-# NAME
+## NAME
rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
-# SYNOPSIS
+## SYNOPSIS
```
Local:
Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
of copying.
-# DESCRIPTION
+The online version of this manpage (that includes cross-linking of topics)
+is available at <https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1>.
+
+## DESCRIPTION
Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
- pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
- support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
-# GENERAL
+## GENERAL
Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
-specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the "USING
-RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" section for an exception
-to this latter rule).
+specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the [USING
+RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) section for an
+exception to this latter rule).
As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
-the copy occurs locally (see also the `--list-only` option).
+the copy occurs locally (see also the [`--list-only`](#opt) option).
Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
-# SETUP
+## SETUP
See the file README.md for installation instructions.
communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
by default, such as rsh or remsh.
-You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the `-e`
-command line option, or by setting the RSYNC_RSH environment variable.
+You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the [`-e`](#opt)
+command line option, or by setting the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#) environment variable.
Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
-# USAGE
+## USAGE
You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
destination, one of which may be remote.
directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
-expansion of wildcards on the commandline (`*.c`) into a list of files is
+expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
-same as all other posix-style programs).
+same as all other Posix-style programs).
> rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
See the following section for more details.
-# ADVANCED USAGE
+## SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
+
+Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
+This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
+directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames. It can, however,
+confuse someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what
+was given on the command-line.
+
+If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
+separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
+[`--delay-updates`](#opt) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
+does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
+
+## MULTI-HOST SECURITY
+
+Rsync takes steps to ensure that the file requests that are shared in a
+transfer are protected against various security issues. Most of the potential
+problems arise on the receiving side where rsync takes steps to ensure that the
+list of files being transferred remains within the bounds of what was
+requested.
+
+Toward this end, rsync 3.1.2 and later have aborted when a file list contains
+an absolute or relative path that tries to escape out of the top of the
+transfer. Also, beginning with version 3.2.5, rsync does two more safety
+checks of the file list to (1) ensure that no extra source arguments were added
+into the transfer other than those that the client requested and (2) ensure
+that the file list obeys the exclude rules that were sent to the sender.
+
+For those that don't yet have a 3.2.5 client rsync (or those that want to be
+extra careful), it is safest to do a copy into a dedicated destination
+directory for the remote files when you don't trust the remote host. For
+example, instead of doing an rsync copy into your home directory:
+
+> rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~
+
+Dedicate a "host1-files" dir to the remote content:
+
+> rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~/host1-files
+
+See the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option for additional details.
+
+## ADVANCED USAGE
The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
-> rsync -av host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
-> rsync -av host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/file3 /dest/
-> rsync -av host::modname/file1 ::modname/file{3,4}
+> rsync -aiv host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
+> rsync -aiv host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/extra /dest/
+> rsync -aiv host::modname/first ::modname/extra{1,2} /dest/
-Older versions of rsync required using quoted spaces in the SRC, like these
-examples:
+Really old versions of rsync (2.6.9 and before) only allowed specifying one
+remote-source arg, so some people have instead relied on the remote-shell
+performing space splitting to break up an arg into multiple paths. Such
+unintuitive behavior is no longer supported by default (though you can request
+it, as described below).
-> rsync -av host:'dir1/file1 dir2/file2' /dest
-> rsync host::'modname/dir1/file1 modname/dir2/file2' /dest
+Starting in 3.2.4, filenames are passed to a remote shell in such a way as to
+preserve the characters you give it. Thus, if you ask for a file with spaces
+in the name, that's what the remote rsync looks for:
-This word-splitting still works (by default) in the latest rsync, but is not as
-easy to use as the first method.
+> rsync -aiv host:'a simple file.pdf' /dest/
-If you need to transfer a filename that contains whitespace, you can either
-specify the `--protect-args` (`-s`) option, or you'll need to escape the
-whitespace in a way that the remote shell will understand. For instance:
+If you use scripts that have been written to manually apply extra quoting to
+the remote rsync args (or to require remote arg splitting), you can ask rsync
+to let your script handle the extra escaping. This is done by either adding
+the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to the rsync runs in the script (which requires
+a new rsync) or exporting [RSYNC_OLD_ARGS](#)=1 and [RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS](#)=0
+(which works with old or new rsync versions).
-> rsync -av host:'file\ name\ with\ spaces' /dest
-
-# CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
+## CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
-system, so refer to the STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS section
-below for information on that.)
+system, so refer to the [STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS](#)
+section below for information on that.)
Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
that:
paths on the daemon will be shown.
- if you specify no local destination then a listing of the specified files on
the remote daemon is provided.
-- you must not specify the `--rsh` (`-e`) option (since that overrides the
- daemon connection to use ssh -- see USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
- REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION below).
+- you must not specify the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option (since that overrides
+ the daemon connection to use ssh -- see [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
+ REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) below).
An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
-by setting the environment variable RSYNC_PASSWORD to the password you want to
-use or using the `--password-file` option. This may be useful when scripting
-rsync.
+by setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_PASSWORD`](#) to the password you
+want to use or using the [`--password-file`](#opt) option. This may be useful
+when scripting rsync.
WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
-those systems using `--password-file` is recommended.
+those systems using [`--password-file`](#opt) is recommended.
You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
-variable RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy. Note
-that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port 873.
+variable [`RSYNC_PROXY`](#) to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy.
+Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port
+873.
You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
-setting the environment variable RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG to the commands you wish to
-run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may contain the
-escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync command (so use
-"%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
+setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#) to the commands you
+wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
+contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
+command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
> export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
> rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
-Note also that if the RSYNC_SHELL environment variable is set, that program
-will be used to run the RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG command instead of using the default
-shell of the **system()** call.
+Note also that if the [`RSYNC_SHELL`](#) environment variable is set, that
+program will be used to run the `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG` command instead of using
+the default shell of the **system()** call.
-# USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
+## USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
-program on the command-line with the `--rsh=COMMAND` option. (Setting the
+program on the command-line with the [`--rsh=COMMAND`](#opt) option. (Setting the
RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
> rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
-example that uses the short version of the `--rsh` option:
+example that uses the short version of the [`--rsh`](#opt) option:
> rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
log-in to the "module".
-# STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
+In this setup, the daemon is started by the ssh command that is accessing the
+system (which can be forced via the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file, if desired).
+However, when accessing a daemon directly, it needs to be started beforehand.
+
+## STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
-connections, see the **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page -- that is the config file for
-the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run the daemon
-(including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
+connections, see the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage -- that is
+the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run
+the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
-# SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
-
-Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
-This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
-directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames, and may confuse
-someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what was given
-on the command-line.
-
-If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
-separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
-`--delay-updates` (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but does
-make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
-
-# EXAMPLES
-
-Here are some examples of how I use rsync.
-
-To backup my wife's home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and
-mail folders, I use a cron job that runs
-
-> rsync -Cavz . arvidsjaur:backup
+## EXAMPLES
-each night over a PPP connection to a duplicate directory on my machine
-"arvidsjaur".
+Here are some examples of how rsync can be used.
-To synchronize my samba source trees I use the following Makefile targets:
+To backup a home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail
+folders, a per-user cron job can be used that runs this each day:
-> get:
-> rsync -avuzb --exclude '*~' samba:samba/ .
-> put:
-> rsync -Cavuzb . samba:samba/
-> sync: get put
+> rsync -aiz . bkhost:backup/joe/
-This allows me to sync with a CVS directory at the other end of the connection.
-I then do CVS operations on the remote machine, which saves a lot of time as
-the remote CVS protocol isn't very efficient.
+To move some files from a remote host to the local host, you could run:
-I mirror a directory between my "old" and "new" ftp sites with the command:
+> rsync -aiv --remove-source-files rhost:/tmp/{file1,file2}.c ~/src/
-> rsync -az -e ssh --delete ~ftp/pub/samba nimbus:"~ftp/pub/tridge"
+## OPTION SUMMARY
-This is launched from cron every few hours.
-
-# OPTION SUMMARY
-
-Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Please refer to the
-detailed description below for a complete description.
+Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Each option also
+has its own detailed description later in this manpage.
[comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
-[comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 8 chars.)
+[comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
```
--verbose, -v increase verbosity
--info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
--debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
---msgs2stderr output messages directly to stderr
+--stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
--quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
--no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
--checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
---archive, -a archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
+--archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
--no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
--recursive, -r recurse into directories
--relative, -R use relative path names
--append append data onto shorter files
--append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
--dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
+--old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
+--mkpath create the destination's path component
--links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
--copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
--copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
--owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
--group, -g preserve group
--devices preserve device files (super-user only)
+--copy-devices copy device contents as a regular file
+--write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
--specials preserve special files
-D same as --devices --specials
--times, -t preserve modification times
--atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
--open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
+--crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
--omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
--omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
--super receiver attempts super-user activities
--fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
--sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
--preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
---write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
--dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
--whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
---checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithms
+--checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
--one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
--block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
--rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
--max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
--max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
--min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
+--max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
--partial keep partially transferred files
--partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
--delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
--copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
--link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
--compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
---compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
+--compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
+--compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
--skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
--cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
--filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
--include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
--files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
--from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
+--old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
--protect-args, -s no space-splitting; wildcard chars only
+--trust-sender trust the remote sender's file list
--copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
--address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
--port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
--log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
--log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
--password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
+--early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
--list-only list the files instead of copying them
--bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
+--stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
+--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
+--fsync fsync every written file
--write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
--only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
--read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
--help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
```
-# OPTIONS
+## OPTIONS
Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
-Some options only have a long variant, not a short. If the option takes a
-parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long variant, even though it
-must also be specified for the short. When specifying a parameter, you can
-either use the form `--option=param` or replace the '=' with whitespace. The
-parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the shell's
-command-line parsing. Keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in a filename is
-substituted by your shell, so `--option=~/foo` will not change the tilde into
-your home directory (remove the '=' for that).
+Some options only have a long variant, not a short.
+
+If the option takes a parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long
+variant, even though it must also be specified for the short. When specifying
+a parameter, you can either use the form `--option=param`, `--option param`,
+`-o=param`, `-o param`, or `-oparam` (the latter choices assume that your
+option has a short variant).
+
+The parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the
+shell's command-line parsing. Also keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in
+a pathname is substituted by your shell, so make sure that you separate the
+option name from the pathname using a space if you want the local shell to
+expand it.
+
+[comment]: # (Some markup below uses a literal non-breakable space when a backtick string)
+[comment]: # (needs to contain a space since markdown strips spaces from the start/end)
[comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
-0. `--help`, `-h` `(*)`
+0. `--help`
Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
- (*) The `-h` short option will only invoke `--help` when used without other
- options since it normally means `--human-readable`.
+ You can also use `-h` for `--help` when it is used without any other
+ options (since it normally means [`--human-readable`](#opt)).
0. `--version`, `-V`
being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
+ The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
+ rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
+ received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
+ transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
+ second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
+ file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
+ value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
+ sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
+ number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
+ human-readable by using the [`--human-readable`](#opt) (or
+ `--no-human-readable`) options.
+
In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
- of `--info` and `--debug` options. You can choose to use these newer
- options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as any
- fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both `--info`
- and `--debug` have a way to ask for help that tells you exactly what flags
- are set for each increase in verbosity.
+ of [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) options. You can choose to use
+ these newer options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as
+ any fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both
+ [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) have a way to ask for help that
+ tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
> rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
> rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
- Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the `--out-format` and
- `--itemize-changes` (`-i`) options. See those options for more information
- on what is output and when.
+ Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the [`--out-format`](#opt)
+ and [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options. See those options for more
+ information on what is output and when.
This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
> rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
> rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
- Note that some debug messages will only be output when `--msgs2stderr` is
- specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
+ Note that some debug messages will only be output when the [`--stderr=all`](#opt)
+ option is specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
- Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwared to the server
+ Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
> rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
-0. `--msgs2stderr`
-
- This option changes rsync to send all its output directly to stderr rather
- than to send messages to the client side via the protocol. The protocol
- allows rsync to output normal messages via stdout and errors via stderr,
- but it can delay messages behind a slew of data.
-
- One case where this is helpful is when sending really large files, since
- errors that happen on a remote receiver tend to get delayed until after the
- file's data is fully sent. It is also helpful for debugging, since it
- helps to avoid overpopulating the protocol data with extra message data.
-
- The option does not affect the remote side of a transfer without using
- `--remote-option` -- e.g. `-M--msgs2stderr` or `{-M,}--msgs2stderr`.
-
- Also keep in mind that connecting to a normal (non-remote-shell) daemon
- does not have a stderr channel to send messages back to the client side, so
- a modern rsync only allows the option on a remote-shell-run daemon.
-
- This option has the side-effect of making stderr output get line-buffered
- so that the merging of the output of 3 programs happens in a more readable
- manner.
+0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
+
+ This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
+ are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
+ free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
+
+ - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
+ error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
+ the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
+ stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
+ daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
+ stream.
+
+ - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
+ directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
+ become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
+ divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
+ debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
+ avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
+ a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows [`--debug`](#opt) to
+ enable some extra I/O related messages.
+
+ - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
+ via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
+ errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
+ in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
+ transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
+ older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
+ been around for several releases.
+
+ This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
+ forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
+ the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
+ represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
+ will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
0. `--quiet`, `-q`
the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
behavior, causing all files to be updated.
+ This option can be confusing compared to [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) and
+ [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) in that that they cause rsync to transfer
+ fewer files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
+
0. `--size-only`
This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
exactly.
-0. `--modify-window`, `-@`
+0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
- can be overridden using either the `--checksum-choice` option or an
- environment variable that is discussed in that option's section.
+ can be overridden using either the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`)
+ option or an environment variable that is discussed in that option's
+ section.
0. `--archive`, `-a`
This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
- recursion and want to preserve almost everything (with `-H` being a notable
- omission). The only exception to the above equivalence is when
- `--files-from` is specified, in which case `-r` is not implied.
+ recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
+ **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
+ crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
- Note that `-a` **does not preserve hardlinks**, because finding
- multiply-linked files is expensive. You must separately specify `-H`.
+ The only exception to the above equivalence is when [`--files-from`](#opt)
+ is specified, in which case [`-r`](#opt) is not implied.
0. `--no-OPTION`
You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
- with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-": only options that
- are implied by other options (e.g. `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have
- different defaults in various circumstances (e.g. `--no-whole-file`,
- `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). You may specify either the short or the
- long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as
- `--no-relative`).
-
- For example: if you want to use `-a` (`--archive`) but don't want `-o`
- (`--owner`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you could specify
- `-a --no-o` (or `-a --no-owner`).
-
- The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the
- `-r` option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`.
- Note also that the side-effects of the `--files-from` option are NOT
+ with "no-". Not all positive options have a negated opposite, but a lot
+ do, including those that can be used to disable an implied option (e.g.
+ `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have different defaults in various circumstances
+ (e.g. [`--no-whole-file`](#opt), `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). Every
+ valid negated option accepts both the short and the long option name after
+ the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as `--no-relative`).
+
+ As an example, if you want to use [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) but don't want
+ [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you
+ can specify `-a --no-o` (aka `--archive --no-owner`).
+
+ The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the `-r`
+ option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`. Note
+ also that the side-effects of the [`--files-from`](#opt) option are NOT
positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
- changes the meaning of `-a` (see the `--files-from` option for more
- details).
+ changes the meaning of [`-a`](#opt) (see the [`--files-from`](#opt) option
+ for more details).
0. `--recursive`, `-r`
- This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also `--dirs` (`-d`).
+ This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also
+ [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) for an option that allows the scanning of a single
+ directory.
- Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, the recursive algorithm used is now an
- incremental scan that uses much less memory than before and begins the
- transfer after the scanning of the first few directories have been
- completed. This incremental scan only affects our recursion algorithm, and
- does not change a non-recursive transfer. It is also only possible when
- both ends of the transfer are at least version 3.0.0.
+ See the [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) option for a discussion of the
+ incremental recursion for creating the list of files to transfer.
- Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
- disable the incremental recursion mode. These include: `--delete-before`,
- `--delete-after`, `--prune-empty-dirs`, and `--delay-updates`. Because of
- this, the default delete mode when you specify `--delete` is now
- `--delete-during` when both ends of the connection are at least 3.0.0 (use
- `--del` or `--delete-during` to request this improved deletion mode
- explicitly). See also the `--delete-delay` option that is a better choice
- than using `--delete-after`.
+0. `--inc-recursive`, `--i-r`
- Incremental recursion can be disabled using the `--no-inc-recursive` option
- or its shorter `--no-i-r` alias.
+ This option explicitly enables on incremental recursion when scanning for
+ files, which is enabled by default when using the [`--recursive`](#opt)
+ option and both sides of the transfer are running rsync 3.0.0 or newer.
+
+ Incremental recursion uses much less memory than non-incremental, while
+ also beginning the transfer more quickly (since it doesn't need to scan the
+ entire transfer hierarchy before it starts transferring files). If no
+ recursion is enabled in the source files, this option has no effect.
+
+ Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
+ disable the incremental recursion mode. These include:
+ - [`--delete-before`](#opt) (the old default of [`--delete`](#opt))
+ - [`--delete-after`](#opt)
+ - [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt)
+ - [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
+
+ In order to make [`--delete`](#opt) compatible with incremental recursion,
+ rsync 3.0.0 made [`--delete-during`](#opt) the default delete mode (which
+ was first added in 2.6.4).
+
+ One side-effect of incremental recursion is that any missing
+ sub-directories inside a recursively-scanned directory are (by default)
+ created prior to recursing into the sub-dirs. This earlier creation point
+ (compared to a non-incremental recursion) allows rsync to then set the
+ modify time of the finished directory right away (without having to delay
+ that until a bunch of recursive copying has finished). However, these
+ early directories don't yet have their completed mode, mtime, or ownership
+ set -- they have more restrictive rights until the subdirectory's copying
+ actually begins. This early-creation idiom can be avoiding by using the
+ [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option.
+
+ Incremental recursion can be disabled using the
+ [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) (`--no-i-r`) option.
+
+0. `--no-inc-recursive`, `--no-i-r`
+
+ Disables the new incremental recursion algorithm of the
+ [`--recursive`](#opt) option. This makes rsync scan the full file list
+ before it begins to transfer files. See [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) for more
+ info.
0. `--relative`, `-R`
in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
- the `--no-implied-dirs` option.
+ the [`--no-implied-dirs`](#opt) option.
It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
0. `--no-implied-dirs`
- This option affects the default behavior of the `--relative` option. When
+ This option affects the default behavior of the [`--relative`](#opt) option. When
it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
- are implied when `--relative` is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
+ are implied when [`--relative`](#opt) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
"path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
- preservation is to use the `--keep-dirlinks` option (which will also affect
+ preservation is to use the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option (which will also affect
symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
- what (if any) suffix gets appended using the `--backup-dir` and `--suffix`
- options.
-
- Note that if you don't specify `--backup-dir`, (1) the `--omit-dir-times`
- option will be forced on, and (2) if `--delete` is also in effect (without
- `--delete-excluded`), rsync will add a "protect" filter-rule for the backup
- suffix to the end of all your existing excludes (e.g. `-f "P *~"`). This
- will prevent previously backed-up files from being deleted. Note that if
- you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to manually insert
- your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the list so that it
- has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g., if your rules specify a
- trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule would never be
- reached).
+ what (if any) suffix gets appended using the [`--backup-dir`](#opt) and
+ [`--suffix`](#opt) options.
+
+ If you don't specify [`--backup-dir`](#opt):
+
+ 1. the [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option will be forced on
+ 2. the use of [`--delete`](#opt) (without [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)),
+ causes rsync to add a "protect" [filter-rule](#FILTER_RULES) for the
+ backup suffix to the end of all your existing filters that looks like
+ this: `-f "P *~"`. This rule prevents previously backed-up files from
+ being deleted.
+
+ Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to
+ manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the
+ list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g. if your
+ rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule
+ would never be reached).
0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
- In combination with the `--backup` option, this tells rsync to store all
+ This implies the [`--backup`](#opt) option, and tells rsync to store all
backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
- using the `--suffix` option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified
- directory will keep their original filenames).
+ using the [`--suffix`](#opt) option (otherwise the files backed up in the
+ specified directory will keep their original filenames).
Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
0. `--suffix=SUFFIX`
This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
- `--backup` (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no `--backup-dir`
- was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
+ [`--backup`](#opt) (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no
+ [`--backup-dir`](#opt) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
0. `--update`, `-u`
directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
regardless of the timestamps.
- This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
- data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
- It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+ This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
+ exclude side effects.
+
+ A caution for those that choose to combine [`--inplace`](#opt) with
+ `--update`: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the
+ receiving side that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the
+ transfer will probably **not** continue the interrupted file. As such, it
+ is usually best to avoid combining this with[ `--inplace`](#opt) unless you
+ have implemented manual steps to handle any interrupted in-progress files.
0. `--inplace`
for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
- The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
- position later in the file. This does not apply if you use `--backup`,
+ position later in the file. This does not apply if you use [`--backup`](#opt),
since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
the transfer.
bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
- The option implies `--partial` (since an interrupted transfer does not
- delete the file), but conflicts with `--partial-dir` and `--delay-updates`.
- Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also incompatible with
- `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
+ The option implies [`--partial`](#opt) (since an interrupted transfer does
+ not delete the file), but conflicts with [`--partial-dir`](#opt) and
+ [`--delay-updates`](#opt). Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also
+ incompatible with [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
0. `--append`
- This causes rsync to update a file by appending data onto the end of the
- file, which presumes that the data that already exists on the receiving
- side is identical with the start of the file on the sending side. If a
- file needs to be transferred and its size on the receiver is the same or
- longer than the size on the sender, the file is skipped. This does not
- interfere with the updating of a file's non-content attributes (e.g.
- permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need to be
- transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any non-regular files.
- Implies `--inplace`.
-
- The use of `--append` can be dangerous if you aren't 100% sure that the
- files that are longer have only grown by the appending of data onto the
- end. You should thus use include/exclude/filter rules to ensure that such
- a transfer is only affecting files that you know to be growing via appended
- data.
+ This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
+ known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
+ is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
+ `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
+ in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
+ rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
+
+ Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
+ existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
+ appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
+ are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
+ that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
+ sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
+ "diminished" file when this happens).
+
+ This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
+ attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
+ to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
+ non-regular files.
0. `--append-verify`
- This works just like the `--append` option, but the existing data on the
- receiving side is included in the full-file checksum verification step,
- which will cause a file to be resent if the final verification step fails
- (rsync uses a normal, non-appending `--inplace` transfer for the resend).
- It otherwise has the exact same caveats for files that have not grown
- larger, so don't use this for a general copy.
+ This special copy mode works like [`--append`](#opt) except that all the
+ data in the file is included in the checksum verification (making it less
+ efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
+ you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
+ files. See the [`--append`](#opt) option for more details.
- Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the `--append` option worked like
+ Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the [`--append`](#opt) option worked like
`--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
0. `--dirs`, `-d`
Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
- Unlike `--recursive`, a directory's contents are not copied unless the
- directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g. ".",
- "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the `--recursive` option,
- rsync will skip all directories it encounters (and output a message to that
- effect for each one). If you specify both `--dirs` and `--recursive`,
- `--recursive` takes precedence.
-
- The `--dirs` option is implied by the `--files-from` option or the
- `--list-only` option (including an implied `--list-only` usage) if
- `--recursive` wasn't specified (so that directories are seen in the
- listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to turn this off.
-
- There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs` (or
- `--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
+ Unlike [`--recursive`](#opt), a directory's contents are not copied unless
+ the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g.
+ ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
+ [`--recursive`](#opt) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters
+ (and output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
+ `--dirs` and [`--recursive`](#opt), `--recursive` takes precedence.
+
+ The `--dirs` option is implied by the [`--files-from`](#opt) option or the
+ [`--list-only`](#opt) option (including an implied [`--list-only`](#opt)
+ usage) if [`--recursive`](#opt) wasn't specified (so that directories are
+ seen in the listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to
+ turn this off.
+
+ There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs`
+ (`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
+0. `--mkpath`
+
+ Create a missing path component of the destination arg. This allows rsync
+ to create multiple levels of missing destination dirs and to create a path
+ in which to put a single renamed file. Keep in mind that you'll need to
+ supply a trailing slash if you want the entire destination path to be
+ treated as a directory when copying a single arg (making rsync behave the
+ same way that it would if the path component of the destination had already
+ existed).
+
+ For example, the following creates a copy of file foo as bar in the sub/dir
+ directory, creating dirs "sub" and "sub/dir" if either do not yet exist:
+
+ > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar
+
+ If you instead ran the following, it would have created file foo in the
+ sub/dir/bar directory:
+
+ > rsync -ai --mkpath foo sub/dir/bar/
+
0. `--links`, `-l`
- When symlinks are encountered, recreate the symlink on the destination.
+ Add symlinks to the transferred files instead of noisily ignoring them with
+ a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink encountered. You can
+ alternately silence the warning by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
+
+ The default handling of symlinks is to recreate each symlink's unchanged
+ value on the receiving side.
+
+ See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
- When symlinks are encountered, the item that they point to (the referent)
- is copied, rather than the symlink. In older versions of rsync, this
- option also had the side-effect of telling the receiving side to follow
- symlinks, such as symlinks to directories. In a modern rsync such as this
- one, you'll need to specify `--keep-dirlinks` (`-K`) to get this extra
- behavior. The only exception is when sending files to an rsync that is too
- old to understand `-K` -- in that case, the `-L` option will still have the
- side-effect of `-K` on that older receiving rsync.
+ The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
+ referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
+ references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
+ is dropped from the transfer.
+
+ This option supersedes any other options that affect symlinks in the
+ transfer, since there are no symlinks left in the transfer.
+
+ This option does not change the handling of existing symlinks on the
+ receiving side, unlike versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3 which had the
+ side-effect of telling the receiving side to also follow symlinks. A
+ modern rsync won't forward this option to a remote receiver (since only the
+ sender needs to know about it), so this caveat should only affect someone
+ using an rsync client older than 2.6.7 (which is when `-L` stopped being
+ forwarded to the receiver).
+
+ See the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) (`-K`) if you need a symlink to a
+ directory to be treated as a real directory on the receiving side.
+
+ See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
- and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when `--relative` is
- used. This option has no additional effect if `--copy-links` was also
- specified.
+ and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when [`--relative`](#opt)
+ is used.
Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
of "subdir".
+ Note that safe symlinks are only copied if [`--links`](#opt) was also
+ specified or implied. The `--copy-unsafe-links` option has no extra effect
+ when combined with [`--copy-links`](#opt).
+
+ See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
+
0. `--safe-links`
- This tells rsync to ignore any symbolic links which point outside the
- copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also ignored. Using this option in
- conjunction with `--relative` may give unexpected results.
+ This tells the receiving rsync to ignore any symbolic links in the transfer
+ which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
+ ignored.
-0. `--munge-links`
+ Since this ignoring is happening on the receiving side, it will still be
+ effective even when the sending side has munged symlinks (when it is using
+ [`--munge-links`](#opt)). It also affects deletions, since the file being
+ present in the transfer prevents any matching file on the receiver from
+ being deleted when the symlink is deemed to be unsafe and is skipped.
- This option tells rsync to (1) modify all symlinks on the receiving side in
- a way that makes them unusable but recoverable (see below), or (2) to
- unmunge symlinks on the sending side that had been stored in a munged
- state. This is useful if you don't quite trust the source of the data to
- not try to slip in a symlink to a unexpected place.
+ This option must be combined with [`--links`](#opt) (or
+ [`--archive`](#opt)) to have any symlinks in the transfer to conditionally
+ ignore. Its effect is superseded by [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt).
- The way rsync disables the use of symlinks is to prefix each one with the
- string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from being used as long
- as that directory does not exist. When this option is enabled, rsync will
- refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink to a directory.
+ Using this option in conjunction with [`--relative`](#opt) may give
+ unexpected results.
- The option only affects the client side of the transfer, so if you need it
- to affect the server, specify it via `--remote-option`. (Note that in a
- local transfer, the client side is the sender.)
+ See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
- This option has no affect on a daemon, since the daemon configures whether
- it wants munged symlinks via its "`munge symlinks`" parameter. See also the
- "munge-symlinks" perl script in the support directory of the source code.
+0. `--munge-links`
+
+ This option affects just one side of the transfer and tells rsync to munge
+ symlink values when it is receiving files or unmunge symlink values when it
+ is sending files. The munged values make the symlinks unusable on disk but
+ allows the original contents of the symlinks to be recovered.
+
+ The server-side rsync often enables this option without the client's
+ knowledge, such as in an rsync daemon's configuration file or by an option
+ given to the rrsync (restricted rsync) script. When specified on the
+ client side, specify the option normally if it is the client side that
+ has/needs the munged symlinks, or use `-M--munge-links` to give the option
+ to the server when it has/needs the munged symlinks. Note that on a local
+ transfer, the client is the sender, so specifying the option directly
+ unmunges symlinks while specifying it as a remote option munges symlinks.
+
+ This option has no effect when sent to a daemon via [`--remote-option`](#opt)
+ because the daemon configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
+ "`munge symlinks`" parameter.
+
+ The symlink value is munged/unmunged once it is in the transfer, so any
+ option that transforms symlinks into non-symlinks occurs prior to the
+ munging/unmunging **except** for [`--safe-links`](#opt), which is a choice
+ that the receiver makes, so it bases its decision on the munged/unmunged
+ value. This does mean that if a receiver has munging enabled, that using
+ [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause all symlinks to be ignored (since they
+ are all absolute).
+
+ The method that rsync uses to munge the symlinks is to prefix each one's
+ value with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from
+ being used as long as the directory does not exist. When this option is
+ enabled, rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink
+ to a directory (though it only checks at startup). See also the
+ "munge-symlinks" python script in the support directory of the source code
+ for a way to munge/unmunge one or more symlinks in-place.
0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
- to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using `--copy-links`.
+ to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using
+ [`--copy-links`](#opt).
Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
- `--force` or `--delete` is in effect).
+ [`--force`](#opt) or [`--delete`](#opt) is in effect).
- See also `--keep-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the receiving side.
+ See also [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the
+ receiving side.
`--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
- `--relative` to make the paths match up right. For example:
+ [`--relative`](#opt) to make the paths match up right. For example:
> rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
scan of "src/./".
+ See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
+
0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
"bar".
One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
- symlinks in the copy! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create
- their own symlink to any directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
+ symlinks in the copy or enable the [`--munge-links`](#opt) option on the
+ receiving side! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create their
+ own symlink to any real directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
your receiving hierarchy.
- See also `--copy-dirlinks` for an analogous option for the sending side.
+ See also [`--copy-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the sending
+ side.
+
+ See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
- (unless you are using the `--inplace` option).
- - If you specify a `--link-dest` directory that contains hard links, the
- linking of the destination files against the `--link-dest` files can
- cause some paths in the destination to become linked together due to the
- `--link-dest` associations.
+ (unless you are using the [`--inplace`](#opt) option).
+ - If you specify a [`--link-dest`](#opt) directory that contains hard
+ links, the linking of the destination files against the
+ [`--link-dest`](#opt) files can cause some paths in the destination to
+ become linked together due to the [`--link-dest`](#opt) associations.
Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
- you are tempted to use the `--inplace` option to avoid this breakage, be
+ you are tempted to use the [`--inplace`](#opt) option to avoid this breakage, be
very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
- see the `--inplace` option for more caveats).
+ see the [`--inplace`](#opt) option for more caveats).
- If incremental recursion is active (see `--recursive`), rsync may transfer
- a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link for that
- contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect the
- accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together), just
- its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
+ If incremental recursion is active (see [`--inc-recursive`](#opt)), rsync
+ may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link
+ for that contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect
+ the accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
+ just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
- `--no-inc-recursive` option.
+ [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) option.
0. `--perms`, `-p`
This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
- to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the `--chmod` option
- for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source permissions.)
+ to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the [`--chmod`](#opt)
+ option for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source
+ permissions.)
When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
- Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
- permissions, though the `--executability` option might change just the
- execute permission for the file.
+ permissions, though the [`--executability`](#opt) option might change
+ just the execute permission for the file.
- New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
(either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
bit from its parent directory.
- Thus, when `--perms` and `--executability` are both disabled, rsync's
+ Thus, when `--perms` and [`--executability`](#opt) are both disabled, rsync's
behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
and **tar**(1).
In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
- `--perms` option is off and use `--chmod=ugo=rwX` (which ensures that all
- non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter behavior
- easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as putting this
- line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z` option, and
- includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination dir):
+ `--perms` option is off and use [`--chmod=ugo=rwX`](#opt) (which ensures
+ that all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
+ behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
+ putting this line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z`
+ option, and includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination
+ dir):
> rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
0. `--executability`, `-E`
This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
- non-executability) of regular files when `--perms` is not enabled. A
- regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
+ non-executability) of regular files when [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
+ A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
destination file's permissions as follows:
- To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
- If `--perms` is enabled, this option is ignored.
+ If [`--perms`](#opt) is enabled, this option is ignored.
0. `--acls`, `-A`
This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
- the source ACLs. The option also implies `--perms`.
+ the source ACLs. The option also implies [`--perms`](#opt).
The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
- this option to work properly. See the `--fake-super` option for a way to
- backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
+ this option to work properly. See the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option for a
+ way to backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
0. `--xattrs`, `-X`
For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
- namespaces as a normal user, see the `--fake-super` option.
+ namespaces as a normal user, see the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option.
The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
> --filter='-xr *'
Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
- those used by `--fake-super`) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
- This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with `--fake-super`.
+ those used by [`--fake-super`](#opt)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
+ This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with [`--fake-super`](#opt).
-0. `--chmod`
+0. `--chmod=CHMOD`
This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
- existing files if `--perms` is not enabled.
+ existing files if [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
- See the `--perms` and `--executability` options for how the resulting
- permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
+ See the [`--perms`](#opt) and [`--executability`](#opt) options for how the
+ resulting permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
0. `--owner`, `-o`
This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
- the super-user (see also the `--super` and `--fake-super` options). Without
- this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files are set to the
- invoking user on the receiving side.
+ the super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
+ options). Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files
+ are set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
- `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
+ [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
0. `--group`, `-g`
The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
- (see also the `--numeric-ids` option for a full discussion).
+ (see also the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
0. `--devices`
This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
- the remote system to recreate these devices. This option has no effect if
- the receiving rsync is not run as the super-user (see also the `--super`
- and `--fake-super` options).
+ the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
+ being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
+ (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
+
+ By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
+ file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
+ by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
0. `--specials`
- This option causes rsync to transfer special files such as named sockets
- and fifos.
+ This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
+ and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
+ rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the
+ [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
+
+ By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
+ file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
+ by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
0. `-D`
- The `-D` option is equivalent to `--devices --specials`.
+ The `-D` option is equivalent to "[`--devices`](#opt)
+ [`--specials`](#opt)".
+
+0. `--copy-devices`
+
+ This tells rsync to treat a device on the sending side as a regular file,
+ allowing it to be copied to a normal destination file (or another device
+ if `--write-devices` was also specified).
+
+ This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
0. `--write-devices`
This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
allowing the writing of file data into a device.
- This option implies the `--inplace` option.
+ This option implies the [`--inplace`](#opt) option.
Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
- receiving side of the transfer, especially if running rsync as root.
+ receiving side of the transfer, especially when running rsync as root.
- This option is refused by an rsync daemon.
+ This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
0. `--times`, `-t`
This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
- effective; in other words, a missing `-t` or `-a` will cause the next
- transfer to behave as if it used `-I`, causing all files to be updated
- (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm will make the update fairly
- efficient if the files haven't actually changed, you're much better off
- using `-t`).
+ effective; in other words, a missing `-t` (or [`-a`](#opt)) will cause the
+ next transfer to behave as if it used [`--ignore-times`](#opt) (`-I`),
+ causing all files to be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
+ will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't actually
+ changed, you're much better off using `-t`).
0. `--atimes`, `-U`
This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
the same value as the source files.
- If repeated, it also sets the `--open-noatime` option, which can help you
+ If repeated, it also sets the [`--open-noatime`](#opt) option, which can help you
to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
is transferred.
Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
- with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply `--open-noatime`
- when this option is repeated.
+ with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply
+ [`--open-noatime`](#opt) when this option is repeated.
0. `--open-noatime`
mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
O_NOATIME flag being set.
+0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
+
+ This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
+ files to the same value as the source files.
+
0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
- This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification
- times (see `--times`). If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
+ This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
+ access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
- `--backup` without `--backup-dir`.
-
- This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of
- directories in incremental recursion copies. The default `--inc-recursive`
- copying normally does an early-create pass of all the sub-directories in a
- parent directory in order for it to be able to then set the modify time of
- the parent directory right away (without having to delay that until a bunch
- of recursive copying has finished). This early-create idiom is not
- necessary if directory modify times are not being preserved, so it is
- skipped. Since early-create directories don't have accurate mode, mtime,
- or ownership, the use of this option can help when someone wants to avoid
- these partially-finished directories.
+ [`--backup`](#opt) without [`--backup-dir`](#opt).
+
+ This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of missing
+ sub-directories when incremental recursion is enabled, as discussed in the
+ [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) section.
0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
- This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification times
- (see `--times`).
+ This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
+ access, and create times.
0. `--super`
This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
- preserving users via the `--owner` option, preserving all groups (not just
- the current user's groups) via the `--groups` option, and copying devices
- via the `--devices` option. This is useful for systems that allow such
- activities without being the super-user, and also for ensuring that you
- will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run as the super-user.
- To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can use `--no-super`.
+ preserving users via the [`--owner`](#opt) option, preserving all groups
+ (not just the current user's groups) via the [`--group`](#opt) option, and
+ copying devices via the [`--devices`](#opt) option. This is useful for
+ systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and also
+ for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run
+ as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can
+ use `--no-super`.
0. `--fake-super`
u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
- ACLs (if `--acls` was specified) and non-user extended attributes (if
- `--xattrs` was specified).
+ ACLs (if [`--acls`](#opt) was specified) and non-user extended attributes
+ (if [`--xattrs`](#opt) was specified).
This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
ACLs from incompatible systems.
The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
- `--remote-option` (`-M`) option:
+ [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`) option:
> rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
- This option is overridden by both `--super` and `--no-super`.
+ This option is overridden by both [`--super`](#opt) and `--no-super`.
- See also the "`fake super`" setting in the daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
+ See also the [`fake super`](rsyncd.conf.5#fake_super) setting in the
+ daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
0. `--sparse`, `-S`
Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
- destination. If combined with `--inplace` the file created might not end
- up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version and/or
- filesystem type. If `--whole-file` is in effect (e.g. for a local copy)
- then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior to writing
- out the updated version.
+ destination. If combined with [`--inplace`](#opt) the file created might
+ not end up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version
+ and/or filesystem type. If [`--whole-file`](#opt) is in effect (e.g. for a
+ local copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior
+ to writing out the updated version.
Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
- `--sparse` and `--inplace`.
+ `--sparse` and [`--inplace`](#opt).
0. `--preallocate`
the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
- If combined with `--sparse`, the file will only have sparse blocks (as
- opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
+ If combined with [`--sparse`](#opt), the file will only have sparse blocks
+ (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
- in combination with the `--verbose`, `-v` and/or `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
- options to see what an rsync command is going to do before one actually
- runs it.
-
- The output of `--itemize-changes` is supposed to be exactly the same on a
- dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery and system
- call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should be mostly
- unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does not send
- the actual data for file transfers, so `--progress` has no effect, the
- "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched data"
- statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a run
- where no file transfers were needed.
+ in combination with the [`--verbose`](#opt) (`-v`) and/or
+ [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options to see what an rsync command is
+ going to do before one actually runs it.
+
+ The output of [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) is supposed to be exactly the
+ same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery
+ and system call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should
+ be mostly unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does
+ not send the actual data for file transfers, so [`--progress`](#opt) has no
+ effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched
+ data" statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
+ run where no file transfers were needed.
0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
batch-writing option is in effect.
+0. `--no-whole-file`, `--no-W`
+
+ Disable whole-file updating when it is enabled by default for a local
+ transfer. This usually slows rsync down, but it can be useful if you are
+ trying to minimize the writes to the destination file (if combined with
+ [`--inplace`](#opt)) or for testing the checksum-based update algorithm.
+
+ See also the [`--whole-file`](#opt) option.
+
0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
- `--checksum` is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
+ [`--checksum`](#opt) is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
- - `auto` (the default)
- - `xxh64` (aka xxhash)
+ - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
+ - `xxh128`
+ - `xxh3`
+ - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
- `md5`
- `md4`
- `none`
- Run `rsync -V` to see the default checksum list compiled into your version.
+ Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
+ version (which may differ from the list above).
- If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the `--whole-file`
+ If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the [`--whole-file`](#opt)
option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
- the `--checksum` option cannot be used.
+ the [`--checksum`](#opt) option cannot be used.
The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
- If both the client and the server are at least version 3.2.0, they will
- exchange a list of checksum names and choose the first one in the list that
- they have in common. This typically means that they will choose xxh64 if
- they both support it and fall back to MD5. If one side of the transfer is
- not new enough to support this checksum negotiation, then a value is chosen
- based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5 and various
- flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
-
- You can also override the checksum using the RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST
- environment variable by setting it to a space-separated list of checksum
- names that you consider acceptable. If no common checksum is found, the
- client exits with an error. This method does not allow you to specify the
- transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum, and it ignores
- "auto" and all unknown checksum names. If the remote rsync is not new
- enough to handle a checksum negotiation list, the list is silently ignored
- unless it contains the string "FAIL".
+ When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
+ algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
+ of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
+ an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
+ a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
+ and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
+
+ The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
+ [`RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum
+ names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
+ "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
+ If the string (or string portion) contains no non-whitespace characters,
+ the default checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
+ specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum,
+ and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum names. A list with only
+ invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
- If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via `--copy-links` or
- `--copy-unsafe-links`), a symlink to a directory on another device is
- treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected by
- this option.
+ If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via [`--copy-links`](#opt) or
+ [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt)), a symlink to a directory on another device
+ is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
+ by this option.
-0. `--existing`, `--ignore-non-existing`
+0. `--ignore-non-existing`, `--existing`
This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
- `--ignore-existing` option, no files will be updated (which can be useful
- if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
+ [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) option, no files will be updated (which can be
+ useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
- This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
- data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
- It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+ This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
+ exclude side effects.
0. `--ignore-existing`
This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
- get done). See also `--existing`.
-
- This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
- data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
- It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
-
- This option can be useful for those doing backups using the `--link-dest`
- option when they need to continue a backup run that got interrupted. Since
- a `--link-dest` run is copied into a new directory hierarchy (when it is
- used properly), using `--ignore-existing` will ensure that the
- already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids a change in
- permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that this option is
- only looking at the existing files in the destination hierarchy itself.
+ get done). See also [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt).
+
+ This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
+ exclude side effects.
+
+ This option can be useful for those doing backups using the
+ [`--link-dest`](#opt) option when they need to continue a backup run that
+ got interrupted. Since a [`--link-dest`](#opt) run is copied into a new
+ directory hierarchy (when it is used properly), using [`--ignore-existing`
+ will ensure that the already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids
+ a change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that
+ this option is only looking at the existing files in the destination
+ hierarchy itself.
+
+ When [`--info=skip2`](#opt) is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists
+ (INFO)" messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum
+ change" (requires [`-c`](#opt)), "file change" (based on the quick check),
+ "attr change", or "uptodate". Using [`--info=skip1`](#opt) (which is also
+ implied by 2 [`-v`](#opt) options) outputs the exists message without the
+ INFO suffix.
0. `--remove-source-files`
If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
- "foo" when it is done, and then use the option `--exclude='*.new'` for the
- rsync transfer).
+ "foo" when it is done, and then use the option [`--exclude='*.new'`](#opt)
+ for the rsync transfer).
Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
+ Starting with 3.2.6, a local rsync copy will ensure that the sender does
+ not remove a file the receiver just verified, such as when the user
+ accidentally makes the source and destination directory the same path.
+
0. `--delete`
This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
- excluded from being deleted unless you use the `--delete-excluded` option
- or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
- include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
+ excluded from being deleted unless you use the [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
+ option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
+ include/exclude modifiers in the [FILTER RULES](#) section).
- Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless `--recursive`
- was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will also occur when `--dirs`
- (`-d`) is enabled, but only for directories whose contents are being
- copied.
+ Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless
+ [`--recursive`](#opt) was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will
+ also occur when [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) is enabled, but only for
+ directories whose contents are being copied.
This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
- first try a run using the `--dry-run` option (`-n`) to see what files are
- going to be deleted.
+ first try a run using the [`--dry-run`](#opt) (`-n`) option to see what
+ files are going to be deleted.
If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
- this with the `--ignore-errors` option.
+ this with the [`--ignore-errors`](#opt) option.
The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
- without conflict, as well as `--delete-excluded`. However, if none of the
- `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
- `--delete-during` algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer, and the
- `--delete-before` algorithm when talking to an older rsync. See also
- `--delete-delay` and `--delete-after`.
+ without conflict, as well as [`--delete-excluded`](#opt). However, if none
+ of the `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
+ [`--delete-during`](#opt) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer,
+ or the [`--delete-before`](#opt) algorithm when talking to an older rsync.
+ See also [`--delete-delay`](#opt) and [`--delete-after`](#opt).
0. `--delete-before`
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
- transfer starts. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
- file-deletion.
+ transfer starts. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
+ details on file-deletion.
Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
- `--timeout` was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
+ [`--timeout`](#opt) was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
- files in the transfer into memory at once (see `--recursive`).
+ files in the transfer into memory at once (see [`--recursive`](#opt)).
0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
- efficient `--delete-before`, including doing the deletions prior to any
- per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added in
- rsync version 2.6.4. See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
- file-deletion.
+ efficient [`--delete-before`](#opt), including doing the deletions prior to
+ any per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added
+ in rsync version 2.6.4. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
+ details on file-deletion.
0. `--delete-delay`
Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
- the transfer (like `--delete-during`), and then removed after the transfer
- completes. This is useful when combined with `--delay-updates` and/or
- `--fuzzy`, and is more efficient than using `--delete-after` (but can
- behave differently, since `--delete-after` computes the deletions in a
- separate pass after all updates are done). If the number of removed files
- overflows an internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the
- receiving side to hold the names (it is removed while open, so you
- shouldn't see it during the transfer). If the creation of the temporary
- file fails, rsync will try to fall back to using `--delete-after` (which it
- cannot do if `--recursive` is doing an incremental scan). See `--delete`
- (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
+ the transfer (like [`--delete-during`](#opt)), and then removed after the
+ transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
+ [`--delay-updates`](#opt) and/or [`--fuzzy`](#opt), and is more efficient
+ than using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (but can behave differently, since
+ [`--delete-after`](#opt) computes the deletions in a separate pass after
+ all updates are done). If the number of removed files overflows an
+ internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
+ hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during
+ the transfer). If the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try
+ to fall back to using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (which it cannot do if
+ [`--recursive`](#opt) is doing an incremental scan). See
+ [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
0. `--delete-after`
exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
- (see `--recursive`). See `--delete` (which is implied) for more details on
- file-deletion.
+ (see [`--recursive`](#opt)). See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for
+ more details on file-deletion.
+
+ See also the [`--delete-delay`](#opt) option that might be a faster choice
+ for those that just want the deletions to occur at the end of the transfer.
0. `--delete-excluded`
- In addition to deleting the files on the receiving side that are not on the
- sending side, this tells rsync to also delete any files on the receiving
- side that are excluded (see `--exclude`). See the FILTER RULES section for
- a way to make individual exclusions behave this way on the receiver, and
- for a way to protect files from `--delete-excluded`. See `--delete` (which
- is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
+ This option turns any unqualified exclude/include rules into server-side
+ rules that do not affect the receiver's deletions.
+
+ By default, an exclude or include has both a server-side effect (to "hide"
+ and "show" files when building the server's file list) and a receiver-side
+ effect (to "protect" and "risk" files when deletions are occurring). Any
+ rule that has no modifier to specify what sides it is executed on will be
+ instead treated as if it were a server-side rule only, avoiding any
+ "protect" effects of the rules.
+
+ A rule can still apply to both sides even with this option specified if the
+ rule is given both the sender & receiver modifier letters (e.g., `-f'-sr
+ foo'`). Receiver-side protect/risk rules can also be explicitly specified
+ to limit the deletions. This saves you from having to edit a bunch of
+ `-f'- foo'` rules into `-f'-s foo'` (aka `-f'H foo'`) rules (not to mention
+ the corresponding includes).
+
+ See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for more information. See
+ [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on deletion.
0. `--ignore-missing-args`
When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
- command-line arguments or `--files-from` entries), it is normally an error
- if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error, and does
- not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
+ command-line arguments or [`--files-from`](#opt) entries), it is normally
+ an error if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error,
+ and does not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
is no longer there.
0. `--delete-missing-args`
- This option takes the behavior of (the implied) `--ignore-missing-args`
- option a step farther: each missing arg will become a deletion request of
- the corresponding destination file on the receiving side (should it exist).
- If the destination file is a non-empty directory, it will only be
- successfully deleted if `--force` or `--delete` are in effect. Other than
- that, this option is independent of any other type of delete processing.
+ This option takes the behavior of the (implied)
+ [`--ignore-missing-args`](#opt) option a step farther: each missing arg
+ will become a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the
+ receiving side (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty
+ directory, it will only be successfully deleted if [`--force`](#opt) or
+ [`--delete`](#opt) are in effect. Other than that, this option is
+ independent of any other type of delete processing.
The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
- display as a "`*missing`" entry in the `--list-only` output.
+ display as a "`*missing`" entry in the [`--list-only`](#opt) output.
0. `--ignore-errors`
- Tells `--delete` to go ahead and delete files even when there are I/O
- errors.
+ Tells [`--delete`](#opt) to go ahead and delete files even when there are
+ I/O errors.
0. `--force`
This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
- active (see `--delete` for details).
+ active (see [`--delete`](#opt) for details).
Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
- using `--delete-after`, and it used to be non-functional unless the
- `--recursive` option was also enabled.
+ using [`--delete-after`](#opt), and it used to be non-functional unless the
+ [`--recursive`](#opt) option was also enabled.
0. `--max-delete=NUM`
0. `--max-size=SIZE`
This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
- specified SIZE. The SIZE value can be suffixed with a string to indicate a
- size multiplier, and may be a fractional value (e.g. `--max-size=1.5m`).
+ specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
+ the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
+ fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
+
+ This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
+ exclude side effects.
- This option is a transfer rule, not an exclude, so it doesn't affect the
- data that goes into the file-lists, and thus it doesn't affect deletions.
- It just limits the files that the receiver requests to be transferred.
+ The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
+ (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
+ char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
+ multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
+ (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
+ letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
- The suffixes are as follows: "K" (or "KiB") is a kibibyte (1024), "M" (or
- "MiB") is a mebibyte (1024\*1024), and "G" (or "GiB") is a gibibyte
- (1024\*1024\*1024). If you want the multiplier to be 1000 instead of 1024,
- use "KB", "MB", or "GB". (Note: lower-case is also accepted for all
- values.) Finally, if the suffix ends in either "+1" or "-1", the value will
- be offset by one byte in the indicated direction.
+ Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
+ byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
+ `8192P-1`.
Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
2147483649 bytes.
This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
- the `--max-size` option for a description of SIZE and other information.
+ the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of SIZE and other info.
Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
-0. `--block-size=BLOCKSIZE`, `-B`
+0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
+
+ By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
+ For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
+ causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
+ many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
+ you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
+ increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
+ consume more memory.
+
+ Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
+ memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
+
+ See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of how SIZE can be
+ specified. The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
+
+ Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
+
+ You can set a default value using the environment variable
+ [`RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`](#) using the same SIZE values as supported by this
+ option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option,
+ you can override an environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`,
+ which will make rsync avoid sending the option to the remote side (because
+ "1G" is the default).
+
+0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
updated. See the technical report for details.
+ Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
+ the [`--max-size`](#opt) option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
+
0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
- remote host. See the section "USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A
- REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION" above.
-
- Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the RSYNC_PORT environment variable will be set
- when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell connection. It
- is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or it is set to
- the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the `--port`
- option or a non-empty port value in an rsync:// URL. This allows the
- script to discern if a non-default port is being requested, allowing for
- things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a default or
- alternate port.
+ remote host. See the [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL
+ CONNECTION](#) section above.
+
+ Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the [`RSYNC_PORT`](#) environment variable will
+ be set when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell
+ connection. It is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or
+ it is set to the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
+ [`--port`](#opt) option or a non-empty port value in an `rsync://` URL.
+ This allows the script to discern if a non-default port is being requested,
+ allowing for things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a
+ default or alternate port.
Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
(Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
options in their .ssh/config file.)
- You can also choose the remote shell program using the RSYNC_RSH
+ You can also choose the remote shell program using the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#)
environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
- See also the `--blocking-io` option which is affected by this option.
+ See also the [`--blocking-io`](#opt) option which is affected by this
+ option.
0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
& standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
- machine for use with the `--relative` option. For instance:
+ machine for use with the [`--relative`](#opt) option. For instance:
> rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
- you want to pass `--log-file=FILE` and `--fake-super` to the remote system,
- specify it like this:
+ you want to pass [`--log-file=FILE`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) to
+ the remote system, specify it like this:
> rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
- Note that it is best to use a separate `--remote-option` for each option
- you want to pass. This makes your usage compatible with the
- `--protect-args` option. If that option is off, any spaces in your remote
- options will be split by the remote shell unless you take steps to protect
- them.
+ Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
+ want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
+ remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
+ this requires the use of [`--old-args`](#opt) in a modern rsync.
When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
"remote" side is the receiver.
to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
- initial items are marked as perishable -- see the FILTER RULES section):
+ initial items are marked as perishable -- see the [FILTER RULES](#)
+ section):
[comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
**cvs**(1) manual for more information.
- If you're combining `-C` with your own `--filter` rules, you should note
- that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
+ If you're combining `-C` with your own [`--filter`](#opt) rules, you should
+ note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
- `--filter=:C` and `--filter=-C` (either on your command-line or by putting
- the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with your other rules). The
- first option turns on the per-directory scanning for the .cvsignore file.
- The second option does a one-time import of the CVS excludes mentioned
- above.
+ [`--filter=:C`](#opt) and [`--filter=-C`](#opt) (either on your
+ command-line or by putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with
+ your other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scanning
+ for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time import of the
+ CVS excludes mentioned above.
0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
- See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
+ See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
0. `-F`
- The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two `--filter` rules to your
- command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
+ The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two [`--filter`](#opt) rules to
+ your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
> --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
- See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on how these options
- work.
+ See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on how these
+ options work.
0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
- This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
- an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
- filter rules.
+ This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
+ specifies an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
+ of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'- PATTERN'`.
- See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
+ See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
- This option is related to the `--exclude` option, but it specifies a FILE
- that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
- lines starting with '`;`' or '`#`' are ignored. If _FILE_ is '`-`', the
- list will be read from standard input.
+ This option is related to the [`--exclude`](#opt) option, but it specifies
+ a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
+ file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
+ (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
+
+ If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
+ the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
+ (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an exclude.
+
+ If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
+ before adding any further rules.
+
+ If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
0. `--include=PATTERN`
- This option is a simplified form of the `--filter` option that defaults to
- an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax of normal
- filter rules.
+ This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
+ specifies an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
+ of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'+ PATTERN'`.
- See the FILTER RULES section for detailed information on this option.
+ See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
0. `--include-from=FILE`
- This option is related to the `--include` option, but it specifies a FILE
- that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the file and
- lines starting with '`;`' or '`#`' are ignored. If _FILE_ is '`-`', the
- list will be read from standard input.
+ This option is related to the [`--include`](#opt) option, but it specifies
+ a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
+ file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
+ (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
+
+ If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
+ the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
+ (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an include.
+
+ If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
+ before adding any further rules.
+
+ If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
0. `--files-from=FILE`
tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
specified files and directories easier:
- - The `--relative` (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the path
- information that is specified for each item in the file (use
+ - The [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the
+ path information that is specified for each item in the file (use
`--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
- - The `--dirs` (`-d`) option is implied, which will create directories
- specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily skipping
- them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
- - The `--archive` (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply `--recursive`
- (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
+ - The [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) option is implied, which will create
+ directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily
+ skipping them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
+ - The [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply
+ [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
- These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
- options are parsed (e.g. `-a` works the same before or after
+ options are parsed (e.g. [`-a`](#opt) works the same before or after
`--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
- the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the `-r`
- option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be transferred
- (keep in mind that `-r` needs to be specified explicitly with
- `--files-from`, since it is not implied by `-a`). Also note that the
- effect of the (enabled by default) `--relative` option is to duplicate only
- the path info that is read from the file -- it does not force the
- duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
+ the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the
+ [`-r`](#opt) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be
+ transferred (keep in mind that [`-r`](#opt) needs to be specified
+ explicitly with `--files-from`, since it is not implied by [`-a`](#opt).
+ Also note that the effect of the (enabled by default) [`-r`](#opt) option
+ is to duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does
+ not force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
was located on the remote "src" host.
- If the `--iconv` and `--protect-args` options are specified and the
- `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another, the
- filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
+ If the [`--iconv`](#opt) and [`--protect-args`](#opt) options are specified
+ and the `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another,
+ the filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
receiving host's charset.
NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
- affects `--exclude-from`, `--include-from`, `--files-from`, and any merged
- files specified in a `--filter` rule. It does not affect `--cvs-exclude`
- (since all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
+ affects [`--exclude-from`](#opt), [`--include-from`](#opt),
+ [`--files-from`](#opt), and any merged files specified in a
+ [`--filter`](#opt) rule. It does not affect [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (since
+ all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
+
+0. `--old-args`
+
+ This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values on the
+ remote side from unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation.
+
+ The default in a modern rsync is for "shell-active" characters (including
+ spaces) to be backslash-escaped in the args that are sent to the remote
+ shell. The wildcard characters `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]` are not escaped in
+ filename args (allowing them to expand into multiple filenames) while being
+ protected in option args, such as [`--usermap`](#opt).
+
+ If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in its
+ filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
+ with any backslash escapes at all, specify this option twice.
+
+ You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) environment
+ variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
+ setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
+ repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
+ behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
+ positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
+
+ Note that this option also disables the extra safety check added in 3.2.5
+ that ensures that a remote sender isn't including extra top-level items in
+ the file-list that you didn't request. This side-effect is necessary
+ because we can't know for sure what names to expect when the remote shell
+ is interpreting the args.
+
+ This option conflicts with the [`--protect-args`](#opt) option.
0. `--protect-args`, `-s`
This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync
- without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. This means that
- spaces are not split in names, and any non-wildcard special characters are
- not translated (such as `~`, `$`, `;`, `&`, etc.). Wildcards are expanded
- on the remote host by rsync (instead of the shell doing it).
-
- If you use this option with `--iconv`, the args related to the remote side
- will also be translated from the local to the remote character-set. The
- translation happens before wild-cards are expanded. See also the
- `--files-from` option.
-
- You may also control this option via the RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS environment
- variable. If this variable has a non-zero value, this option will be
+ without allowing the remote shell to interpret them. Wildcards are
+ expanded on the remote host by rsync instead of the shell doing it.
+
+ This is similar to the new-style backslash-escaping of args that was added
+ in 3.2.4, but supports some extra features and doesn't rely on backslash
+ escaping in the remote shell.
+
+ If you use this option with [`--iconv`](#opt), the args related to the
+ remote side will also be translated from the local to the remote
+ character-set. The translation happens before wild-cards are expanded.
+ See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
+
+ You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#)
+ environment variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-protect-args` are the negative
- versions). Since this option was first introduced in 3.0.0, you'll need to
- make sure it's disabled if you ever need to interact with a remote rsync
- that is older than that.
+ versions). This environment variable is also superseded by a non-zero
+ [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) export.
+
+ You may need to disable this option when interacting with an older rsync
+ (one prior to 3.0.0).
+
+ This option conflicts with the [`--old-args`](#opt) option.
+
+ Note that this option is incompatible with the use of the restricted rsync
+ script (`rrsync`) since it hides options from the script's inspection.
+
+0. `--trust-sender`
- Rsync can also be configured (at build time) to have this option enabled by
- default (with is overridden by both the environment and the command-line).
- This option will eventually become a new default setting at some
- as-yet-undetermined point in the future.
+ This option disables two extra validation checks that a local client
+ performs on the file list generated by a remote sender. This option should
+ only be used if you trust the sender to not put something malicious in the
+ file list (something that could possibly be done via a modified rsync, a
+ modified shell, or some other similar manipulation).
+
+ Normally, the rsync client (as of version 3.2.5) runs two extra validation
+ checks when pulling files from a remote rsync:
+
+ - It verifies that additional arg items didn't get added at the top of the
+ transfer.
+ - It verifies that none of the items in the file list are names that should
+ have been excluded (if filter rules were specified).
+
+ Note that various options can turn off one or both of these checks if the
+ option interferes with the validation. For instance:
+
+ - Using a per-directory filter file reads filter rules that only the server
+ knows about, so the filter checking is disabled.
+ - Using the [`--old-args`](#opt) option allows the sender to manipulate the
+ requested args, so the arg checking is disabled.
+ - Reading the files-from list from the server side means that the client
+ doesn't know the arg list, so the arg checking is disabled.
+ - Using [`--read-batch`](#opt) disables both checks since the batch file's
+ contents will have been verified when it was created.
+
+ This option may help an under-powered client server if the extra pattern
+ matching is slowing things down on a huge transfer. It can also be used to
+ work around a currently-unknown bug in the verification logic for a transfer
+ from a trusted sender.
+
+ When using this option it is a good idea to specify a dedicated destination
+ directory, as discussed in the [MULTI-HOST SECURITY](#) section.
0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
- local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the `--remote-option` to
- affect the remote side, such as `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer,
- the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file provides a local-shell helper script that
- can be used to allow a "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified
- without needing to setup any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote
- options that affect the side of the transfer that is using the host-spec
- (and using hostname "lh" avoids the overriding of the remote directory to
- the user's home dir).
+ local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the
+ [`--remote-option`](#opt) to affect the remote side, such as
+ `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer, the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file
+ provides a local-shell helper script that can be used to allow a
+ "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified without needing to setup
+ any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that affect the
+ side of the transfer that is using the host-spec (and using hostname "lh"
+ avoids the overriding of the remote directory to the user's home dir).
For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
has no permissions to change.
The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
- (assumimg you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
+ (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
> sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
new version on the disk at the same time.
If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
- space, you may wish to combine it with the `--delay-updates` option, which
- will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories in the
- destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you don't have
- enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the destination
- partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly concerned about
- disk space is to use the `--partial-dir` option with a relative path;
- because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a copy of a single file
- in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will use the partial-dir as
- a staging area to bring over the copied file, and then rename it into place
- from there. (Specifying a `--partial-dir` with an absolute path does not
- have this side-effect.)
+ space, you may wish to combine it with the [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
+ option, which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories
+ in the destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you
+ don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the
+ destination partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly
+ concerned about disk space is to use the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option
+ with a relative path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a
+ copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will
+ use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and
+ then rename it into place from there. (Specifying a [`--partial-dir`](#opt)
+ with an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
0. `--fuzzy`, `-y`
the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
- alternate destination directories that are specified via `--compare-dest`,
- `--copy-dest`, or `--link-dest`.
+ alternate destination directories that are specified via
+ [`--compare-dest`](#opt), [`--copy-dest`](#opt), or [`--link-dest`](#opt).
- Note that the use of the `--delete` option might get rid of any potential
- fuzzy-match files, so either use `--delete-after` or specify some filename
- exclusions if you need to prevent this.
+ Note that the use of the [`--delete`](#opt) option might get rid of any
+ potential fuzzy-match files, so either use [`--delete-after`](#opt) or
+ specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
transfer.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
- See also `--copy-dest` and `--link-dest`.
+ See also [`--copy-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
- This option behaves like `--compare-dest`, but rsync will also copy
+ This option behaves like [`--compare-dest`](#opt), but rsync will also copy
unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
try to speed up the transfer.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
- See also `--compare-dest` and `--link-dest`.
+ See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
0. `--link-dest=DIR`
- This option behaves like `--copy-dest`, but unchanged files are hard linked
- from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be identical in
- all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly ownership) in order
- for the files to be linked together. An example:
+ This option behaves like [`--copy-dest`](#opt), but unchanged files are
+ hard linked from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be
+ identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly
+ ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:
> rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
- If file's aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
+ If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
destination) when a destination file already exists.
- Note that if you combine this option with `--ignore-times`, rsync will not
+ Note that if you combine this option with [`--ignore-times`](#opt), rsync will not
link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
the file is updated.
If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
- See also `--compare-dest` and `--copy-dest`.
+ See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--copy-dest`](#opt).
Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
- `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when `-o` was
- specified (or implied by `-a`). You can work-around this bug by avoiding
- the `-o` option when sending to an old rsync.
+ `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when
+ [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) was specified (or implied). You can work-around
+ this bug by avoiding the `-o` option (or using `--no-o`) when sending to an
+ old rsync.
0. `--compress`, `-z`
destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
something that is useful over a slow connection.
- The "zlib" compression method typically achieves better compression ratios
- than can be achieved by using a compressing remote shell or a compressing
- transport because it takes advantage of the implicit information in the
- matching data blocks that are not explicitly sent over the connection.
- This matching-data compression comes at a cost of CPU, though, and can be
- disabled by using the "zlibx" compresson method instead. This can be
- selected by repeating the `-z` option or specifying
- `--compress-choice=zlibx`, but it only works if both sides of the transfer
- are at least version 3.1.1.
-
- Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
- `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
- or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
- more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
- version will not allow you to force the compression type.
-
- See the `--skip-compress` option for the default list of file suffixes that
- will not be compressed.
+ Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
+ unless you force the choice using the [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`)
+ option.
+
+ Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
+ version.
+
+ When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
+ algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
+ of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
+ an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
+ its list is assumed to be "zlib".
+
+ The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
+ [`RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable
+ compression names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is
+ separated into the "client string & server string", otherwise the same
+ string applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
+ non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
+ compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
+ names results in a failed negotiation.
+
+ There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
+ option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
+ not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
+ ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
+ specify `-zz`.
0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
- This option can be used to override the automatic selection of the
- compression algorithm that is the default when `--compress` is used.
+ This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
+ compression algorithm that occurs when [`--compress`](#opt) is used. The
+ option implies [`--compress`](#opt) unless "none" was specified, which
+ instead implies `--no-compress`.
The compression options that you may be able to use are:
- `zlib`
- `none`
- Run `rsync -V` to see the compress list compiled into your version.
+ Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
+ version (which may differ from the list above).
+
+ Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
+ `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
+ or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
+ more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
+ version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
+
+ Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
+ with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
+ more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
+
+0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
+
+ Explicitly set the compression level to use (see [`--compress`](#opt),
+ `-z`) instead of letting it default. The [`--compress`](#opt) option is
+ implied as long as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the
+ compression algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level
+ 0 as "off").
+
+ The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
+ will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
+ enough), it can be good to combine this option with a
+ [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the
+ choice in effect. For example:
- The "zlibx" algorithm is given preference over "zlib" if both sides of the
- transfer are at least version 3.2.0, otherwise it will choose "zlib" unless
- you override it via something like `-zz`. These 2 algorithms are the stame
- except that "zlibx" does not try to include matched data that was not
- transferred in the compression computations.
+ > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
- If "none" is specified, that is equivalent to using `--no-compress`.
+ For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
+ the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
+ `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
- This option implies `--compress` unless "none" was specified.
+ For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
+ the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
- You can also override the compression negotiation using the
- RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST environment variable by setting it to a space-separated
- list of compression names that you consider acceptable. If no common
- compress choice is found, the client exits with an error. It ignores
- "auto" and all unknown compression names. If the remote rsync is not new
- enough to handle a compression negotiation list, the list is silently
- ignored unless it contains the string "FAIL".
+ For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
-0. `--compress-level=NUM`
+ If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
+ limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
+ `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
+ compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
- Explicitly set the compression level to use (see `--compress`) instead of
- letting it default. If NUM is non-zero, the `--compress` option is
- implied.
+ If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
+ [`--debug=nstr`](#opt) to see the "negotiated string" results. This will
+ report something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the
+ checksum choice in effect).
0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
+ **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
+ changes, so this option has no effect.
+
Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
- the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level (such
- as zlib/zlibx) then no compression occurs for those files. Other
- algorithms have the level minimized to reduces the CPU usage as much as
- possible.
+ the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
+ no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
+ changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
+ reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
[comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
+ > 3g2
+ > 3gp
> 7z
+ > aac
> ace
> apk
> avi
> bz2
> deb
+ > dmg
+ > ear
+ > f4v
> flac
+ > flv
> gpg
> gz
> iso
> jar
> jpeg
> jpg
+ > lrz
> lz
> lz4
> lzma
> lzo
+ > m1a
+ > m1v
+ > m2a
+ > m2ts
+ > m2v
+ > m4a
+ > m4b
+ > m4p
+ > m4r
+ > m4v
+ > mka
> mkv
> mov
+ > mp1
+ > mp2
> mp3
> mp4
+ > mpa
+ > mpeg
+ > mpg
+ > mpv
+ > mts
> odb
> odf
> odg
> odp
> ods
> odt
+ > oga
> ogg
+ > ogm
> ogv
+ > ogx
> opus
> otg
> oth
> ott
> oxt
> png
+ > qt
> rar
> rpm
> rz
> rzip
+ > spx
> squashfs
> sxc
> sxd
> sxg
> sxm
> sxw
+ > sz
> tbz
+ > tbz2
> tgz
> tlz
+ > ts
> txz
> tzo
+ > vob
+ > war
> webm
> webp
> xz
If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
- instead. See also the comments on the "`use chroot`" setting in the
- rsyncd.conf manpage for information on how the chroot setting affects
- rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and what you
- can do about it.
+ instead. See also the [`use chroot`](rsyncd.conf.5#use_chroot) setting
+ in the rsyncd.conf manpage for some comments on how the chroot setting
+ affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and
+ what you can do about it.
0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
> --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
- When the `--numeric-ids` option is used, the sender does not send any
+ When the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option is used, the sender does not send any
names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
nameless IDs to different values.
- For the `--usermap` option to have any effect, the `-o` (`--owner`) option
- must be used (or implied), and the receiver will need to be running as a
- super-user (see also the `--fake-super` option). For the `--groupmap`
- option to have any effect, the `-g` (`--groups`) option must be used (or
- implied), and the receiver will need to have permissions to set that group.
+ For the `--usermap` option to work, the receiver will need to be running as
+ a super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
+ options). For the `--groupmap` option to work, the receiver will need to
+ have permissions to set that group.
+
+ Starting with rsync 3.2.4, the `--usermap` option implies the
+ [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) option while the `--groupmap` option implies the
+ [`--group`](#opt) (`-g`) option (since rsync needs to have those options
+ enabled for the mapping options to work).
+
+ An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
+ avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
+ this automatically.
0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
- a simpler interface than using `--usermap` and `--groupmap` directly, but
- it is implemented using those options internally, so you cannot mix them.
- If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the omitted user/group
- will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may be omitted, but if
- USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
+ a simpler interface than using [`--usermap`](#opt) & [`--groupmap`](#opt)
+ directly, but it is implemented using those options internally so they
+ cannot be mixed. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
+ omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
+ be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
- "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier.
+ "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (and with the same
+ implied [`--owner`](#opt) and/or [`--group`](#opt) options).
-0. `--timeout=TIMEOUT`
+ An older rsync client may need to use [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) to
+ avoid a complaint about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles
+ this automatically.
+
+0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
0, which means no timeout.
-0. `--contimeout`
+0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
rsync exits with an error.
-0. `--address`
+0. `--address=ADDRESS`
By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
- address (or hostname) to bind to. See also this option in the `--daemon`
- mode section.
+ address (or hostname) to bind to.
+
+ See also [the daemon version of the `--address` option](#dopt--address).
0. `--port=PORT`
This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
- the port as a part of the URL). See also this option in the `--daemon`
- mode section.
+ the port as a part of the URL).
-0. `--sockopts`
+ See also [the daemon version of the `--port` option](#dopt--port).
+
+0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
- which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the man page for the
+ which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the manpage for the
`setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
- This option also exists in the `--daemon` mode section.
+ See also [the daemon version of the `--sockopts` option](#dopt--sockopts).
0. `--blocking-io`
Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
- `--out-format='%i %n%L'`. If you repeat the option, unchanged files will
- also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least version 2.6.7
- (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that also turns on the
- output of other verbose messages).
+ [`--out-format='%i %n%L'`](#opt). If you repeat the option, unchanged
+ files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least
+ version 2.6.7 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that
+ also turns on the output of other verbose messages).
The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
- A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
- A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
- `--hard-links`).
+ [`--hard-links`](#opt)).
- A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
attributes that are being modified).
- A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
- The other letters in the string above are the actual letters that will be
- output if the associated attribute for the item is being updated or a "."
- for no change. Three exceptions to this are: (1) a newly created item
- replaces each letter with a "+", (2) an identical item replaces the dots
- with spaces, and (3) an unknown attribute replaces each letter with a "?"
- (this can happen when talking to an older rsync).
+ The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
+ have changed, as follows:
+
+ - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
+ - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
+ - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
+ - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
+ - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
- A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
- `--checksum`) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a changed
- value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to 3.0.1,
- this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing regular
- files.
+ [`--checksum`](#opt)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a
+ changed value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to
+ 3.0.1, this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing
+ regular files.
- A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
by the file transfer.
- A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
- the sender's value (requires `--times`). An alternate value of `T` means
- that the modification time will be set to the transfer time, which
- happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without `--times` and when
- a symlink is changed and the receiver can't set its time. (Note: when
- using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the `s` flag combined with `t`
- instead of the proper `T` flag for this time-setting failure.)
+ the sender's value (requires [`--times`](#opt)). An alternate value of
+ `T` means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time,
+ which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without
+ [`--times`](#opt) and when a symlink is changed and the receiver can't
+ set its time. (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the
+ `s` flag combined with `t` instead of the proper `T` flag for this
+ time-setting failure.)
- A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
- sender's value (requires `--perms`).
+ sender's value (requires [`--perms`](#opt)).
- An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
- value (requires `--owner` and super-user privileges).
+ value (requires [`--owner`](#opt) and super-user privileges).
- A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
- value (requires `--group` and the authority to set the group).
- - A `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
- the sender's value (requires `--atimes`). An alternate value of `U`
- means that the access time will be set to the transfer time, which
- happens when a symlink or directory is updated.
- - The `a` means that the ACL information changed.
- - The `x` means that the extended attribute information changed.
+ value (requires [`--group`](#opt) and the authority to set the group).
+ - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information:
+ - `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
+ the sender's value (requires [`--atimes`](#opt))
+ - `n` means the create time (newness) is different and is being updated
+ to the sender's value (requires [`--crtimes`](#opt))
+ - `b` means that both the access and create times are being updated
+ - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
+ - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
- character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either `--info=name`
- or `-v` is specified (this tells you just the name of the file and, if the
- item is a link, where it points). For a full list of the possible escape
- characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
-
- Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the `--info=name` option,
- which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a significant
- way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a touched
- directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is included in
- the string (e.g. if the `--itemize-changes` option was used), the logging
- of names increases to mention any item that is changed in any way (as long
- as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the `--itemize-changes`
- option for a description of the output of "%i".
+ character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either
+ [`--info=name`](#opt) or [`-v`](#opt) is specified (this tells you just the
+ name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full
+ list of the possible escape characters, see the [`log
+ format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format) setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+
+ Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the [`--info=name`](#opt)
+ option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a
+ significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
+ touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
+ included in the string (e.g. if the [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option was
+ used), the logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed
+ in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the
+ [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option for a description of the output of "%i".
Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
- is in effect and `--progress` is also specified, rsync will also output the
- name of the file being transferred prior to its progress information
- (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
+ is in effect and [`--progress`](#opt) is also specified, rsync will also
+ output the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress
+ information (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
0. `--log-file=FILE`
similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
- of "%i %n%L". See the `--log-file-format` option if you wish to override
- this.
+ of "%i %n%L". See the [`--log-file-format`](#opt) option if you wish to
+ override this.
- Here's a example command that requests the remote side to log what is
+ Here's an example command that requests the remote side to log what is
happening:
> rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
unexpectedly.
+ See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file` option](#dopt--log-file).
+
0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
- file specified by the `--log-file` option (which must also be specified for
- this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty string, updated
- files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of the possible
- escape characters, see the "`log format`" setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+ file specified by the [`--log-file`](#opt) option (which must also be
+ specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty
+ string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of
+ the possible escape characters, see the [`log format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format)
+ setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
- The default FORMAT used if `--log-file` is specified and this option is not
- is '%i %n%L'.
+ The default FORMAT used if [`--log-file`](#opt) is specified and this
+ option is not is '%i %n%L'.
+
+ See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file-format`
+ option](#dopt--log-file-format).
0. `--stats`
This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
- your data. This option is equivalent to `--info=stats2` if combined with 0
- or 1 `-v` options, or `--info=stats3` if combined with 2 or more `-v`
- options.
+ your data. This option is equivalent to [`--info=stats2`](#opt) if
+ combined with 0 or 1 [`-v`](#opt) options, or [`--info=stats3`](#opt) if
+ combined with 2 or more [`-v`](#opt) options.
The current statistics are as follows:
sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
- `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
- sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
+ sense) were deleted. The total count will be
followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
- Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible
- levels: (1) output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits
- (either a comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is
- represented by a period or a comma); (2) output numbers in units of 1000
- (with a character suffix for larger units -- see below); (3) output
- numbers in units of 1024.
+ Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible levels:
+
+ 1. output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits (either a
+ comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
+ period or a comma).
+ 2. output numbers in units of 1000 (with a character suffix for larger
+ units -- see below).
+ 3. output numbers in units of 1024.
The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
- The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: K (kilo), M
- (mega), G (giga), or T (tera). For example, a 1234567-byte file would
- output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local decimal
- point).
+ The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
+ (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
+ file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
+ decimal point).
Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
- to one or more `-h` options. See the `--list-only` option for one
+ to one or more `-h` options. See the [`--list-only`](#opt) option for one
difference.
0. `--partial`
0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
- A better way to keep partial files than the `--partial` option is to
- specify a _DIR_ that will be used to hold the partial data (instead of
- writing it out to the destination file). On the next transfer, rsync will
- use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
+ This option modifies the behavior of the [`--partial`](#opt) option while
+ also implying that it be enabled. This enhanced partial-file method puts
+ any partially transferred files into the specified _DIR_ instead of writing
+ the partial file out to the destination file. On the next transfer, rsync
+ will use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
- Note that if `--whole-file` is specified (or implied), any partial-dir file
- that is found for a file that is being updated will simply be removed
- (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's delta-transfer
- algorithm).
+ Note that if [`--whole-file`](#opt) is specified (or implied), any
+ partial-dir files that are found for a file that is being updated will
+ simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's
+ delta-transfer algorithm).
- Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing (just the last dir -- not the
- whole path). This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
+ Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing, but just the last dir -- not
+ the whole path. This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
"`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
- partial-directory in the destination file's directory when needed, and then
- remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that the directory
- is only removed if it is a relative pathname, as it is expected that an
- absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir work.
+ partial-directory in the destination file's directory when it is needed,
+ and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that this
+ directory removal is only done for a relative pathname, as it is expected
+ that an absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir
+ work.
If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
- equivalent of "`-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`" at the end of any other filter
- rules.
+ equivalent of this "perishable" exclude at the end of any other filter
+ rules: `-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`
If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
- exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because (1) the auto-added
- rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or (2) you may wish
- to override rsync's exclude choice. For instance, if you want to make
- rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs that may be lying around, you
- should specify `--delete-after` and add a "risk" filter rule, e.g.
- `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. (Avoid using `--delete-before` or
- `--delete-during` unless you don't need rsync to use any of the left-over
- partial-dir data during the current run.)
+ exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because:
+
+ 1. the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or
+ 2. you may wish to override rsync's exclude choice.
+
+ For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
+ that may be lying around, you should specify [`--delete-after`](#opt) and
+ add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. Avoid using
+ [`--delete-before`](#opt) or [`--delete-during`](#opt) unless you don't
+ need rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data during the current
+ run.
IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
- is a security risk. E.g. AVOID "/tmp".
-
- You can also set the partial-dir value the RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR environment
- variable. Setting this in the environment does not force `--partial` to be
- enabled, but rather it affects where partial files go when `--partial` is
- specified. For instance, instead of using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along
- with `--progress`, you could set RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp in your
- environment and then just use the `-P` option to turn on the use of the
- .rsync-tmp dir for partial transfers. The only times that the `--partial`
- option does not look for this environment value are (1) when `--inplace`
- was specified (since `--inplace` conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and (2)
- when `--delay-updates` was specified (see below).
+ is a security risk! E.g. AVOID "/tmp"!
+
+ You can also set the partial-dir value the [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`](#)
+ environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not force
+ [`--partial`](#opt) to be enabled, but rather it affects where partial
+ files go when [`--partial`](#opt) is specified. For instance, instead of
+ using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along with [`--progress`](#opt), you could
+ set [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp`](#) in your environment and then use
+ the [`-P`](#opt) option to turn on the use of the .rsync-tmp dir for
+ partial transfers. The only times that the [`--partial`](#opt) option does
+ not look for this environment value are:
+
+ 1. when [`--inplace`](#opt) was specified (since [`--inplace`](#opt)
+ conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and
+ 2. when [`--delay-updates`](#opt) was specified (see below).
When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3.2.0.
For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
- `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply `--partial`. This is so that a refusal of
- the `--partial` option can be used to disallow the overwriting of
- destination files with a partial transfer, while still allowing the safer
- idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
+ `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply [`--partial`](#opt). This is so that a
+ refusal of the [`--partial`](#opt) option can be used to disallow the
+ overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while still
+ allowing the safer idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
0. `--delay-updates`
renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
- you've specified the `--partial-dir` option, that directory will be used
- instead. See the comments in the `--partial-dir` section for a discussion
- of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer, and what you
- can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that might be lying
- around. Conflicts with `--inplace` and `--append`.
+ you've specified the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option, that directory will be
+ used instead. See the comments in the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) section for
+ a discussion of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer,
+ and what you can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that
+ might be lying around. Conflicts with [`--inplace`](#opt) and
+ [`--append`](#opt).
+
+ This option implies [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) since it needs the full
+ file list in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
- should not use an absolute path to `--partial-dir` unless (1) there is no
- chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same name (since all
- the updated files will be put into a single directory if the path is
- absolute) and (2) there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the
- delayed updates will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
+ should not use an absolute path to [`--partial-dir`](#opt) unless:
+
+ 1. there is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same
+ name (since all the updated files will be put into a single directory if
+ the path is absolute), and
+ 2. there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates
+ will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
- See also the "atomic-rsync" perl script in the "support" subdir for an
- update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses `--link-dest` and a
- parallel hierarchy of files).
+ See also the "atomic-rsync" python script in the "support" subdir for an
+ update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses [`--link-dest`](#opt)
+ and a parallel hierarchy of files).
0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
files using include/exclude/filter rules.
- Note that the use of transfer rules, such as the `--min-size` option, does
- not affect what goes into the file list, and thus does not leave
- directories empty, even if none of the files in a directory match the
- transfer rule.
+ This option can still leave empty directories on the receiving side if you
+ make use of [TRANSFER_RULES](#).
Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
- this is the same as specifying `--info=flist2,name,progress`, but any
- user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
- "`--info=flist0 --progress`").
+ this is the same as specifying [`--info=flist2,name,progress`](#opt), but
+ any user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
+ [`--info=flist0 --progress`](#opt)).
While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
looks like this:
0. `-P`
- The `-P` option is equivalent to `--partial --progress`. Its purpose is
- to make it much easier to specify these two options for a long transfer
- that may be interrupted.
+ The `-P` option is equivalent to "[`--partial`](#opt)
+ [`--progress`](#opt)". Its purpose is to make it much easier to specify
+ these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
- There is also a `--info=progress2` option that outputs statistics based on
- the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag without
- outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify `--info=name0`) if you
- want to see how the transfer is doing without scrolling the screen with a
- lot of names. (You don't need to specify the `--progress` option in order
- to use `--info=progress2`.)
+ There is also a [`--info=progress2`](#opt) option that outputs statistics
+ based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag
+ without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify
+ [`--info=name0`](#opt)) if you want to see how the transfer is doing
+ without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to
+ specify the [`--progress`](#opt) option in order to use
+ [`--info=progress2`](#opt).)
Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
output a single progress report which is output when the current file
transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
- followed by the `--info=progress2` format of progress info. If you don't
- know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
+ followed by the [`--info=progress2`](#opt) format of progress info. If you
+ don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
-0. `--password-file=FILE`
+0. `--password-file=FILE`
This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
config file).
-0. `--list-only`
+0. `--early-input=FILE`
+
+ This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
+ script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
+ secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
+ unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
+
+ The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
+
+0. `--list-only`
This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
- no destination specified, so its main uses are: (1) to turn a copy command
- that includes a destination arg into a file-listing command, or (2) to be
- able to specify more than one source arg (note: be sure to include the
- destination). Caution: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is
- expanded by the shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to
- list such an arg without using this option. For example:
+ no destination specified, so its main uses are:
+
+ 1. to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into a
+ file-listing command, or
+ 2. to be able to specify more than one source arg. Note: be sure to
+ include the destination.
+
+ CAUTION: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
+ shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to specify a single
+ wild-card arg to try to infer this option. A safe example is:
> rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
Starting with rsync 3.1.0, the sizes output by `--list-only` are affected
- by the `--human-readable` option. By default they will contain digit
- separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes with
- unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output has
- increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
+ by the [`--human-readable`](#opt) option. By default they will contain
+ digit separators, but higher levels of readability will output the sizes
+ with unit suffixes. Note also that the column width for the size output
+ has increased from 11 to 14 characters for all human-readable levels. Use
`--no-h` if you want just digits in the sizes, and the old column width of
11 characters.
Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
- non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the `--dirs`
- option w/o `--recursive`, and older rsyncs don't have that option. To
- avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs` option (if you don't
- need to expand a directory's content), or turn on recursion and exclude the
- content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
+ non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the
+ [`--dirs`](#opt) option w/o [`--recursive`](#opt), and older rsyncs don't
+ have that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs`
+ option (if you don't need to expand a directory's content), or turn on
+ recursion and exclude the content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
-0. `--bwlimit=RATE`
+0. `--bwlimit=RATE`
This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
- fractional value (e.g. "`--bwlimit=1.5m`"). If no suffix is specified, the
+ fractional value (e.g. `--bwlimit=1.5m`). If no suffix is specified, the
value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
- been appended). See the `--max-size` option for a description of all the
- available suffixes. A value of zero specifies no limit.
+ been appended). See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of
+ all the available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
into compliance.
- Due to the internal buffering of data, the `--progress` option may not be
- an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is because
- some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is quickly
- buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of the
- output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
+ Due to the internal buffering of data, the [`--progress`](#opt) option may
+ not be an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is
+ because some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is
+ quickly buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of
+ the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
+
+ See also [the daemon version of the `--bwlimit` option](#dopt--bwlimit).
+
+0. `--stop-after=MINS`, (`--time-limit=MINS`)
-0. `--write-batch=FILE`
+ This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
+ minutes has elapsed.
+
+ For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
+ remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
+ quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
+ of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
+ limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise.
+
+ The `--time-limit` version of this option is deprecated.
+
+0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
+
+ This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
+ has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
+ format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
+ timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
+ instead of dashes.
+
+ The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
+ a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
+ will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
+ information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
+ time, rsync exits with an error.
+
+ For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
+ time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
+ month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
+ 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
+
+ For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
+ remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
+ quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
+ of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
+ limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise. Do
+ keep in mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone
+ than your local host.
+
+0. `--fsync`
+
+ Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
+ the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
+ files.
+
+0. `--write-batch=FILE`
Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
- with `--read-batch`. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and also
- the `--only-write-batch` option.
+ with [`--read-batch`](#opt). See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and
+ also the [`--only-write-batch`](#opt) option.
-0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
+ This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
+ negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
+ a more modern choice, use the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`) and/or
+ [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) options.
- Works like `--write-batch`, except that no updates are made on the
+0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
+
+ Works like [`--write-batch`](#opt), except that no updates are made on the
destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
- changes via `--read-batch`.
+ changes via [`--read-batch`](#opt).
Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
(when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
-0. `--read-batch=FILE`
+0. `--read-batch=FILE`
Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
- `--write-batch`. If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read from
- standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
+ [`--write-batch`](#opt). If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read
+ from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
-0. `--protocol=NUM`
+0. `--protocol=NUM`
Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
- instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the `--write-batch` option, but
- rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the `--read-batch` option, you
- should use "--protocol=28" when creating the batch file to force the older
- protocol version to be used in the batch file (assuming you can't upgrade
- the rsync on the reading system).
+ instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the [`--write-batch`](#opt)
+ option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
+ [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating
+ the batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
+ file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
-0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
+0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
- this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the RSYNC_ICONV
- environment variable.
+ this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the
+ [`RSYNC_ICONV`](#) environment variable.
For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
run "`iconv --list`".
- If you specify the `--protect-args` option (`-s`), rsync will translate the
- filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent to the remote
- host. See also the `--files-from` option.
+ If you specify the [`--protect-args`](#opt) (`-s`) option, rsync will
+ translate the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent
+ to the remote host. See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
(including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
`--iconv=utf8`).
-0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
+0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
- the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever ipv4/ipv6 hint options
+ the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever IPv4/IPv6 hint options
it uses).
- These options also exist in the `--daemon` mode section.
+ See also [the daemon version of these options](#dopt--ipv4).
- If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
- have no effect. The `rsync -V` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if is the
- case.
+ If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
+ have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
+ is the case.
-0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
+0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
-# DAEMON OPTIONS
+## DAEMON OPTIONS
The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
-0. `--daemon`
+0. `--daemon`
This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
- each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly. See the
- **rsyncd.conf**(5) man page for more details.
+ each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly.
+
+ See the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage for more details.
-0. `--address`
+0. `--address=ADDRESS`
By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
- possible in conjunction with the `--config` option. See also the "address"
- global option in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+ possible in conjunction with the `--config` option.
+
+ See also the [address](rsyncd.conf.5#address) global option in the
+ rsyncd.conf manpage and the [client version of the `--address`
+ option](#opt--address).
-0. `--bwlimit=RATE`
+0. `--bwlimit=RATE`
This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
- `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed. See the client
- version of this option (above) for some extra details.
+ `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed.
-0. `--config=FILE`
+ See the [client version of the `--bwlimit` option](#opt--bwlimit) for some
+ extra details.
+
+0. `--config=FILE`
This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
- relevant when `--daemon` is specified. The default is /etc/rsyncd.conf
- unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program and the remote
- user is not the super-user; in that case the default is rsyncd.conf in the
- current directory (typically $HOME).
+ relevant when [`--daemon`](#dopt) is specified. The default is
+ /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program
+ and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case the default is
+ rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
-0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
+0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
> rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
-0. `--no-detach`
+0. `--no-detach`
When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
`--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
-0. `--port=PORT`
+0. `--port=PORT`
This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
- rather than the default of 873. See also the "port" global option in the
- rsyncd.conf manpage.
+ rather than the default of 873.
-0. `--log-file=FILE`
+ See also [the client version of the `--port` option](#opt--port) and the
+ [port](rsyncd.conf.5#port) global setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
+
+0. `--log-file=FILE`
This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
-0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
+ See also [the client version of the `--log-file` option](#opt--log-file).
+
+0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
"`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
logging is turned off.
-0. `--sockopts`
+ See also [the client version of the `--log-file-format`
+ option](#opt--log-file-format).
+
+0. `--sockopts`
+
+ This overrides the [`socket options`](rsyncd.conf.5#socket_options)
+ setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
- This overrides the `socket options` setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has
- the same syntax.
+ See also [the client version of the `--sockopts` option](#opt--sockopts).
-0. `--verbose`, `-v`
+0. `--verbose`, `-v`
This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
"`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
-0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
+ See also [the client version of the `--verbose` option](#opt--verbose).
+
+0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
daemon).
- These options also exist in the regular rsync options section.
+ See also [the client version of these options](#opt--ipv4).
- If rsync was complied without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
- have no effect. The `rsync -V` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if is the
- case.
+ If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
+ have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
+ is the case.
-0. `--help`, `-h`
+0. `--help`, `-h`
When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
options available for starting an rsync daemon.
-# FILTER RULES
+## FILTER RULES
-The filter rules allow for flexible selection of which files to transfer
-(include) and which files to skip (exclude). The rules either directly specify
-include/exclude patterns or they specify a way to acquire more include/exclude
-patterns (e.g. to read them from a file).
+The filter rules allow for custom control of several aspects of how files are
+handled:
-As the list of files/directories to transfer is built, rsync checks each name
-to be transferred against the list of include/exclude patterns in turn, and the
-first matching pattern is acted on: if it is an exclude pattern, then that file
-is skipped; if it is an include pattern then that filename is not skipped; if
-no matching pattern is found, then the filename is not skipped.
+- Control which files the sending side puts into the file list that describes
+ the transfer hierarchy
+- Control which files the receiving side protects from deletion when the file
+ is not in the sender's file list
+- Control which extended attribute names are skipped when copying xattrs
+
+The rules are either directly specified via option arguments or they can be
+read in from one or more files. The filter-rule files can even be a part of
+the hierarchy of files being copied, affecting different parts of the tree in
+different ways.
+
+### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE RULES
+
+We will first cover the basics of how include & exclude rules affect what files
+are transferred, ignoring any deletion side-effects. Filter rules mainly
+affect the contents of directories that rsync is "recursing" into, but they can
+also affect a top-level item in the transfer that was specified as a argument.
+
+The default for any unmatched file/dir is for it to be included in the
+transfer, which puts the file/dir into the sender's file list. The use of an
+exclude rule causes one or more matching files/dirs to be left out of the
+sender's file list. An include rule can be used to limit the effect of an
+exclude rule that is matching too many files.
+
+The order of the rules is important because the first rule that matches is the
+one that takes effect. Thus, if an early rule excludes a file, no include rule
+that comes after it can have any effect. This means that you must place any
+include overrides somewhere prior to the exclude that it is intended to limit.
-Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line.
-Filter rules have the following syntax:
+When a directory is excluded, all its contents and sub-contents are also
+excluded. The sender doesn't scan through any of it at all, which can save a
+lot of time when skipping large unneeded sub-trees.
+
+It is also important to understand that the include/exclude rules are applied
+to every file and directory that the sender is recursing into. Thus, if you
+want a particular deep file to be included, you have to make sure that none of
+the directories that must be traversed on the way down to that file are
+excluded or else the file will never be discovered to be included. As an
+example, if the directory "`a/path`" was given as a transfer argument and you
+want to ensure that the file "`a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt`" is a part of the
+transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories "`a/path`",
+"`a/path/down`", or "`a/path/down/deep`" as it makes it way scanning through
+the file tree.
+
+When you are working on the rules, it can be helpful to ask rsync to tell you
+what is being excluded/included and why. Specifying `--debug=FILTER` or (when
+pulling files) `-M--debug=FILTER` turns on level 1 of the FILTER debug
+information that will output a message any time that a file or directory is
+included or excluded and which rule it matched. Beginning in 3.2.4 it will
+also warn if a filter rule has trailing whitespace, since an exclude of "foo "
+(with a trailing space) will not exclude a file named "foo".
+
+Exclude and include rules can specify wildcard [PATTERN MATCHING RULES](#)
+(similar to shell wildcards) that allow you to match things like a file suffix
+or a portion of a filename.
+
+A rule can be limited to only affecting a directory by putting a trailing slash
+onto the filename.
+
+### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE EXAMPLE
+
+With the following file tree created on the sending side:
+
+> mkdir x/
+> touch x/file.txt
+> mkdir x/y/
+> touch x/y/file.txt
+> touch x/y/zzz.txt
+> mkdir x/z/
+> touch x/z/file.txt
+
+Then the following rsync command will transfer the file "`x/y/file.txt`" and
+the directories needed to hold it, resulting in the path "`/tmp/x/y/file.txt`"
+existing on the remote host:
+
+> rsync -ai -f'+ x/' -f'+ x/y/' -f'+ x/y/file.txt' -f'- *' x host:/tmp/
+
+Aside: this copy could also have been accomplished using the [`-R`](#opt)
+option (though the 2 commands behave differently if deletions are enabled):
+
+> rsync -aiR x/y/file.txt host:/tmp/
+
+The following command does not need an include of the "x" directory because it
+is not a part of the transfer (note the traililng slash). Running this command
+would copy just "`/tmp/x/file.txt`" because the "y" and "z" dirs get excluded:
+
+> rsync -ai -f'+ file.txt' -f'- *' x/ host:/tmp/x/
+
+This command would omit the zzz.txt file while copying "x" and everything else
+it contains:
+
+> rsync -ai -f'- zzz.txt' x host:/tmp/
+
+### FILTER RULES WHEN DELETING
+
+By default the include & exclude filter rules affect both the sender
+(as it creates its file list)
+and the receiver (as it creates its file lists for calculating deletions). If
+no delete option is in effect, the receiver skips creating the delete-related
+file lists. This two-sided default can be manually overridden so that you are
+only specifying sender rules or receiver rules, as described in the [FILTER
+RULES IN DEPTH](#) section.
+
+When deleting, an exclude protects a file from being removed on the receiving
+side while an include overrides that protection (putting the file at risk of
+deletion). The default is for a file to be at risk -- its safety depends on it
+matching a corresponding file from the sender.
+
+An example of the two-sided exclude effect can be illustrated by the copying of
+a C development directory between 2 systems. When doing a touch-up copy, you
+might want to skip copying the built executable and the `.o` files (sender
+hide) so that the receiving side can build their own and not lose any object
+files that are already correct (receiver protect). For instance:
+
+> rsync -ai --del -f'- *.o' -f'- cmd' src host:/dest/
+
+Note that using `-f'-p *.o'` is even better than `-f'- *.o'` if there is a
+chance that the directory structure may have changed. The "p" modifier is
+discussed in [FILTER RULE MODIFIERS](#).
+
+One final note, if your shell doesn't mind unexpanded wildcards, you could
+simplify the typing of the filter options by using an underscore in place of
+the space and leaving off the quotes. For instance, `-f -_*.o -f -_cmd` (and
+similar) could be used instead of the filter options above.
+
+### FILTER RULES IN DEPTH
+
+Rsync supports old-style include/exclude rules and new-style filter rules. The
+older rules are specified using [`--include`](#opt) and [`--exclude`](#opt) as
+well as the [`--include-from`](#opt) and [`--exclude-from`](#opt). These are
+limited in behavior but they don't require a "-" or "+" prefix. An old-style
+exclude rule is turned into a "`- name`" filter rule (with no modifiers) and an
+old-style include rule is turned into a "`+ name`" filter rule (with no
+modifiers).
+
+Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line
+and/or read-in from files. New style filter rules have the following syntax:
> RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
> RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
-must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Here are the
-available rule prefixes:
-
-0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern.
-0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern.
-0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file to read for more rules.
-0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file.
+must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Any additional
+spaces and/or underscores are considered to be a part of the pattern name.
+Here are the available rule prefixes:
+
+0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern that (by default) is both a
+ `hide` and a `protect`.
+0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern that (by default) is both a
+ `show` and a `risk`.
+0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file on the client side to read for more
+ rules.
+0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file. Using this kind of
+ filter rule requires that you trust the sending side's filter checking, so
+ it has the side-effect mentioned under the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option.
0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
-0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden.
+ Equivalent to a sender-only exclude, so `-f'H foo'` could also be specified
+ as `-f'-s foo'`.
+0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden. Equivalent to a
+ sender-only include, so `-f'S foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+s
+ foo'`.
0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
-0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected.
+ Equivalent to a receiver-only exclude, so `-f'P foo'` could also be
+ specified as `-f'-r foo'`.
+0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected. Equivalent to a
+ receiver-only include, so `-f'R foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+r
+ foo'`.
0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
-When rules are being read from a file, empty lines are ignored, as are comment
-lines that start with a "#".
-
-[comment]: # (Remember that markdown strips spaces from start/end of ` ... ` sequences!)
-[comment]: # (Thus, the `x ` sequences below use a literal non-breakable space!)
-
-Note that the `--include` & `--exclude` command-line options do not allow the
-full range of rule parsing as described above -- they only allow the
-specification of include / exclude patterns plus a "`!`" token to clear the
-list (and the normal comment parsing when rules are read from a file). If a
-pattern does not begin with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
-the rule will be interpreted as if "`+Â `" (for an include option) or "`-Â `"
-(for an exclude option) were prefixed to the string. A `--filter` option, on
-the other hand, must always contain either a short or long rule name at the
-start of the rule.
-
-Note also that the `--filter`, `--include`, and `--exclude` options take one
-rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones, you can repeat the options on the
-command-line, use the merge-file syntax of the `--filter` option, or the
-`--include-from` / `--exclude-from` options.
-
-# INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERN RULES
-
-You can include and exclude files by specifying patterns using the "+", "-",
-etc. filter rules (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The
-include/exclude rules each specify a pattern that is matched against the names
-of the files that are going to be transferred. These patterns can take several
-forms:
-
-- if the pattern starts with a `/` then it is anchored to a particular spot in
- the hierarchy of files, otherwise it is matched against the end of the
- pathname. This is similar to a leading `^` in regular expressions. Thus
- `/foo` would match a name of "foo" at either the "root of the transfer" (for
- a global rule) or in the merge-file's directory (for a per-directory rule).
- An unqualified `foo` would match a name of "foo" anywhere in the tree because
- the algorithm is applied recursively from the top down; it behaves as if each
- path component gets a turn at being the end of the filename. Even the
- unanchored "sub/foo" would match at any point in the hierarchy where a "foo"
- was found within a directory named "sub". See the section on ANCHORING
- INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS for a full discussion of how to specify a pattern
- that matches at the root of the transfer.
-- if the pattern ends with a `/` then it will only match a directory, not a
- regular file, symlink, or device.
-- rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
- checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters:
- '`*`', '`?`', and '`[`' .
-- a '`*`' matches any path component, but it stops at slashes.
-- use '`**`' to match anything, including slashes.
-- a '`?`' matches any character except a slash (`/`).
-- a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`.
-- in a wildcard pattern, a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard
- character, but it is matched literally when no wildcards are present. This
- means that there is an extra level of backslash removal when a pattern
- contains wildcard characters compared to a pattern that has none. e.g. if
- you add a wildcard to "`foo\bar`" (which matches the backslash) you would
- need to use "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
-- if the pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing /) or a "`**`", then it
- is matched against the full pathname, including any leading directories. If
- the pattern doesn't contain a `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched only against
- the final component of the filename. (Remember that the algorithm is applied
- recursively so "full filename" can actually be any portion of a path from the
- starting directory on down.)
-- a trailing "`dir_name/***`" will match both the directory (as if "dir_name/"
+When rules are being read from a file (using merge or dir-merge), empty lines
+are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules
+that contain a hash character are unaffected).
+
+Note also that the [`--filter`](#opt), [`--include`](#opt), and
+[`--exclude`](#opt) options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
+you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of
+the [`--filter`](#opt) option, or the [`--include-from`](#opt) /
+[`--exclude-from`](#opt) options.
+
+### PATTERN MATCHING RULES
+
+Most of the rules mentioned above take an argument that specifies what the rule
+should match. If rsync is recursing through a directory hierarchy, keep in
+mind that each pattern is matched against the name of every directory in the
+descent path as rsync finds the filenames to send.
+
+The matching rules for the pattern argument take several forms:
+
+- If a pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing slash) or a "`**`"
+ (which can match a slash), then the pattern is matched against the full
+ pathname, including any leading directories within the transfer. If the
+ pattern doesn't contain a (non-trailing) `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched
+ only against the final component of the filename or pathname. For example,
+ `foo` means that the final path component must be "foo" while `foo/bar` would
+ match the last 2 elements of the path (as long as both elements are within
+ the transfer).
+- A pattern that ends with a `/` only matches a directory, not a regular file,
+ symlink, or device.
+- A pattern that starts with a `/` is anchored to the start of the transfer
+ path instead of the end. For example, `/foo/**` or `/foo/bar/**` match only
+ leading elements in the path. If the rule is read from a per-directory
+ filter file, the transfer path being matched will begin at the level of the
+ filter file instead of the top of the transfer. See the section on
+ [ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS](#) for a full discussion of how to
+ specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.
+
+Rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
+checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters: '`*`',
+'`?`', and '`[`' :
+
+- a '`?`' matches any single character except a slash (`/`).
+- a '`*`' matches zero or more non-slash characters.
+- a '`**`' matches zero or more characters, including slashes.
+- a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`, that
+ must match one character.
+- a trailing `***` in the pattern is a shorthand that allows you to match a
+ directory and all its contents using a single rule. For example, specifying
+ "`dir_name/***`" will match both the "dir_name" directory (as if "`dir_name/`"
had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
- had been specified). This behavior was added in version 2.6.7.
-
-Note that, when using the `--recursive` (`-r`) option (which is implied by
-`-a`), every subdir component of every path is visited left to right, with each
-directory having a chance for exclusion before its content. In this way
-include/exclude patterns are applied recursively to the pathname of each node
-in the filesystem's tree (those inside the transfer). The exclude patterns
-short-circuit the directory traversal stage as rsync finds the files to send.
-
-For instance, to include "`/foo/bar/baz`", the directories "`/foo`" and "`/foo/bar`"
-must not be excluded. Excluding one of those parent directories prevents the
-examination of its content, cutting off rsync's recursion into those paths and
-rendering the include for "`/foo/bar/baz`" ineffectual (since rsync can't match
-something it never sees in the cut-off section of the directory hierarchy).
-
-The concept path exclusion is particularly important when using a trailing '`*`'
-rule. For instance, this won't work:
-
-> + /some/path/this-file-will-not-be-found
-> + /file-is-included
-> - *
-
-This fails because the parent directory "some" is excluded by the '`*`' rule, so
-rsync never visits any of the files in the "some" or "some/path" directories.
-One solution is to ask for all directories in the hierarchy to be included by
-using a single rule: "`+ */`" (put it somewhere before the "`- *`" rule), and
-perhaps use the `--prune-empty-dirs` option. Another solution is to add
-specific include rules for all the parent dirs that need to be visited. For
-instance, this set of rules works fine:
-
-> + /some/
-> + /some/path/
-> + /some/path/this-file-is-found
-> + /file-also-included
-> - *
+ had been specified).
+- a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard character, but it is only
+ interpreted as an escape character if at least one wildcard character is
+ present in the match pattern. For instance, the pattern "`foo\bar`" matches
+ that single backslash literally, while the pattern "`foo\bar*`" would need to
+ be changed to "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
-- "`- *.o`" would exclude all names matching `*.o`
-- "`- /foo`" would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the transfer-root
- directory
-- "`- foo/`" would exclude any directory named foo
-- "`- /foo/*/bar`" would exclude any file named bar which is at two levels
- below a directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
-- "`- /foo/**/bar`" would exclude any file named bar two or more levels below a
- directory named foo in the transfer-root directory
-- The combination of "`+ */`", "`+ *.c`", and "`- *`" would include all
- directories and C source files but nothing else (see also the
- `--prune-empty-dirs` option)
-- The combination of "`+ foo/`", "`+ foo/bar.c`", and "`- *`" would include
- only the foo directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly
- included or it would be excluded by the "`*`")
-
-The following modifiers are accepted after a "`+`" or "`-`":
+- Option `-f'- *.o'` would exclude all filenames ending with `.o`
+- Option `-f'- /foo'` would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
+ transfer-root directory
+- Option `-f'- foo/'` would exclude any directory named foo
+- Option `-f'- foo/*/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar which is at two
+ levels below a directory named foo (if foo is in the transfer)
+- Option `-f'- /foo/**/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar that was two
+ or more levels below a top-level directory named foo (note that /foo/bar is
+ **not** excluded by this)
+- Options `-f'+ */' -f'+ *.c' -f'- *'` would include all directories and .c
+ source files but nothing else
+- Options `-f'+ foo/' -f'+ foo/bar.c' -f'- *'` would include only the foo
+ directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it
+ would be excluded by the "`- *`")
+
+### FILTER RULE MODIFIERS
+
+The following modifiers are accepted after an include (+) or exclude (-) rule:
- A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
- absolute pathname of the current item. For example, "`-/ /etc/passwd`" would
- exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from the
- "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it is
- in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
+ absolute pathname of the current item. For example, `-f'-/ /etc/passwd'`
+ would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from
+ the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it
+ is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
transfer.
- A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
- fails to match. For instance, "`-! */`" would exclude all non-directories.
+ fails to match. For instance, `-f'-! */'` would exclude all non-directories.
- A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
- An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
- rule affects the sending side, it prevents files from being transferred. The
- default is for a rule to affect both sides unless `--delete-excluded` was
- specified, in which case default rules become sender-side only. See also the
- hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an alternate way to specify
- sending-side includes/excludes.
+ rule affects the sending side, it affects what files are put into the
+ sender's file list. The default is for a rule to affect both sides unless
+ [`--delete-excluded`](#opt) was specified, in which case default rules become
+ sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an
+ alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
- An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
- A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
- directories that are being deleted. For instance, the `-C` option's default
- rules that exclude things like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable,
- and will not prevent a directory that was removed on the source from being
- deleted on the destination.
+ directories that are being deleted. For instance, the
+ [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's default rules that exclude things
+ like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable, and will not prevent a
+ directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the
+ destination.
- An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
- (see the `--xattrs` option).
+ (see the [`--xattrs`](#opt) option).
-# MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
+### MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
-(.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the FILTER RULES section
-above).
+(.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#)
+section above).
There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
(':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
-(see PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE below).
+(see [PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE](#) below).
Some examples:
If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
-per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see `-F`):
+per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see [`-F`](#opt)):
> --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
-`--cvs-exclude` (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory .cvsignore file
-gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you like in your
-filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule for the
-.cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower priority
-than your command-line rules). For example:
+[`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory
+.cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you
+like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule
+for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower
+priority than your command-line rules). For example:
> ```
> cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
"`--filter=-C`".
-# LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
+### LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
-introduced in the FILTER RULES section above). The "current" list is either
+introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The "current" list is either
the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
-# ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
+### ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
governs where patterns that start with a / match.
Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
-slash on a source path or changing your use of the `--relative` option affects
-the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how much of
-the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following examples
-demonstrate this.
+slash on a source path or changing your use of the [`--relative`](#opt) option
+affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how
+much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following
+examples demonstrate this.
Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
> Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
> ```
-The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just
-look at the output when using `--verbose` and put a / in front of the name
-(use the `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
+The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at the
+output when using [`--verbose`](#opt) and put a / in front of the name (use the
+`--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
-# PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
+### PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
-per-directory merge files in the transfer and use `--delete-after`, because
-this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as the
-sending side before it tries to delete anything:
+per-directory merge files in the transfer and use [`--delete-after`](#opt),
+because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as
+the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
> rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
> rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
> ```
-# BATCH MODE
+## TRANSFER RULES
+
+In addition to the [FILTER RULES](#) that affect the recursive file scans that
+generate the file list on the sending and (when deleting) receiving sides,
+there are transfer rules. These rules affect which files the generator decides
+need to be transferred without the side effects of an exclude filter rule.
+Transfer rules affect only files and never directories.
+
+Because a transfer rule does not affect what goes into the sender's (and
+receiver's) file list, it cannot have any effect on which files get deleted on
+the receiving side. For example, if the file "foo" is present in the sender's
+list but its size is such that it is omitted due to a transfer rule, the
+receiving side does not request the file. However, its presence in the file
+list means that a delete pass will not remove a matching file named "foo" on
+the receiving side. On the other hand, a server-side exclude (hide) of the
+file "foo" leaves the file out of the server's file list, and absent a
+receiver-side exclude (protect) the receiver will remove a matching file named
+"foo" if deletions are requested.
+
+Given that the files are still in the sender's file list, the
+[`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option will not judge a directory as being empty
+even if it contains only files that the transfer rules omitted.
+
+Similarly, a transfer rule does not have any extra effect on which files are
+deleted on the receiving side, so setting a maximum file size for the transfer
+does not prevent big files from being deleted.
+
+Examples of transfer rules include the default "quick check" algorithm (which
+compares size & modify time), the [`--update`](#opt) option, the
+[`--max-size`](#opt) option, the [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) option, and a
+few others.
+
+## BATCH MODE
Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
- The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
- avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified `--read-batch`
- option, but you could edit the script file if you wished to make use of it
- (just be sure that no other option is trying to use standard input, such as
- the "`--exclude-from=-`" option).
+ avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
+ [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, but you could edit the script file if you
+ wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
+ standard input, such as the [`--exclude-from=-`](#opt) option).
Caveats:
verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
-size and date, use the `-I` option (when reading the batch). If an error
-occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated state. In
-that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of operation to
-fix up the destination tree.
+size and date, use the [`-I`](#opt) option (when reading the batch). If an
+error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
+state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of
+operation to fix up the destination tree.
The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
-See also the `--protocol` option for a way to have the creating rsync generate
-a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch files
-changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with newer
-versions will not work.)
+See also the [`--protocol`](#opt) option for a way to have the creating rsync
+generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch
+files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with
+newer versions will not work.)
When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
-instance `--write-batch` changes to `--read-batch`, `--files-from` is dropped,
-and the `--filter` / `--include` / `--exclude` options are not needed unless
-one of the `--delete` options is specified.
+instance [`--write-batch`](#opt) changes to [`--read-batch`](#opt),
+[`--files-from`](#opt) is dropped, and the [`--filter`](#opt) /
+[`--include`](#opt) / [`--exclude`](#opt) options are not needed unless one of
+the [`--delete`](#opt) options is specified.
The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
-change in what gets deleted by `--delete` is desired. A normal user can ignore
-this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the appropriate
-`--read-batch` command for the batched data.
+change in what gets deleted by [`--delete`](#opt) is desired. A normal user
+can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the
+appropriate [`--read-batch`](#opt) command for the batched data.
The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
version uses a new implementation.
-# SYMBOLIC LINKS
+## SYMBOLIC LINKS
Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
link in the source directory.
By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
-If `--links` is specified, then symlinks are recreated with the same target on
-the destination. Note that `--archive` implies `--links`.
+If [`--links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are added to the transfer
+(instead of being noisily ignored), and the default handling is to recreate
+them with the same target on the destination. Note that [`--archive`](#opt)
+implies [`--links`](#opt).
-If `--copy-links` is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
+If [`--copy-links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
-the public section of the site. Using `--copy-unsafe-links` will cause any
-links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
-`--safe-links` will cause unsafe links to be omitted altogether. (Note that you
-must specify `--links` for `--safe-links` to have any effect.)
+the public section of the site. Using [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt) will cause
+any links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
+[`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause unsafe links to be omitted by the receiver.
+(Note that you must specify or imply [`--links`](#opt) for
+[`--safe-links`](#opt) to have any effect.)
-Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks
-(start with `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".."
-components to ascend from the directory being copied.
+Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with
+`/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".." components to ascend from the top
+of the transfer.
Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
first line that is a complete subset of your options:
-0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files (leaving no symlinks for
- any other options to affect).
-0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files and
- duplicate all safe symlinks.
-0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily skip all
- safe symlinks.
-0. `--links --safe-links` Duplicate safe symlinks and skip unsafe ones.
-0. `--links` Duplicate all symlinks.
+0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files and directories
+ (leaving no symlinks in the transfer for any other options to affect).
+0. `--copy-dirlinks` Turn just symlinks to directories into real
+ directories, leaving all other symlinks to be handled as described below.
+0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks
+ into files and create all safe symlinks.
+0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
+ skip all safe symlinks.
+0. `--links --safe-links` The receiver skips creating
+ unsafe symlinks found in the transfer and creates the safe ones.
+0. `--links` Create all symlinks.
+
+For the effect of [`--munge-links`](#opt), see the discussion in that option's
+section.
+
+Note that the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option does not effect symlinks in the
+transfer but instead affects how rsync treats a symlink to a directory that
+already exists on the receiving side. See that option's section for a warning.
-# DIAGNOSTICS
+## DIAGNOSTICS
-rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
+Rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
your shell clean?".
`-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
file is included or excluded.
-# EXIT VALUES
-
-0. **0** Success
-0. **1** Syntax or usage error
-0. **2** Protocol incompatibility
-0. **3** Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
-0. **4** Requested action not supported: an attempt was made to manipulate
- 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them; or an option was
- specified that is supported by the client and not by the server.
-0. **5** Error starting client-server protocol
-0. **6** Daemon unable to append to log-file
-0. **10** Error in socket I/O
-0. **11** Error in file I/O
-0. **12** Error in rsync protocol data stream
-0. **13** Errors with program diagnostics
-0. **14** Error in IPC code
-0. **20** Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
-0. **21** Some error returned by **waitpid()**
-0. **22** Error allocating core memory buffers
-0. **23** Partial transfer due to error
-0. **24** Partial transfer due to vanished source files
-0. **25** The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
-0. **30** Timeout in data send/receive
-0. **35** Timeout waiting for daemon connection
-
-# ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
+## EXIT VALUES
+
+- **0** - Success
+- **1** - Syntax or usage error
+- **2** - Protocol incompatibility
+- **3** - Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
+- **4** - Requested action not supported. Either:
+ - an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them
+ - an option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server
+- **5** - Error starting client-server protocol
+- **6** - Daemon unable to append to log-file
+- **10** - Error in socket I/O
+- **11** - Error in file I/O
+- **12** - Error in rsync protocol data stream
+- **13** - Errors with program diagnostics
+- **14** - Error in IPC code
+- **20** - Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
+- **21** - Some error returned by **waitpid()**
+- **22** - Error allocating core memory buffers
+- **23** - Partial transfer due to error
+- **24** - Partial transfer due to vanished source files
+- **25** - The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
+- **30** - Timeout in data send/receive
+- **35** - Timeout waiting for daemon connection
+
+## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
0. `CVSIGNORE`
The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
- .cvsignore files. See the `--cvs-exclude` option for more details.
+ .cvsignore files. See the [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) option for more details.
0. `RSYNC_ICONV`
- Specify a default `--iconv` setting using this environment variable. (First
- supported in 3.0.0.)
+ Specify a default [`--iconv`](#opt) setting using this environment
+ variable. First supported in 3.0.0.
+
+0. `RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`
+
+ Specify a "1" if you want the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to be enabled by
+ default, a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the
+ repeated-option state, or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by
+ default. When this environment variable is set to a non-zero value, it
+ supersedes the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#) variable.
+
+ This variable is ignored if [`--old-args`](#opt), `--no-old-args`, or
+ [`--protect-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
+
+ First supported in 3.2.4.
0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
- Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the `--protect-args` option to
- be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is disabled by
- default. (First supported in 3.1.0.)
+ Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the [`--protect-args`](#opt)
+ option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is
+ disabled by default.
+
+ This variable is ignored if [`--protect-args`](#opt), `--no-protect-args`,
+ or [`--old-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
+
+ First supported in 3.1.0. Starting in 3.2.4, this variable is ignored if
+ [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) is set to a non-zero value.
0. `RSYNC_RSH`
- The RSYNC_RSH environment variable allows you to override the default shell
- used as the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after
- the command name, just as in the `-e` option.
+ This environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as
+ the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after the
+ command name, just as in the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option.
0. `RSYNC_PROXY`
- The RSYNC_PROXY environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
- client to use a web proxy when connecting to a rsync daemon. You should
- set RSYNC_PROXY to a hostname:port pair.
+ This environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
+ client to use a web proxy when connecting to an rsync daemon. You should
+ set `RSYNC_PROXY` to a hostname:port pair.
0. `RSYNC_PASSWORD`
- Setting RSYNC_PASSWORD to the required password allows you to run
- authenticated rsync connections to an rsync daemon without user
- intervention. Note that this does not supply a password to a remote shell
- transport such as ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's
- documentation.
+ This environment variable allows you to set the password for an rsync
+ **daemon** connection, which avoids the password prompt. Note that this
+ does **not** supply a password to a remote shell transport such as ssh
+ (consult its documentation for how to do that).
0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
- to "nobody".
+ to "nobody". If both are set, `USER` takes precedence.
+
+0. `RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`
+
+ This environment variable specifies the directory to use for a
+ [`--partial`](#opt) transfer without implying that partial transfers be
+ enabled. See the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option for full details.
+
+0. `RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`
+
+ This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
+ compression algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
+ names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available compression
+ names. See the [`--compress`](#opt) option for full details.
+
+0. `RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`
+
+ This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
+ checksum algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
+ names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available checksum
+ names. See the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) option for full details.
+
+0. `RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`
+
+ This environment variable sets an allocation maximum as if you had used the
+ [`--max-alloc`](#opt) option.
+
+0. `RSYNC_PORT`
+
+ This environment variable is not read by rsync, but is instead set in
+ its sub-environment when rsync is running the remote shell in combination
+ with a daemon connection. This allows a script such as
+ [`rsync-ssl`](rsync-ssl.1) to be able to know the port number that the user
+ specified on the command line.
0. `HOME`
- The HOME environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
+ This environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
file.
-# FILES
+0. `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`
-/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
+ This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
+ to use when making a daemon connection. See [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC
+ DAEMON](#) for full details.
-# SEE ALSO
+0. `RSYNC_SHELL`
-**rsync-ssl**(1), **rsyncd.conf**(5)
+ This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
+ to use to run the program specified by [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#). See
+ [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON](#) for full details.
-# BUGS
+## FILES
-times are transferred as \*nix time_t values
+/etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
+
+## SEE ALSO
-When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync
-unmodified files.
-See the comments on the `--modify-window` option.
+[**rsync-ssl**(1)](rsync-ssl.1), [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5), [**rrsync**(1)](rrsync.1)
-file permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical
-values
+## BUGS
-see also the comments on the `--delete` option
+- Times are transferred as \*nix time_t values.
+- When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified files. See
+ the comments on the [`--modify-window`](#opt) option.
+- File permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values.
+- See also the comments on the [`--delete`](#opt) option.
Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
-# VERSION
+## VERSION
-This man page is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
+This manpage is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
-# INTERNAL OPTIONS
+## INTERNAL OPTIONS
The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
-# CREDITS
+## CREDITS
+
+Rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
+[COPYING](COPYING) for details.
-rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
-COPYING for details.
+An rsync web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site
+includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
+page.
-A web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site includes an
-FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual page.
+The rsync github project is <https://github.com/WayneD/rsync>.
We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
Gailly and Mark Adler.
-# THANKS
+## THANKS
Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
-# AUTHOR
+## AUTHOR
-rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
+Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
Davison.
git.samba.org / rsync.git / blobdiff