using
1198 [`--munge-links`](#opt)). It also affects deletions, since the file being
1199 present in the transfer prevents any matching file on the receiver from
1200 being deleted when the symlink is deemed to be unsafe and is skipped.
1202 This option must be combined with [`--links`](#opt) (or
1203 [`--archive`](#opt)) to have any symlinks in the transfer to conditionally
1204 ignore. Its effect is superseded by [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt).
1206 Using this option in conjunction with [`--relative`](#opt) may give
1209 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1213 This option affects just one side of the transfer and tells rsync to munge
1214 symlink values when it is receiving files or unmunge symlink values when it
1215 is sending files. The munged values make the symlinks unusable on disk but
1216 allows the original contents of the symlinks to be recovered.
1218 The server-side rsync often enables this option without the client's
1219 knowledge, such as in an rsync daemon's configuration file or by an option
1220 given to the rrsync (restricted rsync) script. When specified on the
1221 client side, specify the option normally if it is the client side that
1222 has/needs the munged symlinks, or use `-M--munge-links` to give the option
1223 to the server when it has/needs the munged symlinks. Note that on a local
1224 transfer, the client is the sender, so specifying the option directly
1225 unmunges symlinks while specifying it as a remote option munges symlinks.
1227 This option has no effect when sent to a daemon via [`--remote-option`](#opt)
1228 because the daemon configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
1229 "`munge symlinks`" parameter.
1231 The symlink value is munged/unmunged once it is in the transfer, so any
1232 option that transforms symlinks into non-symlinks occurs prior to the
1233 munging/unmunging **except** for [`--safe-links`](#opt), which is a choice
1234 that the receiver makes, so it bases its decision on the munged/unmunged
1235 value. This does mean that if a receiver has munging enabled, that using
1236 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause all symlinks to be ignored (since they
1239 The method that rsync uses to munge the symlinks is to prefix each one's
1240 value with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from
1241 being used as long as the directory does not exist. When this option is
1242 enabled, rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink
1243 to a directory (though it only checks at startup). See also the
1244 "munge-symlinks" python script in the support directory of the source code
1245 for a way to munge/unmunge one or more symlinks in-place.
1247 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1249 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1250 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1251 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using
1252 [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1254 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1255 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1256 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1257 [`--force`](#opt) or [`--delete`](#opt) is in effect).
1259 See also [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the
1262 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1263 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1264 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1265 [`--relative`](#opt) to make the paths match up right. For example:
1267 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1269 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1270 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1271 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1274 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1276 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1278 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1279 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1280 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1281 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1283 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1284 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1285 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1286 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1287 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1290 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1291 symlinks in the copy or enable the [`--munge-links`](#opt) option on the
1292 receiving side! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create their
1293 own symlink to any real directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1294 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1295 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1296 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1297 your receiving hierarchy.
1299 See also [`--copy-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the sending
1302 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1304 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1306 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1307 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1308 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1311 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1312 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1313 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1315 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1316 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1317 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1318 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1319 (unless you are using the [`--inplace`](#opt) option).
1320 - If you specify a [`--link-dest`](#opt) directory that contains hard
1321 links, the linking of the destination files against the
1322 [`--link-dest`](#opt) files can cause some paths in the destination to
1323 become linked together due to the [`--link-dest`](#opt) associations.
1325 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1326 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1327 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1328 you are tempted to use the [`--inplace`](#opt) option to avoid this breakage, be
1329 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1330 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1331 see the [`--inplace`](#opt) option for more caveats).
1333 If incremental recursion is active (see [`--inc-recursive`](#opt)), rsync
1334 may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link
1335 for that contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect
1336 the accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
1337 just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1338 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1339 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1340 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1341 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) option.
1345 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1346 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the [`--chmod`](#opt)
1347 option for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source
1350 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1352 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1353 permissions, though the [`--executability`](#opt) option might change
1354 just the execute permission for the file.
1355 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1356 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1357 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1358 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1359 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1360 bit from its parent directory.
1362 Thus, when `--perms` and [`--executability`](#opt) are both disabled, rsync's
1363 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1366 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1367 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1368 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1369 `--perms` option is off and use [`--chmod=ugo=rwX`](#opt) (which ensures
1370 that all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
1371 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
1372 putting this line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z`
1373 option, and includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination
1376 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1378 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1380 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1382 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1383 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1385 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1386 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1387 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1388 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1389 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1390 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1391 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1392 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1395 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1397 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1398 non-executability) of regular files when [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1399 A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1400 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1401 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1402 destination file's permissions as follows:
1404 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1405 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1406 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1408 If [`--perms`](#opt) is enabled, this option is ignored.
1412 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1413 the source ACLs. The option also implies [`--perms`](#opt).
1415 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1416 this option to work properly. See the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option for a
1417 way to backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1421 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1422 be the same as the source ones.
1424 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1425 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1426 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1427 namespaces as a normal user, see the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option.
1429 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1430 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1431 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1432 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1433 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1434 namespace, you could specify:
1436 > --filter='-x system.*'
1438 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1441 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1443 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1444 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1448 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1449 those used by [`--fake-super`](#opt)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1450 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with [`--fake-super`](#opt).
1454 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1455 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1456 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1457 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1458 existing files if [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1460 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1461 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1462 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1463 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1464 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1465 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1466 consistent executability across all bits:
1468 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1470 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1472 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1474 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1475 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1477 See the [`--perms`](#opt) and [`--executability`](#opt) options for how the
1478 resulting permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1482 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1483 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1484 the super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
1485 options). Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files
1486 are set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
1488 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1489 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1490 [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1494 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1495 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1496 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1497 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1498 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1499 user on the receiving side.
1501 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1502 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1503 (see also the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1507 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1508 the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
1509 being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
1510 (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1512 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
1513 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1514 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1518 This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
1519 and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
1520 rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the
1521 [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1523 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
1524 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1525 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1529 The `-D` option is equivalent to "[`--devices`](#opt)
1530 [`--specials`](#opt)".
1534 This tells rsync to treat a device on the sending side as a regular file,
1535 allowing it to be copied to a normal destination file (or another device
1536 if `--write-devices` was also specified).
1538 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1540 0. `--write-devices`
1542 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1543 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1545 This option implies the [`--inplace`](#opt) option.
1547 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1548 receiving side of the transfer, especially when running rsync as root.
1550 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1554 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1555 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1556 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1557 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` (or [`-a`](#opt)) will cause the
1558 next transfer to behave as if it used [`--ignore-times`](#opt) (`-I`),
1559 causing all files to be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1560 will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't actually
1561 changed, you're much better off using `-t`).
1563 A modern rsync that is using transfer protocol 30 or 31 conveys a modify
1564 time using up to 8-bytes. If rsync is forced to speak an older protocol
1565 (perhaps due to the remote rsync being older than 3.0.0) a modify time is
1566 conveyed using 4-bytes. Prior to 3.2.7, these shorter values could convey
1567 a date range of 13-Dec-1901 to 19-Jan-2038. Beginning with 3.2.7, these
1568 4-byte values now convey a date range of 1-Jan-1970 to 7-Feb-2106. If you
1569 have files dated older than 1970, make sure your rsync executables are
1570 upgraded so that the full range of dates can be conveyed.
1574 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1575 the same value as the source files.
1577 If repeated, it also sets the [`--open-noatime`](#opt) option, which can help you
1578 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1579 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1582 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1583 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply
1584 [`--open-noatime`](#opt) when this option is repeated.
1588 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1589 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1590 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1591 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1592 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1593 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1595 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1597 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1598 files to the same value as the source files.
1600 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1602 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
1603 access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1604 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1605 [`--backup`](#opt) without [`--backup-dir`](#opt).
1607 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of missing
1608 sub-directories when incremental recursion is enabled, as discussed in the
1609 [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) section.
1611 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1613 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
1614 access, and create times.
1618 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1619 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1620 preserving users via the [`--owner`](#opt) option, preserving all groups
1621 (not just the current user's groups) via the [`--group`](#opt) option, and
1622 copying devices via the [`--devices`](#opt) option. This is useful for
1623 systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and also
1624 for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run
1625 as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can
1630 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1631 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1632 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1633 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1634 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1635 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1636 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1637 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1638 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1639 ACLs (if [`--acls`](#opt) was specified) and non-user extended attributes
1640 (if [`--xattrs`](#opt) was specified).
1642 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1643 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1645 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1646 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1647 [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`) option:
1649 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1651 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1652 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1653 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1654 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1656 This option is overridden by both [`--super`](#opt) and `--no-super`.
1658 See also the [`fake super`](rsyncd.conf.5#fake_super) setting in the
1659 daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1663 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1664 destination. If combined with [`--inplace`](#opt) the file created might
1665 not end up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version
1666 and/or filesystem type. If [`--whole-file`](#opt) is in effect (e.g. for a
1667 local copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior
1668 to writing out the updated version.
1670 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1671 `--sparse` and [`--inplace`](#opt).
1675 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1676 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1677 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1678 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1679 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1681 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1682 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1683 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1684 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1686 If combined with [`--sparse`](#opt), the file will only have sparse blocks
1687 (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1688 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1690 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1692 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1693 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1694 in combination with the [`--verbose`](#opt) (`-v`) and/or
1695 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options to see what an rsync command is
1696 going to do before one actually runs it.
1698 The output of [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) is supposed to be exactly the
1699 same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery
1700 and system call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should
1701 be mostly unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does
1702 not send the actual data for file transfers, so [`--progress`](#opt) has no
1703 effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched
1704 data" statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
1705 run where no file transfers were needed.
1707 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1709 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1710 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1711 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1712 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1713 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1714 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1715 batch-writing option is in effect.
1717 0. `--no-whole-file`, `--no-W`
1719 Disable whole-file updating when it is enabled by default for a local
1720 transfer. This usually slows rsync down, but it can be useful if you are
1721 trying to minimize the writes to the destination file (if combined with
1722 [`--inplace`](#opt)) or for testing the checksum-based update algorithm.
1724 See also the [`--whole-file`](#opt) option.
1726 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1728 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1729 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1730 [`--checksum`](#opt) is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1731 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1732 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1734 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1736 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1739 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1745 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1746 version (which may differ from the list above).
1748 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the [`--whole-file`](#opt)
1749 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1750 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1751 the [`--checksum`](#opt) option cannot be used.
1753 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1754 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1756 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1757 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1758 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1759 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1760 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1761 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1763 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1764 [`RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum
1765 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
1766 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
1767 If the string (or string portion) contains no non-whitespace characters,
1768 the default checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
1769 specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum,
1770 and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum names. A list with only
1771 invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1773 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1775 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1777 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1778 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1779 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1780 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1781 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1782 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1784 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1785 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1786 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1787 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1789 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via [`--copy-links`](#opt) or
1790 [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt)), a symlink to a directory on another device
1791 is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1794 0. `--ignore-non-existing`, `--existing`
1796 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1797 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1798 [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) option, no files will be updated (which can be
1799 useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1801 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1802 exclude side effects.
1804 0. `--ignore-existing`
1806 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1807 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1808 get done). See also [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt).
1810 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1811 exclude side effects.
1813 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the
1814 [`--link-dest`](#opt) option when they need to continue a backup run that
1815 got interrupted. Since a [`--link-dest`](#opt) run is copied into a new
1816 directory hierarchy (when it is used properly), using [`--ignore-existing`
1817 will ensure that the already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids
1818 a change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that
1819 this option is only looking at the existing files in the destination
1822 When [`--info=skip2`](#opt) is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists
1823 (INFO)" messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum
1824 change" (requires [`-c`](#opt)), "file change" (based on the quick check),
1825 "attr change", or "uptodate". Using [`--info=skip1`](#opt) (which is also
1826 implied by 2 [`-v`](#opt) options) outputs the exists message without the
1829 0. `--remove-source-files`
1831 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1832 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1833 duplicated on the receiving side.
1835 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1836 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1837 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1838 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1839 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1840 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1841 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1842 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1843 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option [`--exclude='*.new'`](#opt)
1844 for the rsync transfer).
1846 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1847 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1849 Starting with 3.2.6, a local rsync copy will ensure that the sender does
1850 not remove a file the receiver just verified, such as when the user
1851 accidentally makes the source and destination directory the same path.
1855 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1856 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1857 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1858 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1859 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1860 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1861 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1862 excluded from being deleted unless you use the [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
1863 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1864 include/exclude modifiers in the [FILTER RULES](#) section).
1866 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless
1867 [`--recursive`](#opt) was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will
1868 also occur when [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) is enabled, but only for
1869 directories whose contents are being copied.
1871 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1872 first try a run using the [`--dry-run`](#opt) (`-n`) option to see what
1873 files are going to be deleted.
1875 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1876 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1877 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1878 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1879 this with the [`--ignore-errors`](#opt) option.
1881 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1882 without conflict, as well as [`--delete-excluded`](#opt). However, if none
1883 of the `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1884 [`--delete-during`](#opt) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer,
1885 or the [`--delete-before`](#opt) algorithm when talking to an older rsync.
1886 See also [`--delete-delay`](#opt) and [`--delete-after`](#opt).
1888 0. `--delete-before`
1890 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1891 transfer starts. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1892 details on file-deletion.
1894 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1895 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1896 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1897 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1898 [`--timeout`](#opt) was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1899 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1900 files in the transfer into memory at once (see [`--recursive`](#opt)).
1902 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1904 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1905 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1906 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1907 efficient [`--delete-before`](#opt), including doing the deletions prior to
1908 any per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added
1909 in rsync version 2.6.4. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1910 details on file-deletion.
1914 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1915 the transfer (like [`--delete-during`](#opt)), and then removed after the
1916 transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1917 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) and/or [`--fuzzy`](#opt), and is more efficient
1918 than using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (but can behave differently, since
1919 [`--delete-after`](#opt) computes the deletions in a separate pass after
1920 all updates are done). If the number of removed files overflows an
1921 internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
1922 hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during
1923 the transfer). If the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try
1924 to fall back to using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (which it cannot do if
1925 [`--recursive`](#opt) is doing an incremental scan). See
1926 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1930 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1931 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1932 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1933 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1934 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1935 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1936 (see [`--recursive`](#opt)). See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for
1937 more details on file-deletion.
1939 See also the [`--delete-delay`](#opt) option that might be a faster choice
1940 for those that just want the deletions to occur at the end of the transfer.
1942 0. `--delete-excluded`
1944 This option turns any unqualified exclude/include rules into server-side
1945 rules that do not affect the receiver's deletions.
1947 By default, an exclude or include has both a server-side effect (to "hide"
1948 and "show" files when building the server's file list) and a receiver-side
1949 effect (to "protect" and "risk" files when deletions are occurring). Any
1950 rule that has no modifier to specify what sides it is executed on will be
1951 instead treated as if it were a server-side rule only, avoiding any
1952 "protect" effects of the rules.
1954 A rule can still apply to both sides even with this option specified if the
1955 rule is given both the sender & receiver modifier letters (e.g., `-f'-sr
1956 foo'`). Receiver-side protect/risk rules can also be explicitly specified
1957 to limit the deletions. This saves you from having to edit a bunch of
1958 `-f'- foo'` rules into `-f'-s foo'` (aka `-f'H foo'`) rules (not to mention
1959 the corresponding includes).
1961 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for more information. See
1962 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on deletion.
1964 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
1966 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
1967 command-line arguments or [`--files-from`](#opt) entries), it is normally
1968 an error if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error,
1969 and does not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
1970 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
1973 0. `--delete-missing-args`
1975 This option takes the behavior of the (implied)
1976 [`--ignore-missing-args`](#opt) option a step farther: each missing arg
1977 will become a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the
1978 receiving side (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty
1979 directory, it will only be successfully deleted if [`--force`](#opt) or
1980 [`--delete`](#opt) are in effect. Other than that, this option is
1981 independent of any other type of delete processing.
1983 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
1984 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the [`--list-only`](#opt) output.
1986 0. `--ignore-errors`
1988 Tells [`--delete`](#opt) to go ahead and delete files even when there are
1993 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
1994 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
1995 active (see [`--delete`](#opt) for details).
1997 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
1998 using [`--delete-after`](#opt), and it used to be non-functional unless the
1999 [`--recursive`](#opt) option was also enabled.
2001 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
2003 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
2004 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
2005 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
2006 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
2007 important error condition also occurred).
2009 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
2010 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
2011 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
2012 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
2013 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
2014 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
2016 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
2018 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
2019 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
2020 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
2021 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
2023 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
2024 exclude side effects.
2026 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
2027 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
2028 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
2029 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
2030 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
2031 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
2033 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
2034 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
2037 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
2040 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
2042 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
2044 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
2045 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
2046 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of SIZE and other info.
2048 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
2050 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
2052 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
2053 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
2054 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
2055 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
2056 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
2057 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
2058 consume more memory.
2060 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
2061 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
2063 See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of how SIZE can be
2064 specified. The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
2066 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
2068 You can set a default value using the environment variable
2069 [`RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`](#) using the same SIZE values as supported by this
2070 option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option,
2071 you can override an environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`,
2072 which will make rsync avoid sending the option to the remote side (because
2073 "1G" is the default).
2075 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
2077 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
2078 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
2079 updated. See the technical report for details.
2081 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
2082 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
2084 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
2086 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
2087 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
2088 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
2091 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
2092 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
2093 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
2094 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
2095 remote host. See the [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL
2096 CONNECTION](#) section above.
2098 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the [`RSYNC_PORT`](#) environment variable will
2099 be set when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell
2100 connection. It is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or
2101 it is set to the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
2102 [`--port`](#opt) option or a non-empty port value in an `rsync://` URL.
2103 This allows the script to discern if a non-default port is being requested,
2104 allowing for things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a
2105 default or alternate port.
2107 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
2108 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
2109 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
2110 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
2111 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
2112 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
2113 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
2114 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
2117 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
2119 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
2120 options in their .ssh/config file.)
2122 You can also choose the remote shell program using the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#)
2123 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
2125 See also the [`--blocking-io`](#opt) option which is affected by this
2128 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
2130 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
2131 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
2132 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
2133 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
2134 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
2135 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
2137 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
2138 machine for use with the [`--relative`](#opt) option. For instance:
2140 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
2142 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
2144 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
2145 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
2146 you want to pass [`--log-file=FILE`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) to
2147 the remote system, specify it like this:
2149 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
2151 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
2152 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
2155 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
2157 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
2158 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
2159 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
2161 Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
2162 want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
2163 remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
2164 this requires the use of [`--old-args`](#opt) in a modern rsync.
2166 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
2167 "remote" side is the receiver.
2169 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
2170 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
2171 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
2172 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
2175 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
2177 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
2178 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
2179 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
2181 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
2182 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the [FILTER RULES](#)
2185 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
2224 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2225 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2226 delimited by whitespace).
2228 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2229 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2230 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2231 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
2233 If you're combining `-C` with your own [`--filter`](#opt) rules, you should
2234 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2235 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2236 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2237 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2238 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2239 [`--filter=:C`](#opt) and [`--filter=-C`](#opt) (either on your
2240 command-line or by putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with
2241 your other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scanning
2242 for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time import of the
2243 CVS excludes mentioned above.
2245 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2247 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2248 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2249 combination with a recursive transfer.
2251 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2252 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2253 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2254 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2255 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2257 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2261 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two [`--filter`](#opt) rules to
2262 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2264 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2266 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2267 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2268 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2271 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2273 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2275 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on how these
2278 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2280 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2281 specifies an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2282 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'- PATTERN'`.
2284 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2286 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2288 This option is related to the [`--exclude`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2289 a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2290 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2291 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2293 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2294 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2295 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an exclude.
2297 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2298 before adding any further rules.
2300 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2302 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2304 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2305 specifies an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2306 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'+ PATTERN'`.
2308 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2310 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2312 This option is related to the [`--include`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2313 a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2314 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2315 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2317 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2318 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2319 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an include.
2321 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2322 before adding any further rules.
2324 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2326 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2328 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2329 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2330 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2331 specified files and directories easier:
2333 - The [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the
2334 path information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2335 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2336 - The [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) option is implied, which will create
2337 directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily
2338 skipping them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2339 - The [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply
2340 [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2341 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2342 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2343 options are parsed (e.g. [`-a`](#opt) works the same before or after
2344 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2346 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2347 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2348 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2350 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2352 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2353 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2354 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2355 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2356 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the
2357 [`-r`](#opt) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be
2358 transferred (keep in mind that [`-r`](#opt) needs to be specified
2359 explicitly with `--files-from`, since it is not implied by [`-a`](#opt).
2360 Also note that the effect of the (enabled by default) [`-r`](#opt) option
2361 is to duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does
2362 not force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2364 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2365 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2366 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2367 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2370 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2372 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2373 was located on the remote "src" host.
2375 If the [`--iconv`](#opt) and [`--secluded-args`](#opt) options are specified
2376 and the `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another,
2377 the filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2378 receiving host's charset.
2380 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2381 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2382 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2383 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2384 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2389 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2390 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2391 affects [`--exclude-from`](#opt), [`--include-from`](#opt),
2392 [`--files-from`](#opt), and any merged files specified in a
2393 [`--filter`](#opt) rule. It does not affect [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (since
2394 all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2398 This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values on the
2399 remote side from unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation.
2400 It also allows the client to treat an empty arg as a "." instead of
2401 generating an error.
2403 The default in a modern rsync is for "shell-active" characters (including
2404 spaces) to be backslash-escaped in the args that are sent to the remote
2405 shell. The wildcard characters `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]` are not escaped in
2406 filename args (allowing them to expand into multiple filenames) while being
2407 protected in option args, such as [`--usermap`](#opt).
2409 If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in its
2410 filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
2411 with any backslash escapes at all, specify this option twice.
2413 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) environment
2414 variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
2415 setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
2416 repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
2417 behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
2418 positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
2420 Note that this option also disables the extra safety check added in 3.2.5
2421 that ensures that a remote sender isn't including extra top-level items in
2422 the file-list that you didn't request. This side-effect is necessary
2423 because we can't know for sure what names to expect when the remote shell
2424 is interpreting the args.
2426 This option conflicts with the [`--secluded-args`](#opt) option.
2428 0. `--secluded-args`, `-s`
2430 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync via
2431 the protocol (not the remote shell command line) which avoids letting the
2432 remote shell modify them. Wildcards are expanded on the remote host by
2433 rsync instead of a shell.
2435 This is similar to the default backslash-escaping of args that was added
2436 in 3.2.4 (see [`--old-args`](#opt)) in that it prevents things like space
2437 splitting and unwanted special-character side-effects. However, it has the
2438 drawbacks of being incompatible with older rsync versions (prior to 3.0.0)
2439 and of being refused by restricted shells that want to be able to inspect
2440 all the option values for safety.
2442 This option is useful for those times that you need the argument's
2443 character set to be converted for the remote host, if the remote shell is
2444 incompatible with the default backslash-escpaing method, or there is some
2445 other reason that you want the majority of the options and arguments to
2446 bypass the command-line of the remote shell.
2448 If you combine this option with [`--iconv`](#opt), the args related to the
2449 remote side will be translated from the local to the remote character-set.
2450 The translation happens before wild-cards are expanded. See also the
2451 [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
2453 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#)
2454 environment variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
2455 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2456 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2457 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-secluded-args` are the negative
2458 versions). This environment variable is also superseded by a non-zero
2459 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) export.
2461 This option conflicts with the [`--old-args`](#opt) option.
2463 This option used to be called `--protect-args` (before 3.2.6) and that
2464 older name can still be used (though specifying it as `-s` is always the
2465 easiest and most compatible choice).
2469 This option disables two extra validation checks that a local client
2470 performs on the file list generated by a remote sender. This option should
2471 only be used if you trust the sender to not put something malicious in the
2472 file list (something that could possibly be done via a modified rsync, a
2473 modified shell, or some other similar manipulation).
2475 Normally, the rsync client (as of version 3.2.5) runs two extra validation
2476 checks when pulling files from a remote rsync:
2478 - It verifies that additional arg items didn't get added at the top of the
2480 - It verifies that none of the items in the file list are names that should
2481 have been excluded (if filter rules were specified).
2483 Note that various options can turn off one or both of these checks if the
2484 option interferes with the validation. For instance:
2486 - Using a per-directory filter file reads filter rules that only the server
2487 knows about, so the filter checking is disabled.
2488 - Using the [`--old-args`](#opt) option allows the sender to manipulate the
2489 requested args, so the arg checking is disabled.
2490 - Reading the files-from list from the server side means that the client
2491 doesn't know the arg list, so the arg checking is disabled.
2492 - Using [`--read-batch`](#opt) disables both checks since the batch file's
2493 contents will have been verified when it was created.
2495 This option may help an under-powered client server if the extra pattern
2496 matching is slowing things down on a huge transfer. It can also be used to
2497 work around a currently-unknown bug in the verification logic for a transfer
2498 from a trusted sender.
2500 When using this option it is a good idea to specify a dedicated destination
2501 directory, as discussed in the [MULTI-HOST SECURITY](#) section.
2503 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2505 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2506 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2507 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2508 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2510 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2511 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2512 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2513 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2514 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2515 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2516 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2518 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2519 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the
2520 [`--remote-option`](#opt) to affect the remote side, such as
2521 `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer, the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file
2522 provides a local-shell helper script that can be used to allow a
2523 "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified without needing to setup
2524 any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that affect the
2525 side of the transfer that is using the host-spec (and using hostname "lh"
2526 avoids the overriding of the remote directory to the user's home dir).
2528 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2530 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2532 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2533 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2534 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2535 has no permissions to change.
2537 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2538 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2540 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2542 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2544 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2545 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2546 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2547 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2548 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2549 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2551 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2552 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2553 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2554 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2555 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2556 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2557 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2558 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2559 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2560 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2561 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2562 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2563 new version on the disk at the same time.
2565 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2566 space, you may wish to combine it with the [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
2567 option, which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories
2568 in the destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you
2569 don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the
2570 destination partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly
2571 concerned about disk space is to use the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option
2572 with a relative path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a
2573 copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will
2574 use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and
2575 then rename it into place from there. (Specifying a [`--partial-dir`](#opt)
2576 with an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
2580 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2581 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2582 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2583 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2584 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2586 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2587 alternate destination directories that are specified via
2588 [`--compare-dest`](#opt), [`--copy-dest`](#opt), or [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2590 Note that the use of the [`--delete`](#opt) option might get rid of any
2591 potential fuzzy-match files, so either use [`--delete-after`](#opt) or
2592 specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2594 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2596 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2597 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2598 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2599 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2600 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2601 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2602 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2605 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2606 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2607 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2608 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2609 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2612 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2613 See also [`--copy-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2615 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2616 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2617 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2620 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2622 This option behaves like [`--compare-dest`](#opt), but rsync will also copy
2623 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2624 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2625 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2626 files have been successfully transferred.
2628 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2629 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2630 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2631 try to speed up the transfer.
2633 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2634 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2636 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2638 This option behaves like [`--copy-dest`](#opt), but unchanged files are
2639 hard linked from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be
2640 identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly
2641 ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:
2643 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2645 If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2646 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2647 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2648 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2651 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2652 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2653 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2654 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2655 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2656 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2658 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2659 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2660 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2661 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2662 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2663 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2665 Note that if you combine this option with [`--ignore-times`](#opt), rsync will not
2666 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2667 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2668 the file is updated.
2670 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2671 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--copy-dest`](#opt).
2673 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2674 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when
2675 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) was specified (or implied). You can work-around
2676 this bug by avoiding the `-o` option (or using `--no-o`) when sending to an
2679 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2681 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2682 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2683 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2685 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2686 unless you force the choice using the [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`)
2689 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2692 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2693 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2694 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2695 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2696 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2698 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2699 [`RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable
2700 compression names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is
2701 separated into the "client string & server string", otherwise the same
2702 string applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
2703 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2704 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2705 names results in a failed negotiation.
2707 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2708 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2709 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2710 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2713 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2715 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2716 compression algorithm that occurs when [`--compress`](#opt) is used. The
2717 option implies [`--compress`](#opt) unless "none" was specified, which
2718 instead implies `--no-compress`.
2720 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2728 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2729 version (which may differ from the list above).
2731 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2732 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2733 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2734 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2735 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2737 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2738 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2739 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2741 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2743 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see [`--compress`](#opt),
2744 `-z`) instead of letting it default. The [`--compress`](#opt) option is
2745 implied as long as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the
2746 compression algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level
2749 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2750 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2751 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a
2752 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the
2753 choice in effect. For example:
2755 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2757 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2758 the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
2759 `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
2761 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2762 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2764 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2766 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2767 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2768 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2769 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2771 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2772 [`--debug=nstr`](#opt) to see the "negotiated string" results. This will
2773 report something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the
2774 checksum choice in effect).
2776 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2778 **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
2779 changes, so this option has no effect.
2781 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2782 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2783 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
2784 no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
2785 changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
2786 reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
2788 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2789 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2792 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2793 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2794 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2796 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2798 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2799 matches 2 suffixes):
2801 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2803 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2806 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2905 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2906 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2907 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2912 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2913 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2915 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2916 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2917 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2920 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2921 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2922 instead. See also the [`use chroot`](rsyncd.conf.5#use_chroot) setting
2923 in the rsyncd.conf manpage for some comments on how the chroot setting
2924 affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and
2925 what you can do about it.
2927 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2929 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2930 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2931 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2932 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2933 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2934 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2935 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2936 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2937 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2940 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2942 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2943 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2944 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2946 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2947 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2948 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2949 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2950 match those in use on the receiving side.
2952 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2953 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2954 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2956 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
2958 When the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option is used, the sender does not send any
2959 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
2960 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
2961 nameless IDs to different values.
2963 For the `--usermap` option to work, the receiver will need to be running as
2964 a super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
2965 options). For the `--groupmap` option to work, the receiver will need to
2966 have permissions to set that group.
2968 Starting with rsync 3.2.4, the `--usermap` option implies the
2969 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) option while the `--groupmap` option implies the
2970 [`--group`](#opt) (`-g`) option (since rsync needs to have those options
2971 enabled for the mapping options to work).
2973 An older rsync client may need to use [`-s`](#opt) to avoid a complaint
2974 about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles this automatically.
2976 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
2978 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
2979 a simpler interface than using [`--usermap`](#opt) & [`--groupmap`](#opt)
2980 directly, but it is implemented using those options internally so they
2981 cannot be mixed. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
2982 omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
2983 be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
2985 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
2986 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (and with the same
2987 implied [`--owner`](#opt) and/or [`--group`](#opt) options).
2989 An older rsync client may need to use [`-s`](#opt) to avoid a complaint
2990 about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles this automatically.
2992 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
2994 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
2995 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
2996 0, which means no timeout.
2998 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
3000 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
3001 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
3002 rsync exits with an error.
3004 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3006 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
3007 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
3008 address (or hostname) to bind to.
3010 See also [the daemon version of the `--address` option](#dopt--address).
3014 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
3015 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
3016 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
3017 the port as a part of the URL).
3019 See also [the daemon version of the `--port` option](#dopt--port).
3021 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
3023 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
3024 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
3025 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the manpage for the
3026 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
3027 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
3028 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
3030 See also [the daemon version of the `--sockopts` option](#dopt--sockopts).
3034 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
3035 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
3036 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
3037 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
3041 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
3042 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
3043 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
3045 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
3046 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
3048 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
3050 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
3051 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
3052 [`--out-format='%i %n%L'`](#opt). If you repeat the option, unchanged
3053 files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least
3054 version 2.6.7 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that
3055 also turns on the output of other verbose messages).
3057 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
3058 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
3059 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
3060 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
3062 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
3064 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
3065 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
3067 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
3068 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
3069 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
3070 [`--hard-links`](#opt)).
3071 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
3072 attributes that are being modified).
3073 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
3076 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
3077 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
3078 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
3080 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
3081 have changed, as follows:
3083 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
3084 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
3085 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
3086 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
3087 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
3089 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
3091 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
3092 [`--checksum`](#opt)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a
3093 changed value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to
3094 3.0.1, this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing
3096 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
3097 by the file transfer.
3098 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
3099 the sender's value (requires [`--times`](#opt)). An alternate value of
3100 `T` means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time,
3101 which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without
3102 [`--times`](#opt) and when a symlink is changed and the receiver can't
3103 set its time. (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the
3104 `s` flag combined with `t` instead of the proper `T` flag for this
3105 time-setting failure.)
3106 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
3107 sender's value (requires [`--perms`](#opt)).
3108 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
3109 value (requires [`--owner`](#opt) and super-user privileges).
3110 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
3111 value (requires [`--group`](#opt) and the authority to set the group).
3112 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information:
3113 - `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
3114 the sender's value (requires [`--atimes`](#opt))
3115 - `n` means the create time (newness) is different and is being updated
3116 to the sender's value (requires [`--crtimes`](#opt))
3117 - `b` means that both the access and create times are being updated
3118 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
3119 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
3121 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
3122 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
3123 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
3124 outputting them as a verbose message).
3126 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
3128 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
3129 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
3130 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
3131 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either
3132 [`--info=name`](#opt) or [`-v`](#opt) is specified (this tells you just the
3133 name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full
3134 list of the possible escape characters, see the [`log
3135 format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format) setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3137 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the [`--info=name`](#opt)
3138 option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a
3139 significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
3140 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
3141 included in the string (e.g. if the [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option was
3142 used), the logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed
3143 in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the
3144 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option for a description of the output of "%i".
3146 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
3147 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
3148 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
3149 is in effect and [`--progress`](#opt) is also specified, rsync will also
3150 output the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress
3151 information (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
3153 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3155 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
3156 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
3157 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
3158 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
3159 of "%i %n%L". See the [`--log-file-format`](#opt) option if you wish to
3162 Here's an example command that requests the remote side to log what is
3165 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
3167 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
3170 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file` option](#dopt--log-file).
3172 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3174 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
3175 file specified by the [`--log-file`](#opt) option (which must also be
3176 specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty
3177 string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of
3178 the possible escape characters, see the [`log format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format)
3179 setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3181 The default FORMAT used if [`--log-file`](#opt) is specified and this
3182 option is not is '%i %n%L'.
3184 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file-format`
3185 option](#dopt--log-file-format).
3189 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
3190 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
3191 your data. This option is equivalent to [`--info=stats2`](#opt) if
3192 combined with 0 or 1 [`-v`](#opt) options, or [`--info=stats3`](#opt) if
3193 combined with 2 or more [`-v`](#opt) options.
3195 The current statistics are as follows:
3197 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
3198 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
3199 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
3200 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
3201 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
3202 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
3203 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3204 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3205 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3206 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3207 sense) were deleted. The total count will be
3208 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3209 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
3210 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
3211 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
3212 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
3213 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
3215 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
3216 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
3217 include the size of symlinks.
3218 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
3219 just the transferred files.
3220 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
3221 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
3222 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
3224 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
3225 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
3226 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
3228 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
3229 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
3230 sending side for this to be present.
3231 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
3232 sending the file list to the receiver.
3233 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
3234 client side to the server side.
3235 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
3236 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
3237 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
3238 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
3240 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
3242 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
3243 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
3244 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
3245 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
3247 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
3248 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
3249 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
3250 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
3252 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
3254 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible levels:
3256 1. output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits (either a
3257 comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
3259 2. output numbers in units of 1000 (with a character suffix for larger
3260 units -- see below).
3261 3. output numbers in units of 1024.
3263 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
3264 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
3265 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
3267 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
3268 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
3269 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
3272 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
3273 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
3274 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
3275 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
3276 to one or more `-h` options. See the [`--list-only`](#opt) option for one
3281 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
3282 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
3283 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
3284 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
3285 rest of the file much faster.
3287 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
3289 This option modifies the behavior of the [`--partial`](#opt) option while
3290 also implying that it be enabled. This enhanced partial-file method puts
3291 any partially transferred files into the specified _DIR_ instead of writing
3292 the partial file out to the destination file. On the next transfer, rsync
3293 will use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3294 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3296 Note that if [`--whole-file`](#opt) is specified (or implied), any
3297 partial-dir files that are found for a file that is being updated will
3298 simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's
3299 delta-transfer algorithm).
3301 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing, but just the last dir -- not
3302 the whole path. This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3303 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
3304 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when it is needed,
3305 and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that this
3306 directory removal is only done for a relative pathname, as it is expected
3307 that an absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir
3310 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3311 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3312 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3313 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3314 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
3315 equivalent of this "perishable" exclude at the end of any other filter
3316 rules: `-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`
3318 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3319 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because:
3321 1. the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or
3322 2. you may wish to override rsync's exclude choice.
3324 For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
3325 that may be lying around, you should specify [`--delete-after`](#opt) and
3326 add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. Avoid using
3327 [`--delete-before`](#opt) or [`--delete-during`](#opt) unless you don't
3328 need rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data during the current
3331 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
3332 is a security risk! E.g. AVOID "/tmp"!
3334 You can also set the partial-dir value the [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`](#)
3335 environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not force
3336 [`--partial`](#opt) to be enabled, but rather it affects where partial
3337 files go when [`--partial`](#opt) is specified. For instance, instead of
3338 using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along with [`--progress`](#opt), you could
3339 set [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp`](#) in your environment and then use
3340 the [`-P`](#opt) option to turn on the use of the .rsync-tmp dir for
3341 partial transfers. The only times that the [`--partial`](#opt) option does
3342 not look for this environment value are:
3344 1. when [`--inplace`](#opt) was specified (since [`--inplace`](#opt)
3345 conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and
3346 2. when [`--delay-updates`](#opt) was specified (see below).
3348 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3349 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3350 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3351 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3354 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
3355 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply [`--partial`](#opt). This is so that a
3356 refusal of the [`--partial`](#opt) option can be used to disallow the
3357 overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while still
3358 allowing the safer idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3360 0. `--delay-updates`
3362 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3363 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3364 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3365 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3366 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3367 you've specified the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option, that directory will be
3368 used instead. See the comments in the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) section for
3369 a discussion of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer,
3370 and what you can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that
3371 might be lying around. Conflicts with [`--inplace`](#opt) and
3374 This option implies [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) since it needs the full
3375 file list in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3377 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3378 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3379 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3380 should not use an absolute path to [`--partial-dir`](#opt) unless:
3382 1. there is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same
3383 name (since all the updated files will be put into a single directory if
3384 the path is absolute), and
3385 2. there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates
3386 will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3388 See also the "atomic-rsync" python script in the "support" subdir for an
3389 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses [`--link-dest`](#opt)
3390 and a parallel hierarchy of files).
3392 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3394 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3395 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3396 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3397 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3398 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3400 This option can still leave empty directories on the receiving side if you
3401 make use of [TRANSFER_RULES](#).
3403 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3404 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3405 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3406 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3407 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3410 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3411 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3412 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3414 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3416 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3417 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3418 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3419 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3421 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3423 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3424 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3425 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3429 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3430 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3431 this is the same as specifying [`--info=flist2,name,progress`](#opt), but
3432 any user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3433 [`--info=flist0 --progress`](#opt)).
3435 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3438 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3440 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3441 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3442 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3443 is maintained until the end.
3445 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3446 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3447 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3448 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3449 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3450 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3452 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3453 summary line that looks like this:
3455 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3457 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3458 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3459 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3460 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3461 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3462 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3464 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3465 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3466 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3467 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3468 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3469 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3470 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3471 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3472 of the files added to the list).
3476 The `-P` option is equivalent to "[`--partial`](#opt)
3477 [`--progress`](#opt)". Its purpose is to make it much easier to specify
3478 these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
3480 There is also a [`--info=progress2`](#opt) option that outputs statistics
3481 based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag
3482 without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify
3483 [`--info=name0`](#opt)) if you want to see how the transfer is doing
3484 without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to
3485 specify the [`--progress`](#opt) option in order to use
3486 [`--info=progress2`](#opt).)
3488 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3489 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3490 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3491 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3492 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3493 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3494 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3495 followed by the [`--info=progress2`](#opt) format of progress info. If you
3496 don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3497 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3499 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3501 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3503 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3504 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3505 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3506 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3507 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3509 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3510 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3511 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3512 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3513 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3516 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3518 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3519 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3520 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3521 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3523 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3527 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3528 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3529 no destination specified, so its main uses are:
3531 1. to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into a
3532 file-listing command, or
3533 2. to be able to specify more than one source arg. Note: be sure to
3534 include the destination.
3536 CAUTION: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
3537 shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to specify a single
3538 wild-card arg to try to infer this option. A safe example is:
3540 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3542 This option always uses an output format that looks similar to this:
3544 > drwxrwxr-x 4,096 2022/09/30 12:53:11 support
3545 > -rw-rw-r-- 80 2005/01/11 10:37:37 support/Makefile
3547 The only option that affects this output style is (as of 3.1.0) the
3548 [`--human-readable`](#opt) (`-h`) option. The default is to output sizes
3549 as byte counts with digit separators (in a 14-character-width column).
3550 Specifying at least one `-h` option makes the sizes output with unit
3551 suffixes. If you want old-style bytecount sizes without digit separators
3552 (and an 11-character-width column) use `--no-h`.
3554 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3555 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3556 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the
3557 [`--dirs`](#opt) option w/o [`--recursive`](#opt), and older rsyncs don't
3558 have that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs`
3559 option (if you don't need to expand a directory's content), or turn on
3560 recursion and exclude the content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3564 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3565 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3566 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3567 fractional value (e.g. `--bwlimit=1.5m`). If no suffix is specified, the
3568 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3569 been appended). See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of
3570 all the available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3572 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3573 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3576 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3577 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3578 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3579 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3582 Due to the internal buffering of data, the [`--progress`](#opt) option may
3583 not be an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is
3584 because some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is
3585 quickly buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of
3586 the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3588 See also [the daemon version of the `--bwlimit` option](#dopt--bwlimit).
3590 0. `--stop-after=MINS`, (`--time-limit=MINS`)
3592 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3593 minutes has elapsed.
3595 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3596 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3597 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3598 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3599 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise.
3601 The `--time-limit` version of this option is deprecated.
3603 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
3605 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3606 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3607 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3608 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3611 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3612 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3613 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3614 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3615 time, rsync exits with an error.
3617 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3618 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3619 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3620 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3622 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3623 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3624 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3625 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3626 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise. Do
3627 keep in mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone
3628 than your local host.
3632 Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
3633 the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
3636 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3638 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3639 with [`--read-batch`](#opt). See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and
3640 also the [`--only-write-batch`](#opt) option.
3642 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3643 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3644 a more modern choice, use the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`) and/or
3645 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) options.
3647 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3649 Works like [`--write-batch`](#opt), except that no updates are made on the
3650 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3651 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3652 changes via [`--read-batch`](#opt).
3654 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3655 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3656 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3657 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3658 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3661 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3662 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3663 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3664 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3666 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3668 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3669 [`--write-batch`](#opt). If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read
3670 from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3674 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3675 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3676 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the [`--write-batch`](#opt)
3677 option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
3678 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating
3679 the batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
3680 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
3682 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3684 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3685 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3686 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3687 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3688 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3689 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3690 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3691 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3692 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the
3693 [`RSYNC_ICONV`](#) environment variable.
3695 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3696 run "`iconv --list`".
3698 If you specify the [`--secluded-args`](#opt) (`-s`) option, rsync will
3699 translate the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent
3700 to the remote host. See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
3702 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3703 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3704 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3705 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3706 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3708 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3709 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3710 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3711 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3714 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3716 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3717 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3718 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3719 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3720 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3721 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever IPv4/IPv6 hint options
3724 See also [the daemon version of these options](#dopt--ipv4).
3726 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3727 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3730 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3732 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3733 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3734 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3735 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3736 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3737 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3738 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3739 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3743 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3747 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3748 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3749 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3751 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3752 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3753 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3754 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly.
3756 See the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage for more details.
3758 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3760 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3761 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3762 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3763 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option.
3765 See also the [address](rsyncd.conf.5#address) global option in the
3766 rsyncd.conf manpage and the [client version of the `--address`
3767 option](#opt--address).
3771 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3772 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3773 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed.
3775 See the [client version of the `--bwlimit` option](#opt--bwlimit) for some
3780 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3781 relevant when [`--daemon`](#dopt) is specified. The default is
3782 /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program
3783 and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case the default is
3784 rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
3786 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3788 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3789 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3790 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3791 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3794 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3798 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3799 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3800 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3801 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3802 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3803 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3807 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3808 rather than the default of 873.
3810 See also [the client version of the `--port` option](#opt--port) and the
3811 [port](rsyncd.conf.5#port) global setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3813 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3815 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3816 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3818 See also [the client version of the `--log-file` option](#opt--log-file).
3820 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3822 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3823 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3824 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3825 logging is turned off.
3827 See also [the client version of the `--log-file-format`
3828 option](#opt--log-file-format).
3832 This overrides the [`socket options`](rsyncd.conf.5#socket_options)
3833 setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
3835 See also [the client version of the `--sockopts` option](#opt--sockopts).
3837 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3839 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3840 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3841 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3842 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3844 See also [the client version of the `--verbose` option](#opt--verbose).
3846 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3848 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3849 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3850 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3851 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3852 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3855 See also [the client version of these options](#opt--ipv4).
3857 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3858 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3863 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3864 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3868 The filter rules allow for custom control of several aspects of how files are
3871 - Control which files the sending side puts into the file list that describes
3872 the transfer hierarchy
3873 - Control which files the receiving side protects from deletion when the file
3874 is not in the sender's file list
3875 - Control which extended attribute names are skipped when copying xattrs
3877 The rules are either directly specified via option arguments or they can be
3878 read in from one or more files. The filter-rule files can even be a part of
3879 the hierarchy of files being copied, affecting different parts of the tree in
3882 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE RULES
3884 We will first cover the basics of how include & exclude rules affect what files
3885 are transferred, ignoring any deletion side-effects. Filter rules mainly
3886 affect the contents of directories that rsync is "recursing" into, but they can
3887 also affect a top-level item in the transfer that was specified as a argument.
3889 The default for any unmatched file/dir is for it to be included in the
3890 transfer, which puts the file/dir into the sender's file list. The use of an
3891 exclude rule causes one or more matching files/dirs to be left out of the
3892 sender's file list. An include rule can be used to limit the effect of an
3893 exclude rule that is matching too many files.
3895 The order of the rules is important because the first rule that matches is the
3896 one that takes effect. Thus, if an early rule excludes a file, no include rule
3897 that comes after it can have any effect. This means that you must place any
3898 include overrides somewhere prior to the exclude that it is intended to limit.
3900 When a directory is excluded, all its contents and sub-contents are also
3901 excluded. The sender doesn't scan through any of it at all, which can save a
3902 lot of time when skipping large unneeded sub-trees.
3904 It is also important to understand that the include/exclude rules are applied
3905 to every file and directory that the sender is recursing into. Thus, if you
3906 want a particular deep file to be included, you have to make sure that none of
3907 the directories that must be traversed on the way down to that file are
3908 excluded or else the file will never be discovered to be included. As an
3909 example, if the directory "`a/path`" was given as a transfer argument and you
3910 want to ensure that the file "`a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt`" is a part of the
3911 transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories "`a/path`",
3912 "`a/path/down`", or "`a/path/down/deep`" as it makes it way scanning through
3915 When you are working on the rules, it can be helpful to ask rsync to tell you
3916 what is being excluded/included and why. Specifying `--debug=FILTER` or (when
3917 pulling files) `-M--debug=FILTER` turns on level 1 of the FILTER debug
3918 information that will output a message any time that a file or directory is
3919 included or excluded and which rule it matched. Beginning in 3.2.4 it will
3920 also warn if a filter rule has trailing whitespace, since an exclude of "foo "
3921 (with a trailing space) will not exclude a file named "foo".
3923 Exclude and include rules can specify wildcard [PATTERN MATCHING RULES](#)
3924 (similar to shell wildcards) that allow you to match things like a file suffix
3925 or a portion of a filename.
3927 A rule can be limited to only affecting a directory by putting a trailing slash
3930 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE EXAMPLE
3932 With the following file tree created on the sending side:
3937 > touch x/y/file.txt
3940 > touch x/z/file.txt
3942 Then the following rsync command will transfer the file "`x/y/file.txt`" and
3943 the directories needed to hold it, resulting in the path "`/tmp/x/y/file.txt`"
3944 existing on the remote host:
3946 > rsync -ai -f'+ x/' -f'+ x/y/' -f'+ x/y/file.txt' -f'- *' x host:/tmp/
3948 Aside: this copy could also have been accomplished using the [`-R`](#opt)
3949 option (though the 2 commands behave differently if deletions are enabled):
3951 > rsync -aiR x/y/file.txt host:/tmp/
3953 The following command does not need an include of the "x" directory because it
3954 is not a part of the transfer (note the traililng slash). Running this command
3955 would copy just "`/tmp/x/file.txt`" because the "y" and "z" dirs get excluded:
3957 > rsync -ai -f'+ file.txt' -f'- *' x/ host:/tmp/x/
3959 This command would omit the zzz.txt file while copying "x" and everything else
3962 > rsync -ai -f'- zzz.txt' x host:/tmp/
3964 ### FILTER RULES WHEN DELETING
3966 By default the include & exclude filter rules affect both the sender
3967 (as it creates its file list)
3968 and the receiver (as it creates its file lists for calculating deletions). If
3969 no delete option is in effect, the receiver skips creating the delete-related
3970 file lists. This two-sided default can be manually overridden so that you are
3971 only specifying sender rules or receiver rules, as described in the [FILTER
3972 RULES IN DEPTH](#) section.
3974 When deleting, an exclude protects a file from being removed on the receiving
3975 side while an include overrides that protection (putting the file at risk of
3976 deletion). The default is for a file to be at risk -- its safety depends on it
3977 matching a corresponding file from the sender.
3979 An example of the two-sided exclude effect can be illustrated by the copying of
3980 a C development directory between 2 systems. When doing a touch-up copy, you
3981 might want to skip copying the built executable and the `.o` files (sender
3982 hide) so that the receiving side can build their own and not lose any object
3983 files that are already correct (receiver protect). For instance:
3985 > rsync -ai --del -f'- *.o' -f'- cmd' src host:/dest/
3987 Note that using `-f'-p *.o'` is even better than `-f'- *.o'` if there is a
3988 chance that the directory structure may have changed. The "p" modifier is
3989 discussed in [FILTER RULE MODIFIERS](#).
3991 One final note, if your shell doesn't mind unexpanded wildcards, you could
3992 simplify the typing of the filter options by using an underscore in place of
3993 the space and leaving off the quotes. For instance, `-f -_*.o -f -_cmd` (and
3994 similar) could be used instead of the filter options above.
3996 ### FILTER RULES IN DEPTH
3998 Rsync supports old-style include/exclude rules and new-style filter rules. The
3999 older rules are specified using [`--include`](#opt) and [`--exclude`](#opt) as
4000 well as the [`--include-from`](#opt) and [`--exclude-from`](#opt). These are
4001 limited in behavior but they don't require a "-" or "+" prefix. An old-style
4002 exclude rule is turned into a "`- name`" filter rule (with no modifiers) and an
4003 old-style include rule is turned into a "`+ name`" filter rule (with no
4006 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line
4007 and/or read-in from files. New style filter rules have the following syntax:
4009 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
4010 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
4012 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
4013 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
4014 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
4015 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Any additional
4016 spaces and/or underscores are considered to be a part of the pattern name.
4017 Here are the available rule prefixes:
4019 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern that (by default) is both a
4020 `hide` and a `protect`.
4021 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern that (by default) is both a
4022 `show` and a `risk`.
4023 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file on the client side to read for more
4025 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file. Using this kind of
4026 filter rule requires that you trust the sending side's filter checking, so
4027 it has the side-effect mentioned under the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option.
4028 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
4029 Equivalent to a sender-only exclude, so `-f'H foo'` could also be specified
4031 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden. Equivalent to a
4032 sender-only include, so `-f'S foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+s
4034 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
4035 Equivalent to a receiver-only exclude, so `-f'P foo'` could also be
4036 specified as `-f'-r foo'`.
4037 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected. Equivalent to a
4038 receiver-only include, so `-f'R foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+r
4040 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
4042 When rules are being read from a file (using merge or dir-merge), empty lines
4043 are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules
4044 that contain a hash character are unaffected).
4046 Note also that the [`--filter`](#opt), [`--include`](#opt), and
4047 [`--exclude`](#opt) options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
4048 you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of
4049 the [`--filter`](#opt) option, or the [`--include-from`](#opt) /
4050 [`--exclude-from`](#opt) options.
4052 ### PATTERN MATCHING RULES
4054 Most of the rules mentioned above take an argument that specifies what the rule
4055 should match. If rsync is recursing through a directory hierarchy, keep in
4056 mind that each pattern is matched against the name of every directory in the
4057 descent path as rsync finds the filenames to send.
4059 The matching rules for the pattern argument take several forms:
4061 - If a pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing slash) or a "`**`"
4062 (which can match a slash), then the pattern is matched against the full
4063 pathname, including any leading directories within the transfer. If the
4064 pattern doesn't contain a (non-trailing) `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched
4065 only against the final component of the filename or pathname. For example,
4066 `foo` means that the final path component must be "foo" while `foo/bar` would
4067 match the last 2 elements of the path (as long as both elements are within
4069 - A pattern that ends with a `/` only matches a directory, not a regular file,
4071 - A pattern that starts with a `/` is anchored to the start of the transfer
4072 path instead of the end. For example, `/foo/**` or `/foo/bar/**` match only
4073 leading elements in the path. If the rule is read from a per-directory
4074 filter file, the transfer path being matched will begin at the level of the
4075 filter file instead of the top of the transfer. See the section on
4076 [ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS](#) for a full discussion of how to
4077 specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.
4079 Rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
4080 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters: '`*`',
4083 - a '`?`' matches any single character except a slash (`/`).
4084 - a '`*`' matches zero or more non-slash characters.
4085 - a '`**`' matches zero or more characters, including slashes.
4086 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`, that
4087 must match one character.
4088 - a trailing `***` in the pattern is a shorthand that allows you to match a
4089 directory and all its contents using a single rule. For example, specifying
4090 "`dir_name/***`" will match both the "dir_name" directory (as if "`dir_name/`"
4091 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
4092 had been specified).
4093 - a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard character, but it is only
4094 interpreted as an escape character if at least one wildcard character is
4095 present in the match pattern. For instance, the pattern "`foo\bar`" matches
4096 that single backslash literally, while the pattern "`foo\bar*`" would need to
4097 be changed to "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
4099 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
4101 - Option `-f'- *.o'` would exclude all filenames ending with `.o`
4102 - Option `-f'- /foo'` would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
4103 transfer-root directory
4104 - Option `-f'- foo/'` would exclude any directory named foo
4105 - Option `-f'- foo/*/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar which is at two
4106 levels below a directory named foo (if foo is in the transfer)
4107 - Option `-f'- /foo/**/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar that was two
4108 or more levels below a top-level directory named foo (note that /foo/bar is
4109 **not** excluded by this)
4110 - Options `-f'+ */' -f'+ *.c' -f'- *'` would include all directories and .c
4111 source files but nothing else
4112 - Options `-f'+ foo/' -f'+ foo/bar.c' -f'- *'` would include only the foo
4113 directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it
4114 would be excluded by the "`- *`")
4116 ### FILTER RULE MODIFIERS
4118 The following modifiers are accepted after an include (+) or exclude (-) rule:
4120 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
4121 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, `-f'-/ /etc/passwd'`
4122 would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from
4123 the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it
4124 is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
4126 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
4127 fails to match. For instance, `-f'-! */'` would exclude all non-directories.
4128 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
4129 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
4130 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
4131 rule affects the sending side, it affects what files are put into the
4132 sender's file list. The default is for a rule to affect both sides unless
4133 [`--delete-excluded`](#opt) was specified, in which case default rules become
4134 sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an
4135 alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
4136 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
4137 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
4138 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
4139 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
4140 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
4141 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the
4142 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's default rules that exclude things
4143 like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable, and will not prevent a
4144 directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the
4146 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
4147 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
4148 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
4149 (see the [`--xattrs`](#opt) option).
4151 ### MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
4153 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
4154 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#)
4157 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
4158 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
4159 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
4160 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
4161 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
4162 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
4163 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
4164 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
4165 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
4166 (see [PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE](#) below).
4170 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
4171 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
4172 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
4173 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4174 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4176 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
4178 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
4179 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4180 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
4181 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4182 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
4183 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
4184 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
4186 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
4187 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
4188 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
4189 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
4190 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
4191 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
4192 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
4193 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
4194 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
4195 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
4196 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
4197 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
4198 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
4199 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
4200 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
4203 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
4204 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
4205 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
4206 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
4207 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
4208 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
4209 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
4210 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
4211 the current merge file.
4213 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
4214 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
4215 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
4216 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
4219 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
4221 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
4228 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
4229 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
4230 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
4231 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
4234 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
4235 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
4236 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
4237 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see [`-F`](#opt)):
4239 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
4241 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
4242 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
4243 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
4244 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
4245 same as the module's "path".)
4247 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
4249 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
4250 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4251 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4253 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
4254 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
4255 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
4256 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
4258 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
4259 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
4260 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
4261 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory
4262 .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you
4263 like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule
4264 for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower
4265 priority than your command-line rules). For example:
4268 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
4273 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
4276 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
4277 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
4278 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
4279 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
4280 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
4281 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
4282 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
4285 ### LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
4287 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
4288 introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The "current" list is either
4289 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
4290 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
4291 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
4293 ### ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
4295 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
4296 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
4297 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
4298 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
4299 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
4300 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
4302 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
4303 slash on a source path or changing your use of the [`--relative`](#opt) option
4304 affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how
4305 much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following
4306 examples demonstrate this.
4308 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
4309 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
4310 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
4313 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
4314 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
4315 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
4316 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4317 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4321 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
4322 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
4323 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
4324 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
4325 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
4329 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
4330 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
4331 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
4332 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
4333 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
4337 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
4338 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
4339 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
4340 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4341 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4344 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at the
4345 output when using [`--verbose`](#opt) and put a / in front of the name (use the
4346 `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
4348 ### PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
4350 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
4351 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
4352 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
4353 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
4355 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
4356 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
4358 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
4359 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
4360 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
4361 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use [`--delete-after`](#opt),
4362 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as
4363 the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
4365 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
4367 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
4368 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
4369 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
4370 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
4371 exclude themselves):
4373 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
4374 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
4376 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
4377 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
4378 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
4379 per-directory merge rule.
4381 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
4382 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
4383 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
4384 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
4385 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
4386 one of these commands:
4389 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
4390 > host:src/dir /dest
4391 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
4396 In addition to the [FILTER RULES](#) that affect the recursive file scans that
4397 generate the file list on the sending and (when deleting) receiving sides,
4398 there are transfer rules. These rules affect which files the generator decides
4399 need to be transferred without the side effects of an exclude filter rule.
4400 Transfer rules affect only files and never directories.
4402 Because a transfer rule does not affect what goes into the sender's (and
4403 receiver's) file list, it cannot have any effect on which files get deleted on
4404 the receiving side. For example, if the file "foo" is present in the sender's
4405 list but its size is such that it is omitted due to a transfer rule, the
4406 receiving side does not request the file. However, its presence in the file
4407 list means that a delete pass will not remove a matching file named "foo" on
4408 the receiving side. On the other hand, a server-side exclude (hide) of the
4409 file "foo" leaves the file out of the server's file list, and absent a
4410 receiver-side exclude (protect) the receiver will remove a matching file named
4411 "foo" if deletions are requested.
4413 Given that the files are still in the sender's file list, the
4414 [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option will not judge a directory as being empty
4415 even if it contains only files that the transfer rules omitted.
4417 Similarly, a transfer rule does not have any extra effect on which files are
4418 deleted on the receiving side, so setting a maximum file size for the transfer
4419 does not prevent big files from being deleted.
4421 Examples of transfer rules include the default "quick check" algorithm (which
4422 compares size & modify time), the [`--update`](#opt) option, the
4423 [`--max-size`](#opt) option, the [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) option, and a
4428 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
4429 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
4430 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
4431 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
4432 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
4433 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
4434 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
4435 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
4437 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
4438 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
4439 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
4440 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
4441 same data to every host individually.
4443 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
4444 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
4445 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
4446 stored in the batch file.
4448 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
4449 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
4450 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
4451 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
4452 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
4453 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
4454 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
4455 used to create the batch file.
4459 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4460 > $ scp foo* remote:
4461 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4463 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4464 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4466 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4467 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4468 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4469 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4470 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4472 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
4473 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4474 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4475 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4476 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4477 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4478 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4479 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
4480 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, but you could edit the script file if you
4481 wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
4482 standard input, such as the [`--exclude-from=-`](#opt) option).
4486 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4487 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4488 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4489 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4490 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4491 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4492 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4493 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4494 size and date, use the [`-I`](#opt) option (when reading the batch). If an
4495 error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
4496 state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of
4497 operation to fix up the destination tree.
4499 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4500 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4501 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4502 See also the [`--protocol`](#opt) option for a way to have the creating rsync
4503 generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch
4504 files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with
4505 newer versions will not work.)
4507 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4508 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4509 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4510 instance [`--write-batch`](#opt) changes to [`--read-batch`](#opt),
4511 [`--files-from`](#opt) is dropped, and the [`--filter`](#opt) /
4512 [`--include`](#opt) / [`--exclude`](#opt) options are not needed unless one of
4513 the [`--delete`](#opt) options is specified.
4515 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4516 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4517 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4518 change in what gets deleted by [`--delete`](#opt) is desired. A normal user
4519 can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the
4520 appropriate [`--read-batch`](#opt) command for the batched data.
4522 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4523 version uses a new implementation.
4527 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4528 link in the source directory.
4530 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4531 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4533 If [`--links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are added to the transfer
4534 (instead of being noisily ignored), and the default handling is to recreate
4535 them with the same target on the destination. Note that [`--archive`](#opt)
4536 implies [`--links`](#opt).
4538 If [`--copy-links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4539 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4541 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4542 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4543 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4544 the public section of the site. Using [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt) will cause
4545 any links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4546 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause unsafe links to be omitted by the receiver.
4547 (Note that you must specify or imply [`--links`](#opt) for
4548 [`--safe-links`](#opt) to have any effect.)
4550 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with
4551 `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".." components to ascend from the top
4554 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4555 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4556 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4558 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files and directories
4559 (leaving no symlinks in the transfer for any other options to affect).
4560 0. `--copy-dirlinks` Turn just symlinks to directories into real
4561 directories, leaving all other symlinks to be handled as described below.
4562 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks
4563 into files and create all safe symlinks.
4564 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
4565 skip all safe symlinks.
4566 0. `--links --safe-links` The receiver skips creating
4567 unsafe symlinks found in the transfer and creates the safe ones.
4568 0. `--links` Create all symlinks.
4570 For the effect of [`--munge-links`](#opt), see the discussion in that option's
4573 Note that the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option does not effect symlinks in the
4574 transfer but instead affects how rsync treats a symlink to a directory that
4575 already exists on the receiving side. See that option's section for a warning.
4579 Rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4580 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4583 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4584 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4585 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4587 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4589 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4590 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4591 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4592 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4593 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4594 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4596 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4597 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4598 file is included or excluded.
4603 - **1** - Syntax or usage error
4604 - **2** - Protocol incompatibility
4605 - **3** - Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4606 - **4** - Requested action not supported. Either:
4607 - an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them
4608 - an option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server
4609 - **5** - Error starting client-server protocol
4610 - **6** - Daemon unable to append to log-file
4611 - **10** - Error in socket I/O
4612 - **11** - Error in file I/O
4613 - **12** - Error in rsync protocol data stream
4614 - **13** - Errors with program diagnostics
4615 - **14** - Error in IPC code
4616 - **20** - Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4617 - **21** - Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4618 - **22** - Error allocating core memory buffers
4619 - **23** - Partial transfer due to error
4620 - **24** - Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4621 - **25** - The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4622 - **30** - Timeout in data send/receive
4623 - **35** - Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4625 ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4629 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4630 .cvsignore files. See the [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) option for more details.
4634 Specify a default [`--iconv`](#opt) setting using this environment
4635 variable. First supported in 3.0.0.
4639 Specify a "1" if you want the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to be enabled by
4640 default, a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the
4641 repeated-option state, or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by
4642 default. When this environment variable is set to a non-zero value, it
4643 supersedes the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#) variable.
4645 This variable is ignored if [`--old-args`](#opt), `--no-old-args`, or
4646 [`--secluded-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4648 First supported in 3.2.4.
4650 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4652 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the [`--secluded-args`](#opt)
4653 option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is
4654 disabled by default.
4656 This variable is ignored if [`--secluded-args`](#opt), `--no-secluded-args`,
4657 or [`--old-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4659 First supported in 3.1.0. Starting in 3.2.4, this variable is ignored if
4660 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) is set to a non-zero value.
4664 This environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as
4665 the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after the
4666 command name, just as in the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option.
4670 This environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4671 client to use a web proxy when connecting to an rsync daemon. You should
4672 set `RSYNC_PROXY` to a hostname:port pair.
4676 This environment variable allows you to set the password for an rsync
4677 **daemon** connection, which avoids the password prompt. Note that this
4678 does **not** supply a password to a remote shell transport such as ssh
4679 (consult its documentation for how to do that).
4681 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4683 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4684 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4685 to "nobody". If both are set, `USER` takes precedence.
4687 0. `RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`
4689 This environment variable specifies the directory to use for a
4690 [`--partial`](#opt) transfer without implying that partial transfers be
4691 enabled. See the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option for full details.
4693 0. `RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`
4695 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4696 compression algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4697 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available compression
4698 names. See the [`--compress`](#opt) option for full details.
4700 0. `RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`
4702 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4703 checksum algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4704 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available checksum
4705 names. See the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) option for full details.
4707 0. `RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`
4709 This environment variable sets an allocation maximum as if you had used the
4710 [`--max-alloc`](#opt) option.
4714 This environment variable is not read by rsync, but is instead set in
4715 its sub-environment when rsync is running the remote shell in combination
4716 with a daemon connection. This allows a script such as
4717 [`rsync-ssl`](rsync-ssl.1) to be able to know the port number that the user
4718 specified on the command line.
4722 This environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4725 0. `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`
4727 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4728 to use when making a daemon connection. See [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC
4729 DAEMON](#) for full details.
4733 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4734 to use to run the program specified by [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#). See
4735 [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON](#) for full details.
4739 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4743 [**rsync-ssl**(1)](rsync-ssl.1), [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5), [**rrsync**(1)](rrsync.1)
4747 - Times are transferred as \*nix time_t values.
4748 - When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified files. See
4749 the comments on the [`--modify-window`](#opt) option.
4750 - File permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values.
4751 - See also the comments on the [`--delete`](#opt) option.
4753 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4757 This manpage is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4761 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4762 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4763 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4764 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4765 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4766 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4770 Rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4771 [COPYING](COPYING) for details.
4773 An rsync web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site
4774 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
4777 The rsync github project is <https://github.com/WayneD/rsync>.
4779 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4780 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4782 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4783 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4787 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4788 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4789 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4791 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4792 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4796 Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4797 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4800 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4801 <https://lists.samba.org/>.