3 rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
9 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [DEST]
11 Access via remote shell:
13 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST:SRC... [DEST]
15 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST:DEST
17 Access via rsync daemon:
19 rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]HOST::SRC... [DEST]
20 rsync [OPTION...] rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC... [DEST]
22 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... [USER@]HOST::DEST
23 rsync [OPTION...] SRC... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST)
26 Usages with just one SRC arg and no DEST arg will list the source files instead
29 The online version of this manpage (that includes cross-linking of topics)
30 is available at <https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1>.
34 Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy
35 locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync
36 daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its
37 behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be
38 copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algorithm, which reduces the
39 amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between
40 the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely
41 used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday
44 Rsync finds files that need to be transferred using a "quick check" algorithm
45 (by default) that looks for files that have changed in size or in last-modified
46 time. Any changes in the other preserved attributes (as requested by options)
47 are made on the destination file directly when the quick check indicates that
48 the file's data does not need to be updated.
50 Some of the additional features of rsync are:
52 - support for copying links, devices, owners, groups, and permissions
53 - exclude and exclude-from options similar to GNU tar
54 - a CVS exclude mode for ignoring the same files that CVS would ignore
55 - can use any transparent remote shell, including ssh or rsh
56 - does not require super-user privileges
57 - pipelining of file transfers to minimize latency costs
58 - support for anonymous or authenticated rsync daemons (ideal for mirroring)
62 Rsync copies files either to or from a remote host, or locally on the current
63 host (it does not support copying files between two remote hosts).
65 There are two different ways for rsync to contact a remote system: using a
66 remote-shell program as the transport (such as ssh or rsh) or contacting an
67 rsync daemon directly via TCP. The remote-shell transport is used whenever the
68 source or destination path contains a single colon (:) separator after a host
69 specification. Contacting an rsync daemon directly happens when the source or
70 destination path contains a double colon (::) separator after a host
71 specification, OR when an rsync:// URL is specified (see also the [USING
72 RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#) section for an
73 exception to this latter rule).
75 As a special case, if a single source arg is specified without a destination,
76 the files are listed in an output format similar to "`ls -l`".
78 As expected, if neither the source or destination path specify a remote host,
79 the copy occurs locally (see also the [`--list-only`](#opt) option).
81 Rsync refers to the local side as the client and the remote side as the server.
82 Don't confuse server with an rsync daemon. A daemon is always a server, but a
83 server can be either a daemon or a remote-shell spawned process.
87 See the file README.md for installation instructions.
89 Once installed, you can use rsync to any machine that you can access via a
90 remote shell (as well as some that you can access using the rsync daemon-mode
91 protocol). For remote transfers, a modern rsync uses ssh for its
92 communications, but it may have been configured to use a different remote shell
93 by default, such as rsh or remsh.
95 You can also specify any remote shell you like, either by using the [`-e`](#opt)
96 command line option, or by setting the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#) environment variable.
98 Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
102 You use rsync in the same way you use rcp. You must specify a source and a
103 destination, one of which may be remote.
105 Perhaps the best way to explain the syntax is with some examples:
107 > rsync -t *.c foo:src/
109 This would transfer all files matching the pattern `*.c` from the current
110 directory to the directory src on the machine foo. If any of the files already
111 exist on the remote system then the rsync remote-update protocol is used to
112 update the file by sending only the differences in the data. Note that the
113 expansion of wildcards on the command-line (`*.c`) into a list of files is
114 handled by the shell before it runs rsync and not by rsync itself (exactly the
115 same as all other Posix-style programs).
117 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar /data/tmp
119 This would recursively transfer all files from the directory src/bar on the
120 machine foo into the /data/tmp/bar directory on the local machine. The files
121 are transferred in archive mode, which ensures that symbolic links, devices,
122 attributes, permissions, ownerships, etc. are preserved in the transfer.
123 Additionally, compression will be used to reduce the size of data portions of
126 > rsync -avz foo:src/bar/ /data/tmp
128 A trailing slash on the source changes this behavior to avoid creating an
129 additional directory level at the destination. You can think of a trailing /
130 on a source as meaning "copy the contents of this directory" as opposed to
131 "copy the directory by name", but in both cases the attributes of the
132 containing directory are transferred to the containing directory on the
133 destination. In other words, each of the following commands copies the files
134 in the same way, including their setting of the attributes of /dest/foo:
136 > rsync -av /src/foo /dest
137 > rsync -av /src/foo/ /dest/foo
139 Note also that host and module references don't require a trailing slash to
140 copy the contents of the default directory. For example, both of these copy
141 the remote directory's contents into "/dest":
143 > rsync -av host: /dest
144 > rsync -av host::module /dest
146 You can also use rsync in local-only mode, where both the source and
147 destination don't have a ':' in the name. In this case it behaves like an
148 improved copy command.
150 Finally, you can list all the (listable) modules available from a particular
151 rsync daemon by leaving off the module name:
153 > rsync somehost.mydomain.com::
155 ## COPYING TO A DIFFERENT NAME
157 When you want to copy a directory to a different name, use a trailing slash on
158 the source directory to put the contents of the directory into any destination
161 > rsync -ai foo/ bar/
163 Rsync also has the ability to customize a destination file's name when copying
164 a single item. The rules for this are:
166 - The transfer list must consist of a single item (either a file or an empty
168 - The final element of the destination path must not exist as a directory
169 - The destination path must not have been specified with a trailing slash
171 Under those circumstances, rsync will set the name of the destination's single
172 item to the last element of the destination path. Keep in mind that it is best
173 to only use this idiom when copying a file and use the above trailing-slash
174 idiom when copying a directory.
176 The following example copies the `foo.c` file as `bar.c` in the `save` dir
177 (assuming that `bar.c` isn't a directory):
179 > rsync -ai src/foo.c save/bar.c
181 The single-item copy rule might accidentally bite you if you unknowingly copy a
182 single item and specify a destination dir that doesn't exist (without using a
183 trailing slash). For example, if `src/*.c` matches one file and `save/dir`
184 doesn't exist, this will confuse you by naming the destination file `save/dir`:
186 > rsync -ai src/*.c save/dir
188 To prevent such an accident, either make sure the destination dir exists or
189 specify the destination path with a trailing slash:
191 > rsync -ai src/*.c save/dir/
193 ## SORTED TRANSFER ORDER
195 Rsync always sorts the specified filenames into its internal transfer list.
196 This handles the merging together of the contents of identically named
197 directories, makes it easy to remove duplicate filenames. It can, however,
198 confuse someone when the files are transferred in a different order than what
199 was given on the command-line.
201 If you need a particular file to be transferred prior to another, either
202 separate the files into different rsync calls, or consider using
203 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) (which doesn't affect the sorted transfer order, but
204 does make the final file-updating phase happen much more rapidly).
206 ## MULTI-HOST SECURITY
208 Rsync takes steps to ensure that the file requests that are shared in a
209 transfer are protected against various security issues. Most of the potential
210 problems arise on the receiving side where rsync takes steps to ensure that the
211 list of files being transferred remains within the bounds of what was
214 Toward this end, rsync 3.1.2 and later have aborted when a file list contains
215 an absolute or relative path that tries to escape out of the top of the
216 transfer. Also, beginning with version 3.2.5, rsync does two more safety
217 checks of the file list to (1) ensure that no extra source arguments were added
218 into the transfer other than those that the client requested and (2) ensure
219 that the file list obeys the exclude rules that were sent to the sender.
221 For those that don't yet have a 3.2.5 client rsync (or those that want to be
222 extra careful), it is safest to do a copy into a dedicated destination
223 directory for the remote files when you don't trust the remote host. For
224 example, instead of doing an rsync copy into your home directory:
226 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~
228 Dedicate a "host1-files" dir to the remote content:
230 > rsync -aiv host1:dir1 ~/host1-files
232 See the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option for additional details.
234 CAUTION: it is not particularly safe to use rsync to copy files from a
235 case-preserving filesystem to a case-ignoring filesystem. If you must perform
236 such a copy, you should either disable symlinks via `--no-links` or enable the
237 munging of symlinks via [`--munge-links`](#opt) (and make sure you use the
238 right local or remote option). This will prevent rsync from doing potentially
239 dangerous things if a symlink name overlaps with a file or directory. It does
240 not, however, ensure that you get a full copy of all the files (since that may
241 not be possible when the names overlap). A potentially better solution is to
242 list all the source files and create a safe list of filenames that you pass to
243 the [`--files-from`](#opt) option. Any files that conflict in name would need
244 to be copied to different destination directories using more than one copy.
246 While a copy of a case-ignoring filesystem to a case-ignoring filesystem can
247 work out fairly well, if no `--delete-during` or `--delete-before` option is
248 active, rsync can potentially update an existing file on the receiving side
249 without noticing that the upper-/lower-case of the filename should be changed
254 The syntax for requesting multiple files from a remote host is done by
255 specifying additional remote-host args in the same style as the first, or with
256 the hostname omitted. For instance, all these work:
258 > rsync -aiv host:file1 :file2 host:file{3,4} /dest/
259 > rsync -aiv host::modname/file{1,2} host::modname/extra /dest/
260 > rsync -aiv host::modname/first ::extra-file{1,2} /dest/
262 Note that a daemon connection only supports accessing one module per copy
263 command, so if the start of a follow-up path doesn't begin with the
264 modname of the first path, it is assumed to be a path in the module (such as
265 the extra-file1 & extra-file2 that are grabbed above).
267 Really old versions of rsync (2.6.9 and before) only allowed specifying one
268 remote-source arg, so some people have instead relied on the remote-shell
269 performing space splitting to break up an arg into multiple paths. Such
270 unintuitive behavior is no longer supported by default (though you can request
271 it, as described below).
273 Starting in 3.2.4, filenames are passed to a remote shell in such a way as to
274 preserve the characters you give it. Thus, if you ask for a file with spaces
275 in the name, that's what the remote rsync looks for:
277 > rsync -aiv host:'a simple file.pdf' /dest/
279 If you use scripts that have been written to manually apply extra quoting to
280 the remote rsync args (or to require remote arg splitting), you can ask rsync
281 to let your script handle the extra escaping. This is done by either adding
282 the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to the rsync runs in the script (which requires
283 a new rsync) or exporting [RSYNC_OLD_ARGS](#)=1 and [RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS](#)=0
284 (which works with old or new rsync versions).
286 ## CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON
288 It is also possible to use rsync without a remote shell as the transport. In
289 this case you will directly connect to a remote rsync daemon, typically using
290 TCP port 873. (This obviously requires the daemon to be running on the remote
291 system, so refer to the [STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS](#)
292 section below for information on that.)
294 Using rsync in this way is the same as using it with a remote shell except
297 - Use either double-colon syntax or rsync:// URL syntax instead of the
298 single-colon (remote shell) syntax.
299 - The first element of the "path" is actually a module name.
300 - Additional remote source args can use an abbreviated syntax that omits the
301 hostname and/or the module name, as discussed in [ADVANCED USAGE](#).
302 - The remote daemon may print a "message of the day" when you connect.
303 - If you specify only the host (with no module or path) then a list of
304 accessible modules on the daemon is output.
305 - If you specify a remote source path but no destination, a listing of the
306 matching files on the remote daemon is output.
307 - The [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option must be omitted to avoid changing the
308 connection style from using a socket connection to [USING RSYNC-DAEMON
309 FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION](#).
311 An example that copies all the files in a remote module named "src":
313 > rsync -av host::src /dest
315 Some modules on the remote daemon may require authentication. If so, you will
316 receive a password prompt when you connect. You can avoid the password prompt
317 by setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_PASSWORD`](#) to the password you
318 want to use or using the [`--password-file`](#opt) option. This may be useful
319 when scripting rsync.
321 WARNING: On some systems environment variables are visible to all users. On
322 those systems using [`--password-file`](#opt) is recommended.
324 You may establish the connection via a web proxy by setting the environment
325 variable [`RSYNC_PROXY`](#) to a hostname:port pair pointing to your web proxy.
326 Note that your web proxy's configuration must support proxy connections to port
329 You may also establish a daemon connection using a program as a proxy by
330 setting the environment variable [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#) to the commands you
331 wish to run in place of making a direct socket connection. The string may
332 contain the escape "%H" to represent the hostname specified in the rsync
333 command (so use "%%" if you need a single "%" in your string). For example:
335 > export RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG='ssh proxyhost nc %H 873'
336 > rsync -av targethost1::module/src/ /dest/
337 > rsync -av rsync://targethost2/module/src/ /dest/
339 The command specified above uses ssh to run nc (netcat) on a proxyhost, which
340 forwards all data to port 873 (the rsync daemon) on the targethost (%H).
342 Note also that if the [`RSYNC_SHELL`](#) environment variable is set, that
343 program will be used to run the `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG` command instead of using
344 the default shell of the **system()** call.
346 ## USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL CONNECTION
348 It is sometimes useful to use various features of an rsync daemon (such as
349 named modules) without actually allowing any new socket connections into a
350 system (other than what is already required to allow remote-shell access).
351 Rsync supports connecting to a host using a remote shell and then spawning a
352 single-use "daemon" server that expects to read its config file in the home dir
353 of the remote user. This can be useful if you want to encrypt a daemon-style
354 transfer's data, but since the daemon is started up fresh by the remote user,
355 you may not be able to use features such as chroot or change the uid used by
356 the daemon. (For another way to encrypt a daemon transfer, consider using ssh
357 to tunnel a local port to a remote machine and configure a normal rsync daemon
358 on that remote host to only allow connections from "localhost".)
360 From the user's perspective, a daemon transfer via a remote-shell connection
361 uses nearly the same command-line syntax as a normal rsync-daemon transfer,
362 with the only exception being that you must explicitly set the remote shell
363 program on the command-line with the [`--rsh=COMMAND`](#opt) option. (Setting the
364 RSYNC_RSH in the environment will not turn on this functionality.) For example:
366 > rsync -av --rsh=ssh host::module /dest
368 If you need to specify a different remote-shell user, keep in mind that the
369 user@ prefix in front of the host is specifying the rsync-user value (for a
370 module that requires user-based authentication). This means that you must give
371 the '-l user' option to ssh when specifying the remote-shell, as in this
372 example that uses the short version of the [`--rsh`](#opt) option:
374 > rsync -av -e "ssh -l ssh-user" rsync-user@host::module /dest
376 The "ssh-user" will be used at the ssh level; the "rsync-user" will be used to
377 log-in to the "module".
379 In this setup, the daemon is started by the ssh command that is accessing the
380 system (which can be forced via the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file, if desired).
381 However, when accessing a daemon directly, it needs to be started beforehand.
383 ## STARTING AN RSYNC DAEMON TO ACCEPT CONNECTIONS
385 In order to connect to an rsync daemon, the remote system needs to have a
386 daemon already running (or it needs to have configured something like inetd to
387 spawn an rsync daemon for incoming connections on a particular port). For full
388 information on how to start a daemon that will handling incoming socket
389 connections, see the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage -- that is
390 the config file for the daemon, and it contains the full details for how to run
391 the daemon (including stand-alone and inetd configurations).
393 If you're using one of the remote-shell transports for the transfer, there is
394 no need to manually start an rsync daemon.
398 Here are some examples of how rsync can be used.
400 To backup a home directory, which consists of large MS Word files and mail
401 folders, a per-user cron job can be used that runs this each day:
403 > rsync -aiz . bkhost:backup/joe/
405 To move some files from a remote host to the local host, you could run:
407 > rsync -aiv --remove-source-files rhost:/tmp/{file1,file2}.c ~/src/
411 Here is a short summary of the options available in rsync. Each option also
412 has its own detailed description later in this manpage.
414 [comment]: # (help-rsync.h)
415 [comment]: # (Keep these short enough that they'll be under 80 chars when indented by 7 chars.)
418 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
419 --info=FLAGS fine-grained informational verbosity
420 --debug=FLAGS fine-grained debug verbosity
421 --stderr=e|a|c change stderr output mode (default: errors)
422 --quiet, -q suppress non-error messages
423 --no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD
424 --checksum, -c skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
425 --archive, -a archive mode is -rlptgoD (no -A,-X,-U,-N,-H)
426 --no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
427 --recursive, -r recurse into directories
428 --relative, -R use relative path names
429 --no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
430 --backup, -b make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
431 --backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
432 --suffix=SUFFIX backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
433 --update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver
434 --inplace update destination files in-place
435 --append append data onto shorter files
436 --append-verify --append w/old data in file checksum
437 --dirs, -d transfer directories without recursing
438 --old-dirs, --old-d works like --dirs when talking to old rsync
439 --mkpath create destination's missing path components
440 --links, -l copy symlinks as symlinks
441 --copy-links, -L transform symlink into referent file/dir
442 --copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
443 --safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the tree
444 --munge-links munge symlinks to make them safe & unusable
445 --copy-dirlinks, -k transform symlink to dir into referent dir
446 --keep-dirlinks, -K treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
447 --hard-links, -H preserve hard links
448 --perms, -p preserve permissions
449 --executability, -E preserve executability
450 --chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
451 --acls, -A preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
452 --xattrs, -X preserve extended attributes
453 --owner, -o preserve owner (super-user only)
454 --group, -g preserve group
455 --devices preserve device files (super-user only)
456 --copy-devices copy device contents as a regular file
457 --write-devices write to devices as files (implies --inplace)
458 --specials preserve special files
459 -D same as --devices --specials
460 --times, -t preserve modification times
461 --atimes, -U preserve access (use) times
462 --open-noatime avoid changing the atime on opened files
463 --crtimes, -N preserve create times (newness)
464 --omit-dir-times, -O omit directories from --times
465 --omit-link-times, -J omit symlinks from --times
466 --super receiver attempts super-user activities
467 --fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
468 --sparse, -S turn sequences of nulls into sparse blocks
469 --preallocate allocate dest files before writing them
470 --dry-run, -n perform a trial run with no changes made
471 --whole-file, -W copy files whole (w/o delta-xfer algorithm)
472 --checksum-choice=STR choose the checksum algorithm (aka --cc)
473 --one-file-system, -x don't cross filesystem boundaries
474 --block-size=SIZE, -B force a fixed checksum block-size
475 --rsh=COMMAND, -e specify the remote shell to use
476 --rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on remote machine
477 --existing skip creating new files on receiver
478 --ignore-existing skip updating files that exist on receiver
479 --remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)
480 --del an alias for --delete-during
481 --delete delete extraneous files from dest dirs
482 --delete-before receiver deletes before xfer, not during
483 --delete-during receiver deletes during the transfer
484 --delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
485 --delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
486 --delete-excluded also delete excluded files from dest dirs
487 --ignore-missing-args ignore missing source args without error
488 --delete-missing-args delete missing source args from destination
489 --ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
490 --force force deletion of dirs even if not empty
491 --max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
492 --max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
493 --min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
494 --max-alloc=SIZE change a limit relating to memory alloc
495 --partial keep partially transferred files
496 --partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
497 --delay-updates put all updated files into place at end
498 --prune-empty-dirs, -m prune empty directory chains from file-list
499 --numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
500 --usermap=STRING custom username mapping
501 --groupmap=STRING custom groupname mapping
502 --chown=USER:GROUP simple username/groupname mapping
503 --timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
504 --contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
505 --ignore-times, -I don't skip files that match size and time
506 --size-only skip files that match in size
507 --modify-window=NUM, -@ set the accuracy for mod-time comparisons
508 --temp-dir=DIR, -T create temporary files in directory DIR
509 --fuzzy, -y find similar file for basis if no dest file
510 --compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
511 --copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
512 --link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
513 --compress, -z compress file data during the transfer
514 --compress-choice=STR choose the compression algorithm (aka --zc)
515 --compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level (aka --zl)
516 --skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with suffix in LIST
517 --cvs-exclude, -C auto-ignore files in the same way CVS does
518 --filter=RULE, -f add a file-filtering RULE
519 -F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
520 repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
521 --exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
522 --exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
523 --include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
524 --include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
525 --files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
526 --from0, -0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
527 --old-args disable the modern arg-protection idiom
528 --secluded-args, -s use the protocol to safely send the args
529 --trust-sender trust the remote sender's file list
530 --copy-as=USER[:GROUP] specify user & optional group for the copy
531 --address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
532 --port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
533 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
534 --blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
535 --outbuf=N|L|B set out buffering to None, Line, or Block
536 --stats give some file-transfer stats
537 --8-bit-output, -8 leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
538 --human-readable, -h output numbers in a human-readable format
539 --progress show progress during transfer
540 -P same as --partial --progress
541 --itemize-changes, -i output a change-summary for all updates
542 --remote-option=OPT, -M send OPTION to the remote side only
543 --out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
544 --log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
545 --log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
546 --password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
547 --early-input=FILE use FILE for daemon's early exec input
548 --list-only list the files instead of copying them
549 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
550 --stop-after=MINS Stop rsync after MINS minutes have elapsed
551 --stop-at=y-m-dTh:m Stop rsync at the specified point in time
552 --fsync fsync every written file
553 --write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
554 --only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating dest
555 --read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
556 --protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
557 --iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
558 --checksum-seed=NUM set block/file checksum seed (advanced)
559 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
560 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
561 --version, -V print the version + other info and exit
562 --help, -h (*) show this help (* -h is help only on its own)
565 Rsync can also be run as a daemon, in which case the following options are
568 [comment]: # (help-rsyncd.h)
571 --daemon run as an rsync daemon
572 --address=ADDRESS bind to the specified address
573 --bwlimit=RATE limit socket I/O bandwidth
574 --config=FILE specify alternate rsyncd.conf file
575 --dparam=OVERRIDE, -M override global daemon config parameter
576 --no-detach do not detach from the parent
577 --port=PORT listen on alternate port number
578 --log-file=FILE override the "log file" setting
579 --log-file-format=FMT override the "log format" setting
580 --sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
581 --verbose, -v increase verbosity
582 --ipv4, -4 prefer IPv4
583 --ipv6, -6 prefer IPv6
584 --help, -h show this help (when used with --daemon)
589 Rsync accepts both long (double-dash + word) and short (single-dash + letter)
590 options. The full list of the available options are described below. If an
591 option can be specified in more than one way, the choices are comma-separated.
592 Some options only have a long variant, not a short.
594 If the option takes a parameter, the parameter is only listed after the long
595 variant, even though it must also be specified for the short. When specifying
596 a parameter, you can either use the form `--option=param`, `--option param`,
597 `-o=param`, `-o param`, or `-oparam` (the latter choices assume that your
598 option has a short variant).
600 The parameter may need to be quoted in some manner for it to survive the
601 shell's command-line parsing. Also keep in mind that a leading tilde (`~`) in
602 a pathname is substituted by your shell, so make sure that you separate the
603 option name from the pathname using a space if you want the local shell to
606 [comment]: # (Some markup below uses a literal non-breakable space when a backtick string)
607 [comment]: # (needs to contain a space since markdown strips spaces from the start/end)
609 [comment]: # (An OL starting at 0 is converted into a DL by the parser.)
613 Print a short help page describing the options available in rsync and exit.
614 You can also use `-h` for `--help` when it is used without any other
615 options (since it normally means [`--human-readable`](#opt)).
619 Print the rsync version plus other info and exit. When repeated, the
620 information is output is a JSON format that is still fairly readable
623 The output includes a list of compiled-in capabilities, a list of
624 optimizations, the default list of checksum algorithms, the default list of
625 compression algorithms, the default list of daemon auth digests, a link to
626 the rsync web site, and a few other items.
630 This option increases the amount of information you are given during the
631 transfer. By default, rsync works silently. A single `-v` will give you
632 information about what files are being transferred and a brief summary at
633 the end. Two `-v` options will give you information on what files are
634 being skipped and slightly more information at the end. More than two `-v`
635 options should only be used if you are debugging rsync.
637 The end-of-run summary tells you the number of bytes sent to the remote
638 rsync (which is the receiving side on a local copy), the number of bytes
639 received from the remote host, and the average bytes per second of the
640 transferred data computed over the entire length of the rsync run. The
641 second line shows the total size (in bytes), which is the sum of all the
642 file sizes that rsync considered transferring. It also shows a "speedup"
643 value, which is a ratio of the total file size divided by the sum of the
644 sent and received bytes (which is really just a feel-good bigger-is-better
645 number). Note that these byte values can be made more (or less)
646 human-readable by using the [`--human-readable`](#opt) (or
647 `--no-human-readable`) options.
649 In a modern rsync, the `-v` option is equivalent to the setting of groups
650 of [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) options. You can choose to use
651 these newer options in addition to, or in place of using `--verbose`, as
652 any fine-grained settings override the implied settings of `-v`. Both
653 [`--info`](#opt) and [`--debug`](#opt) have a way to ask for help that
654 tells you exactly what flags are set for each increase in verbosity.
656 However, do keep in mind that a daemon's "`max verbosity`" setting will limit
657 how high of a level the various individual flags can be set on the daemon
658 side. For instance, if the max is 2, then any info and/or debug flag that
659 is set to a higher value than what would be set by `-vv` will be downgraded
660 to the `-vv` level in the daemon's logging.
664 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the information output
665 you want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level
666 number, with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output
667 level, and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those
668 that support higher levels). Use `--info=help` to see all the available
669 flag names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each
670 increase in the verbose level. Some examples:
672 > rsync -a --info=progress2 src/ dest/
673 > rsync -avv --info=stats2,misc1,flist0 src/ dest/
675 Note that `--info=name`'s output is affected by the [`--out-format`](#opt)
676 and [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options. See those options for more
677 information on what is output and when.
679 This option was added to 3.1.0, so an older rsync on the server side might
680 reject your attempts at fine-grained control (if one or more flags needed
681 to be send to the server and the server was too old to understand them).
682 See also the "`max verbosity`" caveat above when dealing with a daemon.
686 This option lets you have fine-grained control over the debug output you
687 want to see. An individual flag name may be followed by a level number,
688 with 0 meaning to silence that output, 1 being the default output level,
689 and higher numbers increasing the output of that flag (for those that
690 support higher levels). Use `--debug=help` to see all the available flag
691 names, what they output, and what flag names are added for each increase in
692 the verbose level. Some examples:
694 > rsync -avvv --debug=none src/ dest/
695 > rsync -avA --del --debug=del2,acl src/ dest/
697 Note that some debug messages will only be output when the [`--stderr=all`](#opt)
698 option is specified, especially those pertaining to I/O and buffer debugging.
700 Beginning in 3.2.0, this option is no longer auto-forwarded to the server
701 side in order to allow you to specify different debug values for each side
702 of the transfer, as well as to specify a new debug option that is only
703 present in one of the rsync versions. If you want to duplicate the same
704 option on both sides, using brace expansion is an easy way to save you some
705 typing. This works in zsh and bash:
707 > rsync -aiv {-M,}--debug=del2 src/ dest/
709 0. `--stderr=errors|all|client`
711 This option controls which processes output to stderr and if info messages
712 are also changed to stderr. The mode strings can be abbreviated, so feel
713 free to use a single letter value. The 3 possible choices are:
715 - `errors` - (the default) causes all the rsync processes to send an
716 error directly to stderr, even if the process is on the remote side of
717 the transfer. Info messages are sent to the client side via the protocol
718 stream. If stderr is not available (i.e. when directly connecting with a
719 daemon via a socket) errors fall back to being sent via the protocol
722 - `all` - causes all rsync messages (info and error) to get written
723 directly to stderr from all (possible) processes. This causes stderr to
724 become line-buffered (instead of raw) and eliminates the ability to
725 divide up the info and error messages by file handle. For those doing
726 debugging or using several levels of verbosity, this option can help to
727 avoid clogging up the transfer stream (which should prevent any chance of
728 a deadlock bug hanging things up). It also allows [`--debug`](#opt) to
729 enable some extra I/O related messages.
731 - `client` - causes all rsync messages to be sent to the client side
732 via the protocol stream. One client process outputs all messages, with
733 errors on stderr and info messages on stdout. This **was** the default
734 in older rsync versions, but can cause error delays when a lot of
735 transfer data is ahead of the messages. If you're pushing files to an
736 older rsync, you may want to use `--stderr=all` since that idiom has
737 been around for several releases.
739 This option was added in rsync 3.2.3. This version also began the
740 forwarding of a non-default setting to the remote side, though rsync uses
741 the backward-compatible options `--msgs2stderr` and `--no-msgs2stderr` to
742 represent the `all` and `client` settings, respectively. A newer rsync
743 will continue to accept these older option names to maintain compatibility.
747 This option decreases the amount of information you are given during the
748 transfer, notably suppressing information messages from the remote server.
749 This option is useful when invoking rsync from cron.
753 This option affects the information that is output by the client at the
754 start of a daemon transfer. This suppresses the message-of-the-day (MOTD)
755 text, but it also affects the list of modules that the daemon sends in
756 response to the "rsync host::" request (due to a limitation in the rsync
757 protocol), so omit this option if you want to request the list of modules
760 0. `--ignore-times`, `-I`
762 Normally rsync will skip any files that are already the same size and have
763 the same modification timestamp. This option turns off this "quick check"
764 behavior, causing all files to be updated.
766 This option can be confusing compared to [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) and
767 [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) in that that they cause rsync to transfer
768 fewer files, while this option causes rsync to transfer more files.
772 This modifies rsync's "quick check" algorithm for finding files that need
773 to be transferred, changing it from the default of transferring files with
774 either a changed size or a changed last-modified time to just looking for
775 files that have changed in size. This is useful when starting to use rsync
776 after using another mirroring system which may not preserve timestamps
779 0. `--modify-window=NUM`, `-@`
781 When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal
782 if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. The default is 0,
783 which matches just integer seconds. If you specify a negative value (and
784 the receiver is at least version 3.1.3) then nanoseconds will also be taken
785 into account. Specifying 1 is useful for copies to/from MS Windows FAT
786 filesystems, because FAT represents times with a 2-second resolution
787 (allowing times to differ from the original by up to 1 second).
789 If you want all your transfers to default to comparing nanoseconds, you can
790 create a `~/.popt` file and put these lines in it:
792 > rsync alias -a -a@-1
793 > rsync alias -t -t@-1
795 With that as the default, you'd need to specify `--modify-window=0` (aka
796 `-@0`) to override it and ignore nanoseconds, e.g. if you're copying
797 between ext3 and ext4, or if the receiving rsync is older than 3.1.3.
799 0. `--checksum`, `-c`
801 This changes the way rsync checks if the files have been changed and are in
802 need of a transfer. Without this option, rsync uses a "quick check" that
803 (by default) checks if each file's size and time of last modification match
804 between the sender and receiver. This option changes this to compare a
805 128-bit checksum for each file that has a matching size. Generating the
806 checksums means that both sides will expend a lot of disk I/O reading all
807 the data in the files in the transfer, so this can slow things down
808 significantly (and this is prior to any reading that will be done to
809 transfer changed files)
811 The sending side generates its checksums while it is doing the file-system
812 scan that builds the list of the available files. The receiver generates
813 its checksums when it is scanning for changed files, and will checksum any
814 file that has the same size as the corresponding sender's file: files with
815 either a changed size or a changed checksum are selected for transfer.
817 Note that rsync always verifies that each _transferred_ file was correctly
818 reconstructed on the receiving side by checking a whole-file checksum that
819 is generated as the file is transferred, but that automatic
820 after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's
821 before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check.
823 The checksum used is auto-negotiated between the client and the server, but
824 can be overridden using either the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`)
825 option or an environment variable that is discussed in that option's
830 This is equivalent to `-rlptgoD`. It is a quick way of saying you want
831 recursion and want to preserve almost everything. Be aware that it does
832 **not** include preserving ACLs (`-A`), xattrs (`-X`), atimes (`-U`),
833 crtimes (`-N`), nor the finding and preserving of hardlinks (`-H`).
835 The only exception to the above equivalence is when [`--files-from`](#opt)
836 is specified, in which case [`-r`](#opt) is not implied.
840 You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name
841 with "no-". Not all positive options have a negated opposite, but a lot
842 do, including those that can be used to disable an implied option (e.g.
843 `--no-D`, `--no-perms`) or have different defaults in various circumstances
844 (e.g. [`--no-whole-file`](#opt), `--no-blocking-io`, `--no-dirs`). Every
845 valid negated option accepts both the short and the long option name after
846 the "no-" prefix (e.g. `--no-R` is the same as `--no-relative`).
848 As an example, if you want to use [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) but don't want
849 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`), instead of converting `-a` into `-rlptgD`, you
850 can specify `-a --no-o` (aka `--archive --no-owner`).
852 The order of the options is important: if you specify `--no-r -a`, the `-r`
853 option would end up being turned on, the opposite of `-a --no-r`. Note
854 also that the side-effects of the [`--files-from`](#opt) option are NOT
855 positional, as it affects the default state of several options and slightly
856 changes the meaning of [`-a`](#opt) (see the [`--files-from`](#opt) option
859 0. `--recursive`, `-r`
861 This tells rsync to copy directories recursively. See also
862 [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) for an option that allows the scanning of a single
865 See the [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) option for a discussion of the
866 incremental recursion for creating the list of files to transfer.
868 0. `--inc-recursive`, `--i-r`
870 This option explicitly enables on incremental recursion when scanning for
871 files, which is enabled by default when using the [`--recursive`](#opt)
872 option and both sides of the transfer are running rsync 3.0.0 or newer.
874 Incremental recursion uses much less memory than non-incremental, while
875 also beginning the transfer more quickly (since it doesn't need to scan the
876 entire transfer hierarchy before it starts transferring files). If no
877 recursion is enabled in the source files, this option has no effect.
879 Some options require rsync to know the full file list, so these options
880 disable the incremental recursion mode. These include:
881 - [`--delete-before`](#opt) (the old default of [`--delete`](#opt))
882 - [`--delete-after`](#opt)
883 - [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt)
884 - [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
886 In order to make [`--delete`](#opt) compatible with incremental recursion,
887 rsync 3.0.0 made [`--delete-during`](#opt) the default delete mode (which
888 was first added in 2.6.4).
890 One side-effect of incremental recursion is that any missing
891 sub-directories inside a recursively-scanned directory are (by default)
892 created prior to recursing into the sub-dirs. This earlier creation point
893 (compared to a non-incremental recursion) allows rsync to then set the
894 modify time of the finished directory right away (without having to delay
895 that until a bunch of recursive copying has finished). However, these
896 early directories don't yet have their completed mode, mtime, or ownership
897 set -- they have more restrictive rights until the subdirectory's copying
898 actually begins. This early-creation idiom can be avoided by using the
899 [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option.
901 Incremental recursion can be disabled using the
902 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) (`--no-i-r`) option.
904 0. `--no-inc-recursive`, `--no-i-r`
906 Disables the new incremental recursion algorithm of the
907 [`--recursive`](#opt) option. This makes rsync scan the full file list
908 before it begins to transfer files. See [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) for more
911 0. `--relative`, `-R`
913 Use relative paths. This means that the full path names specified on the
914 command line are sent to the server rather than just the last parts of the
915 filenames. This is particularly useful when you want to send several
916 different directories at the same time. For example, if you used this
919 > rsync -av /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
921 would create a file named baz.c in /tmp/ on the remote machine. If instead
924 > rsync -avR /foo/bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
926 then a file named /tmp/foo/bar/baz.c would be created on the remote
927 machine, preserving its full path. These extra path elements are called
928 "implied directories" (i.e. the "foo" and the "foo/bar" directories in the
931 Beginning with rsync 3.0.0, rsync always sends these implied directories as
932 real directories in the file list, even if a path element is really a
933 symlink on the sending side. This prevents some really unexpected behaviors
934 when copying the full path of a file that you didn't realize had a symlink
935 in its path. If you want to duplicate a server-side symlink, include both
936 the symlink via its path, and referent directory via its real path. If
937 you're dealing with an older rsync on the sending side, you may need to use
938 the [`--no-implied-dirs`](#opt) option.
940 It is also possible to limit the amount of path information that is sent as
941 implied directories for each path you specify. With a modern rsync on the
942 sending side (beginning with 2.6.7), you can insert a dot and a slash into
943 the source path, like this:
945 > rsync -avR /foo/./bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/
947 That would create /tmp/bar/baz.c on the remote machine. (Note that the dot
948 must be followed by a slash, so "/foo/." would not be abbreviated.) For
949 older rsync versions, you would need to use a chdir to limit the source
950 path. For example, when pushing files:
952 > (cd /foo; rsync -avR bar/baz.c remote:/tmp/)
954 (Note that the parens put the two commands into a sub-shell, so that the
955 "cd" command doesn't remain in effect for future commands.) If you're
956 pulling files from an older rsync, use this idiom (but only for a
957 non-daemon transfer):
959 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /foo; rsync" \
960 > remote:bar/baz.c /tmp/
962 0. `--no-implied-dirs`
964 This option affects the default behavior of the [`--relative`](#opt) option. When
965 it is specified, the attributes of the implied directories from the source
966 names are not included in the transfer. This means that the corresponding
967 path elements on the destination system are left unchanged if they exist,
968 and any missing implied directories are created with default attributes.
969 This even allows these implied path elements to have big differences, such
970 as being a symlink to a directory on the receiving side.
972 For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
973 transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
974 are implied when [`--relative`](#opt) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to "bar"
975 on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily delete
976 "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into the new
977 directory. With `--no-implied-dirs`, the receiving rsync updates
978 "path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
979 ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
980 preservation is to use the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option (which will also affect
981 symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
983 When pulling files from an rsync older than 3.0.0, you may need to use this
984 option if the sending side has a symlink in the path you request and you
985 wish the implied directories to be transferred as normal directories.
989 With this option, preexisting destination files are renamed as each file is
990 transferred or deleted. You can control where the backup file goes and
991 what (if any) suffix gets appended using the [`--backup-dir`](#opt) and
992 [`--suffix`](#opt) options.
994 If you don't specify [`--backup-dir`](#opt):
996 1. the [`--omit-dir-times`](#opt) option will be forced on
997 2. the use of [`--delete`](#opt) (without [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)),
998 causes rsync to add a "protect" [filter-rule](#FILTER_RULES) for the
999 backup suffix to the end of all your existing filters that looks like
1000 this: `-f "P *~"`. This rule prevents previously backed-up files from
1003 Note that if you are supplying your own filter rules, you may need to
1004 manually insert your own exclude/protect rule somewhere higher up in the
1005 list so that it has a high enough priority to be effective (e.g. if your
1006 rules specify a trailing inclusion/exclusion of `*`, the auto-added rule
1007 would never be reached).
1009 0. `--backup-dir=DIR`
1011 This implies the [`--backup`](#opt) option, and tells rsync to store all
1012 backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used
1013 for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix
1014 using the [`--suffix`](#opt) option (otherwise the files backed up in the
1015 specified directory will keep their original filenames).
1017 Note that if you specify a relative path, the backup directory will be
1018 relative to the destination directory, so you probably want to specify
1019 either an absolute path or a path that starts with "../". If an rsync
1020 daemon is the receiver, the backup dir cannot go outside the module's path
1021 hierarchy, so take extra care not to delete it or copy into it.
1023 0. `--suffix=SUFFIX`
1025 This option allows you to override the default backup suffix used with the
1026 [`--backup`](#opt) (`-b`) option. The default suffix is a `~` if no
1027 [`--backup-dir`](#opt) was specified, otherwise it is an empty string.
1031 This forces rsync to skip any files which exist on the destination and have
1032 a modified time that is newer than the source file. (If an existing
1033 destination file has a modification time equal to the source file's, it
1034 will be updated if the sizes are different.)
1036 Note that this does not affect the copying of dirs, symlinks, or other
1037 special files. Also, a difference of file format between the sender and
1038 receiver is always considered to be important enough for an update, no
1039 matter what date is on the objects. In other words, if the source has a
1040 directory where the destination has a file, the transfer would occur
1041 regardless of the timestamps.
1043 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1044 exclude side effects.
1046 A caution for those that choose to combine [`--inplace`](#opt) with
1047 `--update`: an interrupted transfer will leave behind a partial file on the
1048 receiving side that has a very recent modified time, so re-running the
1049 transfer will probably **not** continue the interrupted file. As such, it
1050 is usually best to avoid combining this with[ `--inplace`](#opt) unless you
1051 have implemented manual steps to handle any interrupted in-progress files.
1055 This option changes how rsync transfers a file when its data needs to be
1056 updated: instead of the default method of creating a new copy of the file
1057 and moving it into place when it is complete, rsync instead writes the
1058 updated data directly to the destination file.
1060 This has several effects:
1062 - Hard links are not broken. This means the new data will be visible
1063 through other hard links to the destination file. Moreover, attempts to
1064 copy differing source files onto a multiply-linked destination file will
1065 result in a "tug of war" with the destination data changing back and
1067 - In-use binaries cannot be updated (either the OS will prevent this from
1068 happening, or binaries that attempt to swap-in their data will misbehave
1070 - The file's data will be in an inconsistent state during the transfer and
1071 will be left that way if the transfer is interrupted or if an update
1073 - A file that rsync cannot write to cannot be updated. While a super user
1074 can update any file, a normal user needs to be granted write permission
1075 for the open of the file for writing to be successful.
1076 - The efficiency of rsync's delta-transfer algorithm may be reduced if some
1077 data in the destination file is overwritten before it can be copied to a
1078 position later in the file. This does not apply if you use [`--backup`](#opt),
1079 since rsync is smart enough to use the backup file as the basis file for
1082 WARNING: you should not use this option to update files that are being
1083 accessed by others, so be careful when choosing to use this for a copy.
1085 This option is useful for transferring large files with block-based changes
1086 or appended data, and also on systems that are disk bound, not network
1087 bound. It can also help keep a copy-on-write filesystem snapshot from
1088 diverging the entire contents of a file that only has minor changes.
1090 The option implies [`--partial`](#opt) (since an interrupted transfer does
1091 not delete the file), but conflicts with [`--partial-dir`](#opt) and
1092 [`--delay-updates`](#opt). Prior to rsync 2.6.4 `--inplace` was also
1093 incompatible with [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
1097 This special copy mode only works to efficiently update files that are
1098 known to be growing larger where any existing content on the receiving side
1099 is also known to be the same as the content on the sender. The use of
1100 `--append` **can be dangerous** if you aren't 100% sure that all the files
1101 in the transfer are shared, growing files. You should thus use filter
1102 rules to ensure that you weed out any files that do not fit this criteria.
1104 Rsync updates these growing file in-place without verifying any of the
1105 existing content in the file (it only verifies the content that it is
1106 appending). Rsync skips any files that exist on the receiving side that
1107 are not shorter than the associated file on the sending side (which means
1108 that new files are transferred). It also skips any files whose size on the
1109 sending side gets shorter during the send negotiations (rsync warns about a
1110 "diminished" file when this happens).
1112 This does not interfere with the updating of a file's non-content
1113 attributes (e.g. permissions, ownership, etc.) when the file does not need
1114 to be transferred, nor does it affect the updating of any directories or
1117 0. `--append-verify`
1119 This special copy mode works like [`--append`](#opt) except that all the
1120 data in the file is included in the checksum verification (making it less
1121 efficient but also potentially safer). This option **can be dangerous** if
1122 you aren't 100% sure that all the files in the transfer are shared, growing
1123 files. See the [`--append`](#opt) option for more details.
1125 Note: prior to rsync 3.0.0, the [`--append`](#opt) option worked like
1126 `--append-verify`, so if you are interacting with an older rsync (or the
1127 transfer is using a protocol prior to 30), specifying either append option
1128 will initiate an `--append-verify` transfer.
1132 Tell the sending side to include any directories that are encountered.
1133 Unlike [`--recursive`](#opt), a directory's contents are not copied unless
1134 the directory name specified is "." or ends with a trailing slash (e.g.
1135 ".", "dir/.", "dir/", etc.). Without this option or the
1136 [`--recursive`](#opt) option, rsync will skip all directories it encounters
1137 (and output a message to that effect for each one). If you specify both
1138 `--dirs` and [`--recursive`](#opt), `--recursive` takes precedence.
1140 The `--dirs` option is implied by the [`--files-from`](#opt) option or the
1141 [`--list-only`](#opt) option (including an implied [`--list-only`](#opt)
1142 usage) if [`--recursive`](#opt) wasn't specified (so that directories are
1143 seen in the listing). Specify `--no-dirs` (or `--no-d`) if you want to
1146 There is also a backward-compatibility helper option, `--old-dirs`
1147 (`--old-d`) that tells rsync to use a hack of `-r --exclude='/*/*'` to get
1148 an older rsync to list a single directory without recursing.
1152 Create all missing path components of the destination path.
1154 By default, rsync allows only the final component of the destination path
1155 to not exist, which is an attempt to help you to validate your destination
1156 path. With this option, rsync creates all the missing destination-path
1157 components, just as if `mkdir -p $DEST_PATH` had been run on the receiving
1160 When specifying a destination path, including a trailing slash ensures that
1161 the whole path is treated as directory names to be created, even when the
1162 file list has a single item. See the [COPYING TO A DIFFERENT NAME](#)
1163 section for full details on how rsync decides if a final destination-path
1164 component should be created as a directory or not.
1166 If you would like the newly-created destination dirs to match the dirs on
1167 the sending side, you should be using [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) instead
1168 of `--mkpath`. For instance, the following two commands result in the same
1169 destination tree, but only the second command ensures that the
1170 "some/extra/path" components match the dirs on the sending side:
1172 > rsync -ai --mkpath host:some/extra/path/*.c some/extra/path/
1173 > rsync -aiR host:some/extra/path/*.c ./
1177 Add symlinks to the transferred files instead of noisily ignoring them with
1178 a "non-regular file" warning for each symlink encountered. You can
1179 alternately silence the warning by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1181 The default handling of symlinks is to recreate each symlink's unchanged
1182 value on the receiving side.
1184 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1186 0. `--copy-links`, `-L`
1188 The sender transforms each symlink encountered in the transfer into the
1189 referent item, following the symlink chain to the file or directory that it
1190 references. If a symlink chain is broken, an error is output and the file
1191 is dropped from the transfer.
1193 This option supersedes any other options that affect symlinks in the
1194 transfer, since there are no symlinks left in the transfer.
1196 This option does not change the handling of existing symlinks on the
1197 receiving side, unlike versions of rsync prior to 2.6.3 which had the
1198 side-effect of telling the receiving side to also follow symlinks. A
1199 modern rsync won't forward this option to a remote receiver (since only the
1200 sender needs to know about it), so this caveat should only affect someone
1201 using an rsync client older than 2.6.7 (which is when `-L` stopped being
1202 forwarded to the receiver).
1204 See the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) (`-K`) if you need a symlink to a
1205 directory to be treated as a real directory on the receiving side.
1207 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1209 0. `--copy-unsafe-links`
1211 This tells rsync to copy the referent of symbolic links that point outside
1212 the copied tree. Absolute symlinks are also treated like ordinary files,
1213 and so are any symlinks in the source path itself when [`--relative`](#opt)
1216 Note that the cut-off point is the top of the transfer, which is the part
1217 of the path that rsync isn't mentioning in the verbose output. If you copy
1218 "/src/subdir" to "/dest/" then the "subdir" directory is a name inside the
1219 transfer tree, not the top of the transfer (which is /src) so it is legal
1220 for created relative symlinks to refer to other names inside the /src and
1221 /dest directories. If you instead copy "/src/subdir/" (with a trailing
1222 slash) to "/dest/subdir" that would not allow symlinks to any files outside
1225 Note that safe symlinks are only copied if [`--links`](#opt) was also
1226 specified or implied. The `--copy-unsafe-links` option has no extra effect
1227 when combined with [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1229 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1233 This tells the receiving rsync to ignore any symbolic links in the transfer
1234 which point outside the copied tree. All absolute symlinks are also
1237 Since this ignoring is happening on the receiving side, it will still be
1238 effective even when the sending side has munged symlinks (when it is using
1239 [`--munge-links`](#opt)). It also affects deletions, since the file being
1240 present in the transfer prevents any matching file on the receiver from
1241 being deleted when the symlink is deemed to be unsafe and is skipped.
1243 This option must be combined with [`--links`](#opt) (or
1244 [`--archive`](#opt)) to have any symlinks in the transfer to conditionally
1245 ignore. Its effect is superseded by [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt).
1247 Using this option in conjunction with [`--relative`](#opt) may give
1250 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1254 This option affects just one side of the transfer and tells rsync to munge
1255 symlink values when it is receiving files or unmunge symlink values when it
1256 is sending files. The munged values make the symlinks unusable on disk but
1257 allows the original contents of the symlinks to be recovered.
1259 The server-side rsync often enables this option without the client's
1260 knowledge, such as in an rsync daemon's configuration file or by an option
1261 given to the rrsync (restricted rsync) script. When specified on the
1262 client side, specify the option normally if it is the client side that
1263 has/needs the munged symlinks, or use `-M--munge-links` to give the option
1264 to the server when it has/needs the munged symlinks. Note that on a local
1265 transfer, the client is the sender, so specifying the option directly
1266 unmunges symlinks while specifying it as a remote option munges symlinks.
1268 This option has no effect when sent to a daemon via [`--remote-option`](#opt)
1269 because the daemon configures whether it wants munged symlinks via its
1270 "`munge symlinks`" parameter.
1272 The symlink value is munged/unmunged once it is in the transfer, so any
1273 option that transforms symlinks into non-symlinks occurs prior to the
1274 munging/unmunging **except** for [`--safe-links`](#opt), which is a choice
1275 that the receiver makes, so it bases its decision on the munged/unmunged
1276 value. This does mean that if a receiver has munging enabled, that using
1277 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause all symlinks to be ignored (since they
1280 The method that rsync uses to munge the symlinks is to prefix each one's
1281 value with the string "/rsyncd-munged/". This prevents the links from
1282 being used as long as the directory does not exist. When this option is
1283 enabled, rsync will refuse to run if that path is a directory or a symlink
1284 to a directory (though it only checks at startup). See also the
1285 "munge-symlinks" python script in the support directory of the source code
1286 for a way to munge/unmunge one or more symlinks in-place.
1288 0. `--copy-dirlinks`, `-k`
1290 This option causes the sending side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1291 though it were a real directory. This is useful if you don't want symlinks
1292 to non-directories to be affected, as they would be using
1293 [`--copy-links`](#opt).
1295 Without this option, if the sending side has replaced a directory with a
1296 symlink to a directory, the receiving side will delete anything that is in
1297 the way of the new symlink, including a directory hierarchy (as long as
1298 [`--force`](#opt) or [`--delete`](#opt) is in effect).
1300 See also [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the
1303 `--copy-dirlinks` applies to all symlinks to directories in the source. If
1304 you want to follow only a few specified symlinks, a trick you can use is to
1305 pass them as additional source args with a trailing slash, using
1306 [`--relative`](#opt) to make the paths match up right. For example:
1308 > rsync -r --relative src/./ src/./follow-me/ dest/
1310 This works because rsync calls **lstat**(2) on the source arg as given, and
1311 the trailing slash makes **lstat**(2) follow the symlink, giving rise to a
1312 directory in the file-list which overrides the symlink found during the
1315 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1317 0. `--keep-dirlinks`, `-K`
1319 This option causes the receiving side to treat a symlink to a directory as
1320 though it were a real directory, but only if it matches a real directory
1321 from the sender. Without this option, the receiver's symlink would be
1322 deleted and replaced with a real directory.
1324 For example, suppose you transfer a directory "foo" that contains a file
1325 "file", but "foo" is a symlink to directory "bar" on the receiver. Without
1326 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver deletes symlink "foo", recreates it as a
1327 directory, and receives the file into the new directory. With
1328 `--keep-dirlinks`, the receiver keeps the symlink and "file" ends up in
1331 One note of caution: if you use `--keep-dirlinks`, you must trust all the
1332 symlinks in the copy or enable the [`--munge-links`](#opt) option on the
1333 receiving side! If it is possible for an untrusted user to create their
1334 own symlink to any real directory, the user could then (on a subsequent
1335 copy) replace the symlink with a real directory and affect the content of
1336 whatever directory the symlink references. For backup copies, you are
1337 better off using something like a bind mount instead of a symlink to modify
1338 your receiving hierarchy.
1340 See also [`--copy-dirlinks`](#opt) for an analogous option for the sending
1343 See the [SYMBOLIC LINKS](#) section for multi-option info.
1345 0. `--hard-links`, `-H`
1347 This tells rsync to look for hard-linked files in the source and link
1348 together the corresponding files on the destination. Without this option,
1349 hard-linked files in the source are treated as though they were separate
1352 This option does NOT necessarily ensure that the pattern of hard links on
1353 the destination exactly matches that on the source. Cases in which the
1354 destination may end up with extra hard links include the following:
1356 - If the destination contains extraneous hard-links (more linking than what
1357 is present in the source file list), the copying algorithm will not break
1358 them explicitly. However, if one or more of the paths have content
1359 differences, the normal file-update process will break those extra links
1360 (unless you are using the [`--inplace`](#opt) option).
1361 - If you specify a [`--link-dest`](#opt) directory that contains hard
1362 links, the linking of the destination files against the
1363 [`--link-dest`](#opt) files can cause some paths in the destination to
1364 become linked together due to the [`--link-dest`](#opt) associations.
1366 Note that rsync can only detect hard links between files that are inside
1367 the transfer set. If rsync updates a file that has extra hard-link
1368 connections to files outside the transfer, that linkage will be broken. If
1369 you are tempted to use the [`--inplace`](#opt) option to avoid this breakage, be
1370 very careful that you know how your files are being updated so that you are
1371 certain that no unintended changes happen due to lingering hard links (and
1372 see the [`--inplace`](#opt) option for more caveats).
1374 If incremental recursion is active (see [`--inc-recursive`](#opt)), rsync
1375 may transfer a missing hard-linked file before it finds that another link
1376 for that contents exists elsewhere in the hierarchy. This does not affect
1377 the accuracy of the transfer (i.e. which files are hard-linked together),
1378 just its efficiency (i.e. copying the data for a new, early copy of a
1379 hard-linked file that could have been found later in the transfer in
1380 another member of the hard-linked set of files). One way to avoid this
1381 inefficiency is to disable incremental recursion using the
1382 [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) option.
1386 This option causes the receiving rsync to set the destination permissions
1387 to be the same as the source permissions. (See also the [`--chmod`](#opt)
1388 option for a way to modify what rsync considers to be the source
1391 When this option is _off_, permissions are set as follows:
1393 - Existing files (including updated files) retain their existing
1394 permissions, though the [`--executability`](#opt) option might change
1395 just the execute permission for the file.
1396 - New files get their "normal" permission bits set to the source file's
1397 permissions masked with the receiving directory's default permissions
1398 (either the receiving process's umask, or the permissions specified via
1399 the destination directory's default ACL), and their special permission
1400 bits disabled except in the case where a new directory inherits a setgid
1401 bit from its parent directory.
1403 Thus, when `--perms` and [`--executability`](#opt) are both disabled, rsync's
1404 behavior is the same as that of other file-copy utilities, such as **cp**(1)
1407 In summary: to give destination files (both old and new) the source
1408 permissions, use `--perms`. To give new files the destination-default
1409 permissions (while leaving existing files unchanged), make sure that the
1410 `--perms` option is off and use [`--chmod=ugo=rwX`](#opt) (which ensures
1411 that all non-masked bits get enabled). If you'd care to make this latter
1412 behavior easier to type, you could define a popt alias for it, such as
1413 putting this line in the file `~/.popt` (the following defines the `-Z`
1414 option, and includes `--no-g` to use the default group of the destination
1417 > rsync alias -Z --no-p --no-g --chmod=ugo=rwX
1419 You could then use this new option in a command such as this one:
1421 > rsync -avZ src/ dest/
1423 (Caveat: make sure that `-a` does not follow `-Z`, or it will re-enable the
1424 two `--no-*` options mentioned above.)
1426 The preservation of the destination's setgid bit on newly-created
1427 directories when `--perms` is off was added in rsync 2.6.7. Older rsync
1428 versions erroneously preserved the three special permission bits for
1429 newly-created files when `--perms` was off, while overriding the
1430 destination's setgid bit setting on a newly-created directory. Default ACL
1431 observance was added to the ACL patch for rsync 2.6.7, so older (or
1432 non-ACL-enabled) rsyncs use the umask even if default ACLs are present.
1433 (Keep in mind that it is the version of the receiving rsync that affects
1436 0. `--executability`, `-E`
1438 This option causes rsync to preserve the executability (or
1439 non-executability) of regular files when [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1440 A regular file is considered to be executable if at least one 'x' is turned
1441 on in its permissions. When an existing destination file's executability
1442 differs from that of the corresponding source file, rsync modifies the
1443 destination file's permissions as follows:
1445 - To make a file non-executable, rsync turns off all its 'x' permissions.
1446 - To make a file executable, rsync turns on each 'x' permission that has a
1447 corresponding 'r' permission enabled.
1449 If [`--perms`](#opt) is enabled, this option is ignored.
1453 This option causes rsync to update the destination ACLs to be the same as
1454 the source ACLs. The option also implies [`--perms`](#opt).
1456 The source and destination systems must have compatible ACL entries for
1457 this option to work properly. See the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option for a
1458 way to backup and restore ACLs that are not compatible.
1462 This option causes rsync to update the destination extended attributes to
1463 be the same as the source ones.
1465 For systems that support extended-attribute namespaces, a copy being done
1466 by a super-user copies all namespaces except system.\*. A normal user only
1467 copies the user.\* namespace. To be able to backup and restore non-user
1468 namespaces as a normal user, see the [`--fake-super`](#opt) option.
1470 The above name filtering can be overridden by using one or more filter
1471 options with the **x** modifier. When you specify an xattr-affecting
1472 filter rule, rsync requires that you do your own system/user filtering, as
1473 well as any additional filtering for what xattr names are copied and what
1474 names are allowed to be deleted. For example, to skip the system
1475 namespace, you could specify:
1477 > --filter='-x system.*'
1479 To skip all namespaces except the user namespace, you could specify a
1482 > --filter='-x! user.*'
1484 To prevent any attributes from being deleted, you could specify a
1485 receiver-only rule that excludes all names:
1489 Note that the `-X` option does not copy rsync's special xattr values (e.g.
1490 those used by [`--fake-super`](#opt)) unless you repeat the option (e.g. `-XX`).
1491 This "copy all xattrs" mode cannot be used with [`--fake-super`](#opt).
1495 This option tells rsync to apply one or more comma-separated "chmod" modes
1496 to the permission of the files in the transfer. The resulting value is
1497 treated as though it were the permissions that the sending side supplied
1498 for the file, which means that this option can seem to have no effect on
1499 existing files if [`--perms`](#opt) is not enabled.
1501 In addition to the normal parsing rules specified in the **chmod**(1)
1502 manpage, you can specify an item that should only apply to a directory by
1503 prefixing it with a 'D', or specify an item that should only apply to a
1504 file by prefixing it with a 'F'. For example, the following will ensure
1505 that all directories get marked set-gid, that no files are other-writable,
1506 that both are user-writable and group-writable, and that both have
1507 consistent executability across all bits:
1509 > --chmod=Dg+s,ug+w,Fo-w,+X
1511 Using octal mode numbers is also allowed:
1513 > --chmod=D2775,F664
1515 It is also legal to specify multiple `--chmod` options, as each additional
1516 option is just appended to the list of changes to make.
1518 See the [`--perms`](#opt) and [`--executability`](#opt) options for how the
1519 resulting permission value can be applied to the files in the transfer.
1523 This option causes rsync to set the owner of the destination file to be the
1524 same as the source file, but only if the receiving rsync is being run as
1525 the super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
1526 options). Without this option, the owner of new and/or transferred files
1527 are set to the invoking user on the receiving side.
1529 The preservation of ownership will associate matching names by default, but
1530 may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances (see also the
1531 [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1535 This option causes rsync to set the group of the destination file to be the
1536 same as the source file. If the receiving program is not running as the
1537 super-user (or if `--no-super` was specified), only groups that the
1538 invoking user on the receiving side is a member of will be preserved.
1539 Without this option, the group is set to the default group of the invoking
1540 user on the receiving side.
1542 The preservation of group information will associate matching names by
1543 default, but may fall back to using the ID number in some circumstances
1544 (see also the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option for a full discussion).
1548 This option causes rsync to transfer character and block device files to
1549 the remote system to recreate these devices. If the receiving rsync is not
1550 being run as the super-user, rsync silently skips creating the device files
1551 (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1553 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each device
1554 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1555 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1559 This option causes rsync to transfer special files, such as named sockets
1560 and fifos. If the receiving rsync is not being run as the super-user,
1561 rsync silently skips creating the special files (see also the
1562 [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) options).
1564 By default, rsync generates a "non-regular file" warning for each special
1565 file encountered when this option is not set. You can silence the warning
1566 by specifying [`--info=nonreg0`](#opt).
1570 The `-D` option is equivalent to "[`--devices`](#opt)
1571 [`--specials`](#opt)".
1575 This tells rsync to treat a device on the sending side as a regular file,
1576 allowing it to be copied to a normal destination file (or another device
1577 if `--write-devices` was also specified).
1579 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1581 0. `--write-devices`
1583 This tells rsync to treat a device on the receiving side as a regular file,
1584 allowing the writing of file data into a device.
1586 This option implies the [`--inplace`](#opt) option.
1588 Be careful using this, as you should know what devices are present on the
1589 receiving side of the transfer, especially when running rsync as root.
1591 This option is refused by default by an rsync daemon.
1595 This tells rsync to transfer modification times along with the files and
1596 update them on the remote system. Note that if this option is not used,
1597 the optimization that excludes files that have not been modified cannot be
1598 effective; in other words, a missing `-t` (or [`-a`](#opt)) will cause the
1599 next transfer to behave as if it used [`--ignore-times`](#opt) (`-I`),
1600 causing all files to be updated (though rsync's delta-transfer algorithm
1601 will make the update fairly efficient if the files haven't actually
1602 changed, you're much better off using `-t`).
1604 A modern rsync that is using transfer protocol 30 or 31 conveys a modify
1605 time using up to 8-bytes. If rsync is forced to speak an older protocol
1606 (perhaps due to the remote rsync being older than 3.0.0) a modify time is
1607 conveyed using 4-bytes. Prior to 3.2.7, these shorter values could convey
1608 a date range of 13-Dec-1901 to 19-Jan-2038. Beginning with 3.2.7, these
1609 4-byte values now convey a date range of 1-Jan-1970 to 7-Feb-2106. If you
1610 have files dated older than 1970, make sure your rsync executables are
1611 upgraded so that the full range of dates can be conveyed.
1615 This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination files to
1616 the same value as the source files.
1618 If repeated, it also sets the [`--open-noatime`](#opt) option, which can help you
1619 to make the sending and receiving systems have the same access times on the
1620 transferred files without needing to run rsync an extra time after a file
1623 Note that some older rsync versions (prior to 3.2.0) may have been built
1624 with a pre-release `--atimes` patch that does not imply
1625 [`--open-noatime`](#opt) when this option is repeated.
1629 This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag (on systems that
1630 support it) to avoid changing the access time of the files that are being
1631 transferred. If your OS does not support the O_NOATIME flag then rsync
1632 will silently ignore this option. Note also that some filesystems are
1633 mounted to avoid updating the atime on read access even without the
1634 O_NOATIME flag being set.
1636 0. `--crtimes`, `-N,`
1638 This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the destination
1639 files to the same value as the source files. Your OS & filesystem must
1640 support the setting of arbitrary creation (birth) times for this option
1643 0. `--omit-dir-times`, `-O`
1645 This tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modification,
1646 access, and create times. If NFS is sharing the directories on the receiving
1647 side, it is a good idea to use `-O`. This option is inferred if you use
1648 [`--backup`](#opt) without [`--backup-dir`](#opt).
1650 This option also has the side-effect of avoiding early creation of missing
1651 sub-directories when incremental recursion is enabled, as discussed in the
1652 [`--inc-recursive`](#opt) section.
1654 0. `--omit-link-times`, `-J`
1656 This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modification,
1657 access, and create times.
1661 This tells the receiving side to attempt super-user activities even if the
1662 receiving rsync wasn't run by the super-user. These activities include:
1663 preserving users via the [`--owner`](#opt) option, preserving all groups
1664 (not just the current user's groups) via the [`--group`](#opt) option, and
1665 copying devices via the [`--devices`](#opt) option. This is useful for
1666 systems that allow such activities without being the super-user, and also
1667 for ensuring that you will get errors if the receiving side isn't being run
1668 as the super-user. To turn off super-user activities, the super-user can
1673 When this option is enabled, rsync simulates super-user activities by
1674 saving/restoring the privileged attributes via special extended attributes
1675 that are attached to each file (as needed). This includes the file's owner
1676 and group (if it is not the default), the file's device info (device &
1677 special files are created as empty text files), and any permission bits
1678 that we won't allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets
1679 u-s,g-s,o-t for safety) or that would limit the owner's access (since the
1680 real super-user can always access/change a file, the files we create can
1681 always be accessed/changed by the creating user). This option also handles
1682 ACLs (if [`--acls`](#opt) was specified) and non-user extended attributes
1683 (if [`--xattrs`](#opt) was specified).
1685 This is a good way to backup data without using a super-user, and to store
1686 ACLs from incompatible systems.
1688 The `--fake-super` option only affects the side where the option is used.
1689 To affect the remote side of a remote-shell connection, use the
1690 [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`) option:
1692 > rsync -av -M--fake-super /src/ host:/dest/
1694 For a local copy, this option affects both the source and the destination.
1695 If you wish a local copy to enable this option just for the destination
1696 files, specify `-M--fake-super`. If you wish a local copy to enable this
1697 option just for the source files, combine `--fake-super` with `-M--super`.
1699 This option is overridden by both [`--super`](#opt) and `--no-super`.
1701 See also the [`fake super`](rsyncd.conf.5#fake_super) setting in the
1702 daemon's rsyncd.conf file.
1706 Try to handle sparse files efficiently so they take up less space on the
1707 destination. If combined with [`--inplace`](#opt) the file created might
1708 not end up with sparse blocks with some combinations of kernel version
1709 and/or filesystem type. If [`--whole-file`](#opt) is in effect (e.g. for a
1710 local copy) then it will always work because rsync truncates the file prior
1711 to writing out the updated version.
1713 Note that versions of rsync older than 3.1.3 will reject the combination of
1714 `--sparse` and [`--inplace`](#opt).
1718 This tells the receiver to allocate each destination file to its eventual
1719 size before writing data to the file. Rsync will only use the real
1720 filesystem-level preallocation support provided by Linux's **fallocate**(2)
1721 system call or Cygwin's **posix_fallocate**(3), not the slow glibc
1722 implementation that writes a null byte into each block.
1724 Without this option, larger files may not be entirely contiguous on the
1725 filesystem, but with this option rsync will probably copy more slowly. If
1726 the destination is not an extent-supporting filesystem (such as ext4, xfs,
1727 NTFS, etc.), this option may have no positive effect at all.
1729 If combined with [`--sparse`](#opt), the file will only have sparse blocks
1730 (as opposed to allocated sequences of null bytes) if the kernel version and
1731 filesystem type support creating holes in the allocated data.
1733 0. `--dry-run`, `-n`
1735 This makes rsync perform a trial run that doesn't make any changes (and
1736 produces mostly the same output as a real run). It is most commonly used
1737 in combination with the [`--verbose`](#opt) (`-v`) and/or
1738 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) (`-i`) options to see what an rsync command is
1739 going to do before one actually runs it.
1741 The output of [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) is supposed to be exactly the
1742 same on a dry run and a subsequent real run (barring intentional trickery
1743 and system call failures); if it isn't, that's a bug. Other output should
1744 be mostly unchanged, but may differ in some areas. Notably, a dry run does
1745 not send the actual data for file transfers, so [`--progress`](#opt) has no
1746 effect, the "bytes sent", "bytes received", "literal data", and "matched
1747 data" statistics are too small, and the "speedup" value is equivalent to a
1748 run where no file transfers were needed.
1750 0. `--whole-file`, `-W`
1752 This option disables rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which causes all
1753 transferred files to be sent whole. The transfer may be faster if this
1754 option is used when the bandwidth between the source and destination
1755 machines is higher than the bandwidth to disk (especially when the "disk"
1756 is actually a networked filesystem). This is the default when both the
1757 source and destination are specified as local paths, but only if no
1758 batch-writing option is in effect.
1760 0. `--no-whole-file`, `--no-W`
1762 Disable whole-file updating when it is enabled by default for a local
1763 transfer. This usually slows rsync down, but it can be useful if you are
1764 trying to minimize the writes to the destination file (if combined with
1765 [`--inplace`](#opt)) or for testing the checksum-based update algorithm.
1767 See also the [`--whole-file`](#opt) option.
1769 0. `--checksum-choice=STR`, `--cc=STR`
1771 This option overrides the checksum algorithms. If one algorithm name is
1772 specified, it is used for both the transfer checksums and (assuming
1773 [`--checksum`](#opt) is specified) the pre-transfer checksums. If two
1774 comma-separated names are supplied, the first name affects the transfer
1775 checksums, and the second name affects the pre-transfer checksums (`-c`).
1777 The checksum options that you may be able to use are:
1779 - `auto` (the default automatic choice)
1782 - `xxh64` (aka `xxhash`)
1788 Run `rsync --version` to see the default checksum list compiled into your
1789 version (which may differ from the list above).
1791 If "none" is specified for the first (or only) name, the [`--whole-file`](#opt)
1792 option is forced on and no checksum verification is performed on the
1793 transferred data. If "none" is specified for the second (or only) name,
1794 the [`--checksum`](#opt) option cannot be used.
1796 The "auto" option is the default, where rsync bases its algorithm choice on
1797 a negotiation between the client and the server as follows:
1799 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
1800 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
1801 of choices. If no common checksum choice is found, rsync exits with
1802 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
1803 a value is chosen based on the protocol version (which chooses between MD5
1804 and various flavors of MD4 based on protocol age).
1806 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
1807 [`RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable checksum
1808 names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is separated into the
1809 "client string & server string", otherwise the same string applies to both.
1810 If the string (or string portion) contains no non-whitespace characters,
1811 the default checksum list is used. This method does not allow you to
1812 specify the transfer checksum separately from the pre-transfer checksum,
1813 and it discards "auto" and all unknown checksum names. A list with only
1814 invalid names results in a failed negotiation.
1816 The use of the `--checksum-choice` option overrides this environment list.
1818 0. `--one-file-system`, `-x`
1820 This tells rsync to avoid crossing a filesystem boundary when recursing.
1821 This does not limit the user's ability to specify items to copy from
1822 multiple filesystems, just rsync's recursion through the hierarchy of each
1823 directory that the user specified, and also the analogous recursion on the
1824 receiving side during deletion. Also keep in mind that rsync treats a
1825 "bind" mount to the same device as being on the same filesystem.
1827 If this option is repeated, rsync omits all mount-point directories from
1828 the copy. Otherwise, it includes an empty directory at each mount-point it
1829 encounters (using the attributes of the mounted directory because those of
1830 the underlying mount-point directory are inaccessible).
1832 If rsync has been told to collapse symlinks (via [`--copy-links`](#opt) or
1833 [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt)), a symlink to a directory on another device
1834 is treated like a mount-point. Symlinks to non-directories are unaffected
1837 0. `--ignore-non-existing`, `--existing`
1839 This tells rsync to skip creating files (including directories) that do not
1840 exist yet on the destination. If this option is combined with the
1841 [`--ignore-existing`](#opt) option, no files will be updated (which can be
1842 useful if all you want to do is delete extraneous files).
1844 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1845 exclude side effects.
1847 0. `--ignore-existing`
1849 This tells rsync to skip updating files that already exist on the
1850 destination (this does _not_ ignore existing directories, or nothing would
1851 get done). See also [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt).
1853 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
1854 exclude side effects.
1856 This option can be useful for those doing backups using the
1857 [`--link-dest`](#opt) option when they need to continue a backup run that
1858 got interrupted. Since a [`--link-dest`](#opt) run is copied into a new
1859 directory hierarchy (when it is used properly), using [`--ignore-existing`
1860 will ensure that the already-handled files don't get tweaked (which avoids
1861 a change in permissions on the hard-linked files). This does mean that
1862 this option is only looking at the existing files in the destination
1865 When [`--info=skip2`](#opt) is used rsync will output "FILENAME exists
1866 (INFO)" messages where the INFO indicates one of "type change", "sum
1867 change" (requires [`-c`](#opt)), "file change" (based on the quick check),
1868 "attr change", or "uptodate". Using [`--info=skip1`](#opt) (which is also
1869 implied by 2 [`-v`](#opt) options) outputs the exists message without the
1872 0. `--remove-source-files`
1874 This tells rsync to remove from the sending side the files (meaning
1875 non-directories) that are a part of the transfer and have been successfully
1876 duplicated on the receiving side.
1878 Note that you should only use this option on source files that are
1879 quiescent. If you are using this to move files that show up in a
1880 particular directory over to another host, make sure that the finished
1881 files get renamed into the source directory, not directly written into it,
1882 so that rsync can't possibly transfer a file that is not yet fully written.
1883 If you can't first write the files into a different directory, you should
1884 use a naming idiom that lets rsync avoid transferring files that are not
1885 yet finished (e.g. name the file "foo.new" when it is written, rename it to
1886 "foo" when it is done, and then use the option [`--exclude='*.new'`](#opt)
1887 for the rsync transfer).
1889 Starting with 3.1.0, rsync will skip the sender-side removal (and output an
1890 error) if the file's size or modify time has not stayed unchanged.
1892 Starting with 3.2.6, a local rsync copy will ensure that the sender does
1893 not remove a file the receiver just verified, such as when the user
1894 accidentally makes the source and destination directory the same path.
1898 This tells rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving side (ones
1899 that aren't on the sending side), but only for the directories that are
1900 being synchronized. You must have asked rsync to send the whole directory
1901 (e.g. "`dir`" or "`dir/`") without using a wildcard for the directory's
1902 contents (e.g. "`dir/*`") since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and
1903 rsync thus gets a request to transfer individual files, not the files'
1904 parent directory. Files that are excluded from the transfer are also
1905 excluded from being deleted unless you use the [`--delete-excluded`](#opt)
1906 option or mark the rules as only matching on the sending side (see the
1907 include/exclude modifiers in the [FILTER RULES](#) section).
1909 Prior to rsync 2.6.7, this option would have no effect unless
1910 [`--recursive`](#opt) was enabled. Beginning with 2.6.7, deletions will
1911 also occur when [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) is enabled, but only for
1912 directories whose contents are being copied.
1914 This option can be dangerous if used incorrectly! It is a very good idea to
1915 first try a run using the [`--dry-run`](#opt) (`-n`) option to see what
1916 files are going to be deleted.
1918 If the sending side detects any I/O errors, then the deletion of any files
1919 at the destination will be automatically disabled. This is to prevent
1920 temporary filesystem failures (such as NFS errors) on the sending side from
1921 causing a massive deletion of files on the destination. You can override
1922 this with the [`--ignore-errors`](#opt) option.
1924 The `--delete` option may be combined with one of the --delete-WHEN options
1925 without conflict, as well as [`--delete-excluded`](#opt). However, if none
1926 of the `--delete-WHEN` options are specified, rsync will choose the
1927 [`--delete-during`](#opt) algorithm when talking to rsync 3.0.0 or newer,
1928 or the [`--delete-before`](#opt) algorithm when talking to an older rsync.
1929 See also [`--delete-delay`](#opt) and [`--delete-after`](#opt).
1931 0. `--delete-before`
1933 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done before the
1934 transfer starts. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1935 details on file-deletion.
1937 Deleting before the transfer is helpful if the filesystem is tight for
1938 space and removing extraneous files would help to make the transfer
1939 possible. However, it does introduce a delay before the start of the
1940 transfer, and this delay might cause the transfer to timeout (if
1941 [`--timeout`](#opt) was specified). It also forces rsync to use the old,
1942 non-incremental recursion algorithm that requires rsync to scan all the
1943 files in the transfer into memory at once (see [`--recursive`](#opt)).
1945 0. `--delete-during`, `--del`
1947 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done incrementally
1948 as the transfer happens. The per-directory delete scan is done right
1949 before each directory is checked for updates, so it behaves like a more
1950 efficient [`--delete-before`](#opt), including doing the deletions prior to
1951 any per-directory filter files being updated. This option was first added
1952 in rsync version 2.6.4. See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more
1953 details on file-deletion.
1957 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be computed during
1958 the transfer (like [`--delete-during`](#opt)), and then removed after the
1959 transfer completes. This is useful when combined with
1960 [`--delay-updates`](#opt) and/or [`--fuzzy`](#opt), and is more efficient
1961 than using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (but can behave differently, since
1962 [`--delete-after`](#opt) computes the deletions in a separate pass after
1963 all updates are done). If the number of removed files overflows an
1964 internal buffer, a temporary file will be created on the receiving side to
1965 hold the names (it is removed while open, so you shouldn't see it during
1966 the transfer). If the creation of the temporary file fails, rsync will try
1967 to fall back to using [`--delete-after`](#opt) (which it cannot do if
1968 [`--recursive`](#opt) is doing an incremental scan). See
1969 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on file-deletion.
1973 Request that the file-deletions on the receiving side be done after the
1974 transfer has completed. This is useful if you are sending new
1975 per-directory merge files as a part of the transfer and you want their
1976 exclusions to take effect for the delete phase of the current transfer. It
1977 also forces rsync to use the old, non-incremental recursion algorithm that
1978 requires rsync to scan all the files in the transfer into memory at once
1979 (see [`--recursive`](#opt)). See [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for
1980 more details on file-deletion.
1982 See also the [`--delete-delay`](#opt) option that might be a faster choice
1983 for those that just want the deletions to occur at the end of the transfer.
1985 0. `--delete-excluded`
1987 This option turns any unqualified exclude/include rules into server-side
1988 rules that do not affect the receiver's deletions.
1990 By default, an exclude or include has both a server-side effect (to "hide"
1991 and "show" files when building the server's file list) and a receiver-side
1992 effect (to "protect" and "risk" files when deletions are occurring). Any
1993 rule that has no modifier to specify what sides it is executed on will be
1994 instead treated as if it were a server-side rule only, avoiding any
1995 "protect" effects of the rules.
1997 A rule can still apply to both sides even with this option specified if the
1998 rule is given both the sender & receiver modifier letters (e.g., `-f'-sr
1999 foo'`). Receiver-side protect/risk rules can also be explicitly specified
2000 to limit the deletions. This saves you from having to edit a bunch of
2001 `-f'- foo'` rules into `-f'-s foo'` (aka `-f'H foo'`) rules (not to mention
2002 the corresponding includes).
2004 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for more information. See
2005 [`--delete`](#opt) (which is implied) for more details on deletion.
2007 0. `--ignore-missing-args`
2009 When rsync is first processing the explicitly requested source files (e.g.
2010 command-line arguments or [`--files-from`](#opt) entries), it is normally
2011 an error if the file cannot be found. This option suppresses that error,
2012 and does not try to transfer the file. This does not affect subsequent
2013 vanished-file errors if a file was initially found to be present and later
2016 0. `--delete-missing-args`
2018 This option takes the behavior of the (implied)
2019 [`--ignore-missing-args`](#opt) option a step farther: each missing arg
2020 will become a deletion request of the corresponding destination file on the
2021 receiving side (should it exist). If the destination file is a non-empty
2022 directory, it will only be successfully deleted if [`--force`](#opt) or
2023 [`--delete`](#opt) are in effect. Other than that, this option is
2024 independent of any other type of delete processing.
2026 The missing source files are represented by special file-list entries which
2027 display as a "`*missing`" entry in the [`--list-only`](#opt) output.
2029 0. `--ignore-errors`
2031 Tells [`--delete`](#opt) to go ahead and delete files even when there are
2036 This option tells rsync to delete a non-empty directory when it is to be
2037 replaced by a non-directory. This is only relevant if deletions are not
2038 active (see [`--delete`](#opt) for details).
2040 Note for older rsync versions: `--force` used to still be required when
2041 using [`--delete-after`](#opt), and it used to be non-functional unless the
2042 [`--recursive`](#opt) option was also enabled.
2044 0. `--max-delete=NUM`
2046 This tells rsync not to delete more than NUM files or directories. If that
2047 limit is exceeded, all further deletions are skipped through the end of the
2048 transfer. At the end, rsync outputs a warning (including a count of the
2049 skipped deletions) and exits with an error code of 25 (unless some more
2050 important error condition also occurred).
2052 Beginning with version 3.0.0, you may specify `--max-delete=0` to be warned
2053 about any extraneous files in the destination without removing any of them.
2054 Older clients interpreted this as "unlimited", so if you don't know what
2055 version the client is, you can use the less obvious `--max-delete=-1` as a
2056 backward-compatible way to specify that no deletions be allowed (though
2057 really old versions didn't warn when the limit was exceeded).
2059 0. `--max-size=SIZE`
2061 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is larger than the
2062 specified SIZE. A numeric value can be suffixed with a string to indicate
2063 the numeric units or left unqualified to specify bytes. Feel free to use a
2064 fractional value along with the units, such as `--max-size=1.5m`.
2066 This option is a [TRANSFER RULE](#TRANSFER_RULES), so don't expect any
2067 exclude side effects.
2069 The first letter of a units string can be `B` (bytes), `K` (kilo), `M`
2070 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). If the string is a single
2071 char or has "ib" added to it (e.g. "G" or "GiB") then the units are
2072 multiples of 1024. If you use a two-letter suffix that ends with a "B"
2073 (e.g. "kb") then you get units that are multiples of 1000. The string's
2074 letters can be any mix of upper and lower-case that you want to use.
2076 Finally, if the string ends with either "+1" or "-1", it is offset by one
2077 byte in the indicated direction. The largest possible value is usually
2080 Examples: `--max-size=1.5mb-1` is 1499999 bytes, and `--max-size=2g+1` is
2083 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--max-size=0`.
2085 0. `--min-size=SIZE`
2087 This tells rsync to avoid transferring any file that is smaller than the
2088 specified SIZE, which can help in not transferring small, junk files. See
2089 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of SIZE and other info.
2091 Note that rsync versions prior to 3.1.0 did not allow `--min-size=0`.
2093 0. `--max-alloc=SIZE`
2095 By default rsync limits an individual malloc/realloc to about 1GB in size.
2096 For most people this limit works just fine and prevents a protocol error
2097 causing rsync to request massive amounts of memory. However, if you have
2098 many millions of files in a transfer, a large amount of server memory, and
2099 you don't want to split up your transfer into multiple parts, you can
2100 increase the per-allocation limit to something larger and rsync will
2101 consume more memory.
2103 Keep in mind that this is not a limit on the total size of allocated
2104 memory. It is a sanity-check value for each individual allocation.
2106 See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of how SIZE can be
2107 specified. The default suffix if none is given is bytes.
2109 Beginning in 3.2.3, a value of 0 specifies no limit.
2111 You can set a default value using the environment variable
2112 [`RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`](#) using the same SIZE values as supported by this
2113 option. If the remote rsync doesn't understand the `--max-alloc` option,
2114 you can override an environmental value by specifying `--max-alloc=1g`,
2115 which will make rsync avoid sending the option to the remote side (because
2116 "1G" is the default).
2118 0. `--block-size=SIZE`, `-B`
2120 This forces the block size used in rsync's delta-transfer algorithm to a
2121 fixed value. It is normally selected based on the size of each file being
2122 updated. See the technical report for details.
2124 Beginning in 3.2.3 the SIZE can be specified with a suffix as detailed in
2125 the [`--max-size`](#opt) option. Older versions only accepted a byte count.
2127 0. `--rsh=COMMAND`, `-e`
2129 This option allows you to choose an alternative remote shell program to use
2130 for communication between the local and remote copies of rsync. Typically,
2131 rsync is configured to use ssh by default, but you may prefer to use rsh on
2134 If this option is used with `[user@]host::module/path`, then the remote
2135 shell _COMMAND_ will be used to run an rsync daemon on the remote host, and
2136 all data will be transmitted through that remote shell connection, rather
2137 than through a direct socket connection to a running rsync daemon on the
2138 remote host. See the [USING RSYNC-DAEMON FEATURES VIA A REMOTE-SHELL
2139 CONNECTION](#) section above.
2141 Beginning with rsync 3.2.0, the [`RSYNC_PORT`](#) environment variable will
2142 be set when a daemon connection is being made via a remote-shell
2143 connection. It is set to 0 if the default daemon port is being assumed, or
2144 it is set to the value of the rsync port that was specified via either the
2145 [`--port`](#opt) option or a non-empty port value in an `rsync://` URL.
2146 This allows the script to discern if a non-default port is being requested,
2147 allowing for things such as an SSL or stunnel helper script to connect to a
2148 default or alternate port.
2150 Command-line arguments are permitted in COMMAND provided that COMMAND is
2151 presented to rsync as a single argument. You must use spaces (not tabs or
2152 other whitespace) to separate the command and args from each other, and you
2153 can use single- and/or double-quotes to preserve spaces in an argument (but
2154 not backslashes). Note that doubling a single-quote inside a single-quoted
2155 string gives you a single-quote; likewise for double-quotes (though you
2156 need to pay attention to which quotes your shell is parsing and which
2157 quotes rsync is parsing). Some examples:
2160 > -e 'ssh -o "ProxyCommand nohup ssh firewall nc -w1 %h %p"'
2162 (Note that ssh users can alternately customize site-specific connect
2163 options in their .ssh/config file.)
2165 You can also choose the remote shell program using the [`RSYNC_RSH`](#)
2166 environment variable, which accepts the same range of values as `-e`.
2168 See also the [`--blocking-io`](#opt) option which is affected by this
2171 0. `--rsync-path=PROGRAM`
2173 Use this to specify what program is to be run on the remote machine to
2174 start-up rsync. Often used when rsync is not in the default remote-shell's
2175 path (e.g. `--rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync`). Note that PROGRAM is run
2176 with the help of a shell, so it can be any program, script, or command
2177 sequence you'd care to run, so long as it does not corrupt the standard-in
2178 & standard-out that rsync is using to communicate.
2180 One tricky example is to set a different default directory on the remote
2181 machine for use with the [`--relative`](#opt) option. For instance:
2183 > rsync -avR --rsync-path="cd /a/b && rsync" host:c/d /e/
2185 0. `--remote-option=OPTION`, `-M`
2187 This option is used for more advanced situations where you want certain
2188 effects to be limited to one side of the transfer only. For instance, if
2189 you want to pass [`--log-file=FILE`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt) to
2190 the remote system, specify it like this:
2192 > rsync -av -M --log-file=foo -M--fake-super src/ dest/
2194 If you want to have an option affect only the local side of a transfer when
2195 it normally affects both sides, send its negation to the remote side. Like
2198 > rsync -av -x -M--no-x src/ dest/
2200 Be cautious using this, as it is possible to toggle an option that will
2201 cause rsync to have a different idea about what data to expect next over
2202 the socket, and that will make it fail in a cryptic fashion.
2204 Note that you should use a separate `-M` option for each remote option you
2205 want to pass. On older rsync versions, the presence of any spaces in the
2206 remote-option arg could cause it to be split into separate remote args, but
2207 this requires the use of [`--old-args`](#opt) in a modern rsync.
2209 When performing a local transfer, the "local" side is the sender and the
2210 "remote" side is the receiver.
2212 Note some versions of the popt option-parsing library have a bug in them
2213 that prevents you from using an adjacent arg with an equal in it next to a
2214 short option letter (e.g. `-M--log-file=/tmp/foo`). If this bug affects
2215 your version of popt, you can use the version of popt that is included with
2218 0. `--cvs-exclude`, `-C`
2220 This is a useful shorthand for excluding a broad range of files that you
2221 often don't want to transfer between systems. It uses a similar algorithm
2222 to CVS to determine if a file should be ignored.
2224 The exclude list is initialized to exclude the following items (these
2225 initial items are marked as perishable -- see the [FILTER RULES](#)
2228 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-cvsignore.h file.)
2267 then, files listed in a $HOME/.cvsignore are added to the list and any
2268 files listed in the CVSIGNORE environment variable (all cvsignore names are
2269 delimited by whitespace).
2271 Finally, any file is ignored if it is in the same directory as a .cvsignore
2272 file and matches one of the patterns listed therein. Unlike rsync's
2273 filter/exclude files, these patterns are split on whitespace. See the
2274 **cvs**(1) manual for more information.
2276 If you're combining `-C` with your own [`--filter`](#opt) rules, you should
2277 note that these CVS excludes are appended at the end of your own rules,
2278 regardless of where the `-C` was placed on the command-line. This makes
2279 them a lower priority than any rules you specified explicitly. If you want
2280 to control where these CVS excludes get inserted into your filter rules,
2281 you should omit the `-C` as a command-line option and use a combination of
2282 [`--filter=:C`](#opt) and [`--filter=-C`](#opt) (either on your
2283 command-line or by putting the ":C" and "-C" rules into a filter file with
2284 your other rules). The first option turns on the per-directory scanning
2285 for the .cvsignore file. The second option does a one-time import of the
2286 CVS excludes mentioned above.
2288 0. `--filter=RULE`, `-f`
2290 This option allows you to add rules to selectively exclude certain files
2291 from the list of files to be transferred. This is most useful in
2292 combination with a recursive transfer.
2294 You may use as many `--filter` options on the command line as you like to
2295 build up the list of files to exclude. If the filter contains whitespace,
2296 be sure to quote it so that the shell gives the rule to rsync as a single
2297 argument. The text below also mentions that you can use an underscore to
2298 replace the space that separates a rule from its arg.
2300 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2304 The `-F` option is a shorthand for adding two [`--filter`](#opt) rules to
2305 your command. The first time it is used is a shorthand for this rule:
2307 > --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
2309 This tells rsync to look for per-directory .rsync-filter files that have
2310 been sprinkled through the hierarchy and use their rules to filter the
2311 files in the transfer. If `-F` is repeated, it is a shorthand for this
2314 > --filter='exclude .rsync-filter'
2316 This filters out the .rsync-filter files themselves from the transfer.
2318 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on how these
2321 0. `--exclude=PATTERN`
2323 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2324 specifies an exclude rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2325 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'- PATTERN'`.
2327 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2329 0. `--exclude-from=FILE`
2331 This option is related to the [`--exclude`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2332 a FILE that contains exclude patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2333 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2334 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2336 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2337 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2338 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an exclude.
2340 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2341 before adding any further rules.
2343 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2345 0. `--include=PATTERN`
2347 This option is a simplified form of the [`--filter`](#opt) option that
2348 specifies an include rule and does not allow the full rule-parsing syntax
2349 of normal filter rules. This is equivalent to specifying `-f'+ PATTERN'`.
2351 See the [FILTER RULES](#) section for detailed information on this option.
2353 0. `--include-from=FILE`
2355 This option is related to the [`--include`](#opt) option, but it specifies
2356 a FILE that contains include patterns (one per line). Blank lines in the
2357 file are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with '`;`' or '`#`'
2358 (filename rules that contain those characters are unaffected).
2360 If a line begins with "`-Â `" (dash, space) or "`+Â `" (plus, space), then
2361 the type of rule is being explicitly specified as an exclude or an include
2362 (respectively). Any rules without such a prefix are taken to be an include.
2364 If a line consists of just "`!`", then the current filter rules are cleared
2365 before adding any further rules.
2367 If _FILE_ is '`-`', the list will be read from standard input.
2369 0. `--files-from=FILE`
2371 Using this option allows you to specify the exact list of files to transfer
2372 (as read from the specified FILE or '`-`' for standard input). It also
2373 tweaks the default behavior of rsync to make transferring just the
2374 specified files and directories easier:
2376 - The [`--relative`](#opt) (`-R`) option is implied, which preserves the
2377 path information that is specified for each item in the file (use
2378 `--no-relative` or `--no-R` if you want to turn that off).
2379 - The [`--dirs`](#opt) (`-d`) option is implied, which will create
2380 directories specified in the list on the destination rather than noisily
2381 skipping them (use `--no-dirs` or `--no-d` if you want to turn that off).
2382 - The [`--archive`](#opt) (`-a`) option's behavior does not imply
2383 [`--recursive`](#opt) (`-r`), so specify it explicitly, if you want it.
2384 - These side-effects change the default state of rsync, so the position of
2385 the `--files-from` option on the command-line has no bearing on how other
2386 options are parsed (e.g. [`-a`](#opt) works the same before or after
2387 `--files-from`, as does `--no-R` and all other options).
2389 The filenames that are read from the FILE are all relative to the source
2390 dir -- any leading slashes are removed and no ".." references are allowed
2391 to go higher than the source dir. For example, take this command:
2393 > rsync -a --files-from=/tmp/foo /usr remote:/backup
2395 If /tmp/foo contains the string "bin" (or even "/bin"), the /usr/bin
2396 directory will be created as /backup/bin on the remote host. If it
2397 contains "bin/" (note the trailing slash), the immediate contents of the
2398 directory would also be sent (without needing to be explicitly mentioned in
2399 the file -- this began in version 2.6.4). In both cases, if the
2400 [`-r`](#opt) option was enabled, that dir's entire hierarchy would also be
2401 transferred (keep in mind that [`-r`](#opt) needs to be specified
2402 explicitly with `--files-from`, since it is not implied by [`-a`](#opt).
2403 Also note that the effect of the (enabled by default) [`-r`](#opt) option
2404 is to duplicate only the path info that is read from the file -- it does
2405 not force the duplication of the source-spec path (/usr in this case).
2407 In addition, the `--files-from` file can be read from the remote host
2408 instead of the local host if you specify a "host:" in front of the file
2409 (the host must match one end of the transfer). As a short-cut, you can
2410 specify just a prefix of ":" to mean "use the remote end of the transfer".
2413 > rsync -a --files-from=:/path/file-list src:/ /tmp/copy
2415 This would copy all the files specified in the /path/file-list file that
2416 was located on the remote "src" host.
2418 If the [`--iconv`](#opt) and [`--secluded-args`](#opt) options are specified
2419 and the `--files-from` filenames are being sent from one host to another,
2420 the filenames will be translated from the sending host's charset to the
2421 receiving host's charset.
2423 NOTE: sorting the list of files in the `--files-from` input helps rsync to
2424 be more efficient, as it will avoid re-visiting the path elements that are
2425 shared between adjacent entries. If the input is not sorted, some path
2426 elements (implied directories) may end up being scanned multiple times, and
2427 rsync will eventually unduplicate them after they get turned into file-list
2432 This tells rsync that the rules/filenames it reads from a file are
2433 terminated by a null ('\\0') character, not a NL, CR, or CR+LF. This
2434 affects [`--exclude-from`](#opt), [`--include-from`](#opt),
2435 [`--files-from`](#opt), and any merged files specified in a
2436 [`--filter`](#opt) rule. It does not affect [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (since
2437 all names read from a .cvsignore file are split on whitespace).
2441 This option tells rsync to stop trying to protect the arg values on the
2442 remote side from unintended word-splitting or other misinterpretation.
2443 It also allows the client to treat an empty arg as a "." instead of
2444 generating an error.
2446 The default in a modern rsync is for "shell-active" characters (including
2447 spaces) to be backslash-escaped in the args that are sent to the remote
2448 shell. The wildcard characters `*`, `?`, `[`, & `]` are not escaped in
2449 filename args (allowing them to expand into multiple filenames) while being
2450 protected in option args, such as [`--usermap`](#opt).
2452 If you have a script that wants to use old-style arg splitting in its
2453 filenames, specify this option once. If the remote shell has a problem
2454 with any backslash escapes at all, specify this option twice.
2456 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) environment
2457 variable. If it has the value "1", rsync will default to a single-option
2458 setting. If it has the value "2" (or more), rsync will default to a
2459 repeated-option setting. If it is "0", you'll get the default escaping
2460 behavior. The environment is always overridden by manually specified
2461 positive or negative options (the negative is `--no-old-args`).
2463 Note that this option also disables the extra safety check added in 3.2.5
2464 that ensures that a remote sender isn't including extra top-level items in
2465 the file-list that you didn't request. This side-effect is necessary
2466 because we can't know for sure what names to expect when the remote shell
2467 is interpreting the args.
2469 This option conflicts with the [`--secluded-args`](#opt) option.
2471 0. `--secluded-args`, `-s`
2473 This option sends all filenames and most options to the remote rsync via
2474 the protocol (not the remote shell command line) which avoids letting the
2475 remote shell modify them. Wildcards are expanded on the remote host by
2476 rsync instead of a shell.
2478 This is similar to the default backslash-escaping of args that was added
2479 in 3.2.4 (see [`--old-args`](#opt)) in that it prevents things like space
2480 splitting and unwanted special-character side-effects. However, it has the
2481 drawbacks of being incompatible with older rsync versions (prior to 3.0.0)
2482 and of being refused by restricted shells that want to be able to inspect
2483 all the option values for safety.
2485 This option is useful for those times that you need the argument's
2486 character set to be converted for the remote host, if the remote shell is
2487 incompatible with the default backslash-escpaing method, or there is some
2488 other reason that you want the majority of the options and arguments to
2489 bypass the command-line of the remote shell.
2491 If you combine this option with [`--iconv`](#opt), the args related to the
2492 remote side will be translated from the local to the remote character-set.
2493 The translation happens before wild-cards are expanded. See also the
2494 [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
2496 You may also control this setting via the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#)
2497 environment variable. If it has a non-zero value, this setting will be
2498 enabled by default, otherwise it will be disabled by default. Either state
2499 is overridden by a manually specified positive or negative version of this
2500 option (note that `--no-s` and `--no-secluded-args` are the negative
2501 versions). This environment variable is also superseded by a non-zero
2502 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) export.
2504 This option conflicts with the [`--old-args`](#opt) option.
2506 This option used to be called `--protect-args` (before 3.2.6) and that
2507 older name can still be used (though specifying it as `-s` is always the
2508 easiest and most compatible choice).
2512 This option disables two extra validation checks that a local client
2513 performs on the file list generated by a remote sender. This option should
2514 only be used if you trust the sender to not put something malicious in the
2515 file list (something that could possibly be done via a modified rsync, a
2516 modified shell, or some other similar manipulation).
2518 Normally, the rsync client (as of version 3.2.5) runs two extra validation
2519 checks when pulling files from a remote rsync:
2521 - It verifies that additional arg items didn't get added at the top of the
2523 - It verifies that none of the items in the file list are names that should
2524 have been excluded (if filter rules were specified).
2526 Note that various options can turn off one or both of these checks if the
2527 option interferes with the validation. For instance:
2529 - Using a per-directory filter file reads filter rules that only the server
2530 knows about, so the filter checking is disabled.
2531 - Using the [`--old-args`](#opt) option allows the sender to manipulate the
2532 requested args, so the arg checking is disabled.
2533 - Reading the files-from list from the server side means that the client
2534 doesn't know the arg list, so the arg checking is disabled.
2535 - Using [`--read-batch`](#opt) disables both checks since the batch file's
2536 contents will have been verified when it was created.
2538 This option may help an under-powered client server if the extra pattern
2539 matching is slowing things down on a huge transfer. It can also be used to
2540 work around a currently-unknown bug in the verification logic for a transfer
2541 from a trusted sender.
2543 When using this option it is a good idea to specify a dedicated destination
2544 directory, as discussed in the [MULTI-HOST SECURITY](#) section.
2546 0. `--copy-as=USER[:GROUP]`
2548 This option instructs rsync to use the USER and (if specified after a
2549 colon) the GROUP for the copy operations. This only works if the user that
2550 is running rsync has the ability to change users. If the group is not
2551 specified then the user's default groups are used.
2553 This option can help to reduce the risk of an rsync being run as root into
2554 or out of a directory that might have live changes happening to it and you
2555 want to make sure that root-level read or write actions of system files are
2556 not possible. While you could alternatively run all of rsync as the
2557 specified user, sometimes you need the root-level host-access credentials
2558 to be used, so this allows rsync to drop root for the copying part of the
2559 operation after the remote-shell or daemon connection is established.
2561 The option only affects one side of the transfer unless the transfer is
2562 local, in which case it affects both sides. Use the
2563 [`--remote-option`](#opt) to affect the remote side, such as
2564 `-M--copy-as=joe`. For a local transfer, the lsh (or lsh.sh) support file
2565 provides a local-shell helper script that can be used to allow a
2566 "localhost:" or "lh:" host-spec to be specified without needing to setup
2567 any remote shells, allowing you to specify remote options that affect the
2568 side of the transfer that is using the host-spec (and using hostname "lh"
2569 avoids the overriding of the remote directory to the user's home dir).
2571 For example, the following rsync writes the local files as user "joe":
2573 > sudo rsync -aiv --copy-as=joe host1:backups/joe/ /home/joe/
2575 This makes all files owned by user "joe", limits the groups to those that
2576 are available to that user, and makes it impossible for the joe user to do
2577 a timed exploit of the path to induce a change to a file that the joe user
2578 has no permissions to change.
2580 The following command does a local copy into the "dest/" dir as user "joe"
2581 (assuming you've installed support/lsh into a dir on your $PATH):
2583 > sudo rsync -aive lsh -M--copy-as=joe src/ lh:dest/
2585 0. `--temp-dir=DIR`, `-T`
2587 This option instructs rsync to use DIR as a scratch directory when creating
2588 temporary copies of the files transferred on the receiving side. The
2589 default behavior is to create each temporary file in the same directory as
2590 the associated destination file. Beginning with rsync 3.1.1, the temp-file
2591 names inside the specified DIR will not be prefixed with an extra dot
2592 (though they will still have a random suffix added).
2594 This option is most often used when the receiving disk partition does not
2595 have enough free space to hold a copy of the largest file in the transfer.
2596 In this case (i.e. when the scratch directory is on a different disk
2597 partition), rsync will not be able to rename each received temporary file
2598 over the top of the associated destination file, but instead must copy it
2599 into place. Rsync does this by copying the file over the top of the
2600 destination file, which means that the destination file will contain
2601 truncated data during this copy. If this were not done this way (even if
2602 the destination file were first removed, the data locally copied to a
2603 temporary file in the destination directory, and then renamed into place)
2604 it would be possible for the old file to continue taking up disk space (if
2605 someone had it open), and thus there might not be enough room to fit the
2606 new version on the disk at the same time.
2608 If you are using this option for reasons other than a shortage of disk
2609 space, you may wish to combine it with the [`--delay-updates`](#opt)
2610 option, which will ensure that all copied files get put into subdirectories
2611 in the destination hierarchy, awaiting the end of the transfer. If you
2612 don't have enough room to duplicate all the arriving files on the
2613 destination partition, another way to tell rsync that you aren't overly
2614 concerned about disk space is to use the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option
2615 with a relative path; because this tells rsync that it is OK to stash off a
2616 copy of a single file in a subdir in the destination hierarchy, rsync will
2617 use the partial-dir as a staging area to bring over the copied file, and
2618 then rename it into place from there. (Specifying a [`--partial-dir`](#opt)
2619 with an absolute path does not have this side-effect.)
2623 This option tells rsync that it should look for a basis file for any
2624 destination file that is missing. The current algorithm looks in the same
2625 directory as the destination file for either a file that has an identical
2626 size and modified-time, or a similarly-named file. If found, rsync uses
2627 the fuzzy basis file to try to speed up the transfer.
2629 If the option is repeated, the fuzzy scan will also be done in any matching
2630 alternate destination directories that are specified via
2631 [`--compare-dest`](#opt), [`--copy-dest`](#opt), or [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2633 Note that the use of the [`--delete`](#opt) option might get rid of any
2634 potential fuzzy-match files, so either use [`--delete-after`](#opt) or
2635 specify some filename exclusions if you need to prevent this.
2637 0. `--compare-dest=DIR`
2639 This option instructs rsync to use _DIR_ on the destination machine as an
2640 additional hierarchy to compare destination files against doing transfers
2641 (if the files are missing in the destination directory). If a file is
2642 found in _DIR_ that is identical to the sender's file, the file will NOT be
2643 transferred to the destination directory. This is useful for creating a
2644 sparse backup of just files that have changed from an earlier backup. This
2645 option is typically used to copy into an empty (or newly created)
2648 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--compare-dest` directories may be
2649 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2650 for an exact match. If a match is found that differs only in attributes, a
2651 local copy is made and the attributes updated. If a match is not found, a
2652 basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the
2655 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2656 See also [`--copy-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2658 NOTE: beginning with version 3.1.0, rsync will remove a file from a
2659 non-empty destination hierarchy if an exact match is found in one of the
2660 compare-dest hierarchies (making the end result more closely match a fresh
2663 0. `--copy-dest=DIR`
2665 This option behaves like [`--compare-dest`](#opt), but rsync will also copy
2666 unchanged files found in _DIR_ to the destination directory using a local
2667 copy. This is useful for doing transfers to a new destination while
2668 leaving existing files intact, and then doing a flash-cutover when all
2669 files have been successfully transferred.
2671 Multiple `--copy-dest` directories may be provided, which will cause rsync
2672 to search the list in the order specified for an unchanged file. If a
2673 match is not found, a basis file from one of the _DIRs_ will be selected to
2674 try to speed up the transfer.
2676 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2677 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--link-dest`](#opt).
2679 0. `--link-dest=DIR`
2681 This option behaves like [`--copy-dest`](#opt), but unchanged files are
2682 hard linked from _DIR_ to the destination directory. The files must be
2683 identical in all preserved attributes (e.g. permissions, possibly
2684 ownership) in order for the files to be linked together. An example:
2686 > rsync -av --link-dest=$PWD/prior_dir host:src_dir/ new_dir/
2688 If files aren't linking, double-check their attributes. Also check if
2689 some attributes are getting forced outside of rsync's control, such a mount
2690 option that squishes root to a single user, or mounts a removable drive
2691 with generic ownership (such as OS X's "Ignore ownership on this volume"
2694 Beginning in version 2.6.4, multiple `--link-dest` directories may be
2695 provided, which will cause rsync to search the list in the order specified
2696 for an exact match (there is a limit of 20 such directories). If a match
2697 is found that differs only in attributes, a local copy is made and the
2698 attributes updated. If a match is not found, a basis file from one of the
2699 _DIRs_ will be selected to try to speed up the transfer.
2701 This option works best when copying into an empty destination hierarchy, as
2702 existing files may get their attributes tweaked, and that can affect
2703 alternate destination files via hard-links. Also, itemizing of changes can
2704 get a bit muddled. Note that prior to version 3.1.0, an
2705 alternate-directory exact match would never be found (nor linked into the
2706 destination) when a destination file already exists.
2708 Note that if you combine this option with [`--ignore-times`](#opt), rsync will not
2709 link any files together because it only links identical files together as a
2710 substitute for transferring the file, never as an additional check after
2711 the file is updated.
2713 If _DIR_ is a relative path, it is relative to the destination directory.
2714 See also [`--compare-dest`](#opt) and [`--copy-dest`](#opt).
2716 Note that rsync versions prior to 2.6.1 had a bug that could prevent
2717 `--link-dest` from working properly for a non-super-user when
2718 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) was specified (or implied). You can work-around
2719 this bug by avoiding the `-o` option (or using `--no-o`) when sending to an
2722 0. `--compress`, `-z`
2724 With this option, rsync compresses the file data as it is sent to the
2725 destination machine, which reduces the amount of data being transmitted --
2726 something that is useful over a slow connection.
2728 Rsync supports multiple compression methods and will choose one for you
2729 unless you force the choice using the [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`)
2732 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2735 When both sides of the transfer are at least 3.2.0, rsync chooses the first
2736 algorithm in the client's list of choices that is also in the server's list
2737 of choices. If no common compress choice is found, rsync exits with
2738 an error. If the remote rsync is too old to support checksum negotiation,
2739 its list is assumed to be "zlib".
2741 The default order can be customized by setting the environment variable
2742 [`RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`](#) to a space-separated list of acceptable
2743 compression names. If the string contains a "`&`" character, it is
2744 separated into the "client string & server string", otherwise the same
2745 string applies to both. If the string (or string portion) contains no
2746 non-whitespace characters, the default compress list is used. Any unknown
2747 compression names are discarded from the list, but a list with only invalid
2748 names results in a failed negotiation.
2750 There are some older rsync versions that were configured to reject a `-z`
2751 option and require the use of `-zz` because their compression library was
2752 not compatible with the default zlib compression method. You can usually
2753 ignore this weirdness unless the rsync server complains and tells you to
2756 0. `--compress-choice=STR`, `--zc=STR`
2758 This option can be used to override the automatic negotiation of the
2759 compression algorithm that occurs when [`--compress`](#opt) is used. The
2760 option implies [`--compress`](#opt) unless "none" was specified, which
2761 instead implies `--no-compress`.
2763 The compression options that you may be able to use are:
2771 Run `rsync --version` to see the default compress list compiled into your
2772 version (which may differ from the list above).
2774 Note that if you see an error about an option named `--old-compress` or
2775 `--new-compress`, this is rsync trying to send the `--compress-choice=zlib`
2776 or `--compress-choice=zlibx` option in a backward-compatible manner that
2777 more rsync versions understand. This error indicates that the older rsync
2778 version on the server will not allow you to force the compression type.
2780 Note that the "zlibx" compression algorithm is just the "zlib" algorithm
2781 with matched data excluded from the compression stream (to try to make it
2782 more compatible with an external zlib implementation).
2784 0. `--compress-level=NUM`, `--zl=NUM`
2786 Explicitly set the compression level to use (see [`--compress`](#opt),
2787 `-z`) instead of letting it default. The [`--compress`](#opt) option is
2788 implied as long as the level chosen is not a "don't compress" level for the
2789 compression algorithm that is in effect (e.g. zlib compression treats level
2792 The level values vary depending on the checksum in effect. Because rsync
2793 will negotiate a checksum choice by default (when the remote rsync is new
2794 enough), it can be good to combine this option with a
2795 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) option unless you're sure of the
2796 choice in effect. For example:
2798 > rsync -aiv --zc=zstd --zl=22 host:src/ dest/
2800 For zlib & zlibx compression the valid values are from 1 to 9 with 6 being
2801 the default. Specifying `--zl=0` turns compression off, and specifying
2802 `--zl=-1` chooses the default level of 6.
2804 For zstd compression the valid values are from -131072 to 22 with 3 being
2805 the default. Specifying 0 chooses the default of 3.
2807 For lz4 compression there are no levels, so the value is always 0.
2809 If you specify a too-large or too-small value, the number is silently
2810 limited to a valid value. This allows you to specify something like
2811 `--zl=999999999` and be assured that you'll end up with the maximum
2812 compression level no matter what algorithm was chosen.
2814 If you want to know the compression level that is in effect, specify
2815 [`--debug=nstr`](#opt) to see the "negotiated string" results. This will
2816 report something like "`Client compress: zstd (level 3)`" (along with the
2817 checksum choice in effect).
2819 0. `--skip-compress=LIST`
2821 **NOTE:** no compression method currently supports per-file compression
2822 changes, so this option has no effect.
2824 Override the list of file suffixes that will be compressed as little as
2825 possible. Rsync sets the compression level on a per-file basis based on
2826 the file's suffix. If the compression algorithm has an "off" level, then
2827 no compression occurs for those files. Other algorithms that support
2828 changing the streaming level on-the-fly will have the level minimized to
2829 reduces the CPU usage as much as possible for a matching file.
2831 The **LIST** should be one or more file suffixes (without the dot) separated
2832 by slashes (`/`). You may specify an empty string to indicate that no files
2835 Simple character-class matching is supported: each must consist of a list
2836 of letters inside the square brackets (e.g. no special classes, such as
2837 "[:alpha:]", are supported, and '-' has no special meaning).
2839 The characters asterisk (`*`) and question-mark (`?`) have no special meaning.
2841 Here's an example that specifies 6 suffixes to skip (since 1 of the 5 rules
2842 matches 2 suffixes):
2844 > --skip-compress=gz/jpg/mp[34]/7z/bz2
2846 The default file suffixes in the skip-compress list in this version of
2849 [comment]: # (This list gets used for the default-dont-compress.h file.)
2948 This list will be replaced by your `--skip-compress` list in all but one
2949 situation: a copy from a daemon rsync will add your skipped suffixes to its
2950 list of non-compressing files (and its list may be configured to a
2955 With this option rsync will transfer numeric group and user IDs rather than
2956 using user and group names and mapping them at both ends.
2958 By default rsync will use the username and groupname to determine what
2959 ownership to give files. The special uid 0 and the special group 0 are
2960 never mapped via user/group names even if the `--numeric-ids` option is not
2963 If a user or group has no name on the source system or it has no match on
2964 the destination system, then the numeric ID from the source system is used
2965 instead. See also the [`use chroot`](rsyncd.conf.5#use_chroot) setting
2966 in the rsyncd.conf manpage for some comments on how the chroot setting
2967 affects rsync's ability to look up the names of the users and groups and
2968 what you can do about it.
2970 0. `--usermap=STRING`, `--groupmap=STRING`
2972 These options allow you to specify users and groups that should be mapped
2973 to other values by the receiving side. The **STRING** is one or more
2974 **FROM**:**TO** pairs of values separated by commas. Any matching **FROM**
2975 value from the sender is replaced with a **TO** value from the receiver.
2976 You may specify usernames or user IDs for the **FROM** and **TO** values,
2977 and the **FROM** value may also be a wild-card string, which will be
2978 matched against the sender's names (wild-cards do NOT match against ID
2979 numbers, though see below for why a '`*`' matches everything). You may
2980 instead specify a range of ID numbers via an inclusive range: LOW-HIGH.
2983 > --usermap=0-99:nobody,wayne:admin,*:normal --groupmap=usr:1,1:usr
2985 The first match in the list is the one that is used. You should specify
2986 all your user mappings using a single `--usermap` option, and/or all your
2987 group mappings using a single `--groupmap` option.
2989 Note that the sender's name for the 0 user and group are not transmitted to
2990 the receiver, so you should either match these values using a 0, or use the
2991 names in effect on the receiving side (typically "root"). All other
2992 **FROM** names match those in use on the sending side. All **TO** names
2993 match those in use on the receiving side.
2995 Any IDs that do not have a name on the sending side are treated as having
2996 an empty name for the purpose of matching. This allows them to be matched
2997 via a "`*`" or using an empty name. For instance:
2999 > --usermap=:nobody --groupmap=*:nobody
3001 When the [`--numeric-ids`](#opt) option is used, the sender does not send any
3002 names, so all the IDs are treated as having an empty name. This means that
3003 you will need to specify numeric **FROM** values if you want to map these
3004 nameless IDs to different values.
3006 For the `--usermap` option to work, the receiver will need to be running as
3007 a super-user (see also the [`--super`](#opt) and [`--fake-super`](#opt)
3008 options). For the `--groupmap` option to work, the receiver will need to
3009 have permissions to set that group.
3011 Starting with rsync 3.2.4, the `--usermap` option implies the
3012 [`--owner`](#opt) (`-o`) option while the `--groupmap` option implies the
3013 [`--group`](#opt) (`-g`) option (since rsync needs to have those options
3014 enabled for the mapping options to work).
3016 An older rsync client may need to use [`-s`](#opt) to avoid a complaint
3017 about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles this automatically.
3019 0. `--chown=USER:GROUP`
3021 This option forces all files to be owned by USER with group GROUP. This is
3022 a simpler interface than using [`--usermap`](#opt) & [`--groupmap`](#opt)
3023 directly, but it is implemented using those options internally so they
3024 cannot be mixed. If either the USER or GROUP is empty, no mapping for the
3025 omitted user/group will occur. If GROUP is empty, the trailing colon may
3026 be omitted, but if USER is empty, a leading colon must be supplied.
3028 If you specify "`--chown=foo:bar`", this is exactly the same as specifying
3029 "`--usermap=*:foo --groupmap=*:bar`", only easier (and with the same
3030 implied [`--owner`](#opt) and/or [`--group`](#opt) options).
3032 An older rsync client may need to use [`-s`](#opt) to avoid a complaint
3033 about wildcard characters, but a modern rsync handles this automatically.
3035 0. `--timeout=SECONDS`
3037 This option allows you to set a maximum I/O timeout in seconds. If no data
3038 is transferred for the specified time then rsync will exit. The default is
3039 0, which means no timeout.
3041 0. `--contimeout=SECONDS`
3043 This option allows you to set the amount of time that rsync will wait for
3044 its connection to an rsync daemon to succeed. If the timeout is reached,
3045 rsync exits with an error.
3047 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3049 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when connecting to an
3050 rsync daemon. The `--address` option allows you to specify a specific IP
3051 address (or hostname) to bind to.
3053 See also [the daemon version of the `--address` option](#dopt--address).
3057 This specifies an alternate TCP port number to use rather than the default
3058 of 873. This is only needed if you are using the double-colon (::) syntax
3059 to connect with an rsync daemon (since the URL syntax has a way to specify
3060 the port as a part of the URL).
3062 See also [the daemon version of the `--port` option](#dopt--port).
3064 0. `--sockopts=OPTIONS`
3066 This option can provide endless fun for people who like to tune their
3067 systems to the utmost degree. You can set all sorts of socket options
3068 which may make transfers faster (or slower!). Read the manpage for the
3069 `setsockopt()` system call for details on some of the options you may be
3070 able to set. By default no special socket options are set. This only
3071 affects direct socket connections to a remote rsync daemon.
3073 See also [the daemon version of the `--sockopts` option](#dopt--sockopts).
3077 This tells rsync to use blocking I/O when launching a remote shell
3078 transport. If the remote shell is either rsh or remsh, rsync defaults to
3079 using blocking I/O, otherwise it defaults to using non-blocking I/O. (Note
3080 that ssh prefers non-blocking I/O.)
3084 This sets the output buffering mode. The mode can be None (aka
3085 Unbuffered), Line, or Block (aka Full). You may specify as little as a
3086 single letter for the mode, and use upper or lower case.
3088 The main use of this option is to change Full buffering to Line buffering
3089 when rsync's output is going to a file or pipe.
3091 0. `--itemize-changes`, `-i`
3093 Requests a simple itemized list of the changes that are being made to each
3094 file, including attribute changes. This is exactly the same as specifying
3095 [`--out-format='%i %n%L'`](#opt). If you repeat the option, unchanged
3096 files will also be output, but only if the receiving rsync is at least
3097 version 2.6.7 (you can use `-vv` with older versions of rsync, but that
3098 also turns on the output of other verbose messages).
3100 The "%i" escape has a cryptic output that is 11 letters long. The general
3101 format is like the string `YXcstpoguax`, where **Y** is replaced by the type
3102 of update being done, **X** is replaced by the file-type, and the other
3103 letters represent attributes that may be output if they are being modified.
3105 The update types that replace the **Y** are as follows:
3107 - A `<` means that a file is being transferred to the remote host (sent).
3108 - A `>` means that a file is being transferred to the local host
3110 - A `c` means that a local change/creation is occurring for the item (such
3111 as the creation of a directory or the changing of a symlink, etc.).
3112 - A `h` means that the item is a hard link to another item (requires
3113 [`--hard-links`](#opt)).
3114 - A `.` means that the item is not being updated (though it might have
3115 attributes that are being modified).
3116 - A `*` means that the rest of the itemized-output area contains a message
3119 The file-types that replace the **X** are: `f` for a file, a `d` for a
3120 directory, an `L` for a symlink, a `D` for a device, and a `S` for a
3121 special file (e.g. named sockets and fifos).
3123 The other letters in the string indicate if some attributes of the file
3124 have changed, as follows:
3126 - "`.`" - the attribute is unchanged.
3127 - "`+`" - the file is newly created.
3128 - "`Â `" - all the attributes are unchanged (all dots turn to spaces).
3129 - "`?`" - the change is unknown (when the remote rsync is old).
3130 - A letter indicates an attribute is being updated.
3132 The attribute that is associated with each letter is as follows:
3134 - A `c` means either that a regular file has a different checksum (requires
3135 [`--checksum`](#opt)) or that a symlink, device, or special file has a
3136 changed value. Note that if you are sending files to an rsync prior to
3137 3.0.1, this change flag will be present only for checksum-differing
3139 - A `s` means the size of a regular file is different and will be updated
3140 by the file transfer.
3141 - A `t` means the modification time is different and is being updated to
3142 the sender's value (requires [`--times`](#opt)). An alternate value of
3143 `T` means that the modification time will be set to the transfer time,
3144 which happens when a file/symlink/device is updated without
3145 [`--times`](#opt) and when a symlink is changed and the receiver can't
3146 set its time. (Note: when using an rsync 3.0.0 client, you might see the
3147 `s` flag combined with `t` instead of the proper `T` flag for this
3148 time-setting failure.)
3149 - A `p` means the permissions are different and are being updated to the
3150 sender's value (requires [`--perms`](#opt)).
3151 - An `o` means the owner is different and is being updated to the sender's
3152 value (requires [`--owner`](#opt) and super-user privileges).
3153 - A `g` means the group is different and is being updated to the sender's
3154 value (requires [`--group`](#opt) and the authority to set the group).
3155 - A `u`|`n`|`b` indicates the following information:
3156 - `u` means the access (use) time is different and is being updated to
3157 the sender's value (requires [`--atimes`](#opt))
3158 - `n` means the create time (newness) is different and is being updated
3159 to the sender's value (requires [`--crtimes`](#opt))
3160 - `b` means that both the access and create times are being updated
3161 - The `a` means that the ACL information is being changed.
3162 - The `x` means that the extended attribute information is being changed.
3164 One other output is possible: when deleting files, the "%i" will output the
3165 string "`*deleting`" for each item that is being removed (assuming that you
3166 are talking to a recent enough rsync that it logs deletions instead of
3167 outputting them as a verbose message).
3169 0. `--out-format=FORMAT`
3171 This allows you to specify exactly what the rsync client outputs to the
3172 user on a per-update basis. The format is a text string containing
3173 embedded single-character escape sequences prefixed with a percent (%)
3174 character. A default format of "%n%L" is assumed if either
3175 [`--info=name`](#opt) or [`-v`](#opt) is specified (this tells you just the
3176 name of the file and, if the item is a link, where it points). For a full
3177 list of the possible escape characters, see the [`log
3178 format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format) setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3180 Specifying the `--out-format` option implies the [`--info=name`](#opt)
3181 option, which will mention each file, dir, etc. that gets updated in a
3182 significant way (a transferred file, a recreated symlink/device, or a
3183 touched directory). In addition, if the itemize-changes escape (%i) is
3184 included in the string (e.g. if the [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option was
3185 used), the logging of names increases to mention any item that is changed
3186 in any way (as long as the receiving side is at least 2.6.4). See the
3187 [`--itemize-changes`](#opt) option for a description of the output of "%i".
3189 Rsync will output the out-format string prior to a file's transfer unless
3190 one of the transfer-statistic escapes is requested, in which case the
3191 logging is done at the end of the file's transfer. When this late logging
3192 is in effect and [`--progress`](#opt) is also specified, rsync will also
3193 output the name of the file being transferred prior to its progress
3194 information (followed, of course, by the out-format output).
3196 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3198 This option causes rsync to log what it is doing to a file. This is
3199 similar to the logging that a daemon does, but can be requested for the
3200 client side and/or the server side of a non-daemon transfer. If specified
3201 as a client option, transfer logging will be enabled with a default format
3202 of "%i %n%L". See the [`--log-file-format`](#opt) option if you wish to
3205 Here's an example command that requests the remote side to log what is
3208 > rsync -av --remote-option=--log-file=/tmp/rlog src/ dest/
3210 This is very useful if you need to debug why a connection is closing
3213 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file` option](#dopt--log-file).
3215 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3217 This allows you to specify exactly what per-update logging is put into the
3218 file specified by the [`--log-file`](#opt) option (which must also be
3219 specified for this option to have any effect). If you specify an empty
3220 string, updated files will not be mentioned in the log file. For a list of
3221 the possible escape characters, see the [`log format`](rsyncd.conf.5#log_format)
3222 setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3224 The default FORMAT used if [`--log-file`](#opt) is specified and this
3225 option is not is '%i %n%L'.
3227 See also [the daemon version of the `--log-file-format`
3228 option](#dopt--log-file-format).
3232 This tells rsync to print a verbose set of statistics on the file transfer,
3233 allowing you to tell how effective rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is for
3234 your data. This option is equivalent to [`--info=stats2`](#opt) if
3235 combined with 0 or 1 [`-v`](#opt) options, or [`--info=stats3`](#opt) if
3236 combined with 2 or more [`-v`](#opt) options.
3238 The current statistics are as follows:
3240 - `Number of files` is the count of all "files" (in the generic sense),
3241 which includes directories, symlinks, etc. The total count will be
3242 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero). For
3243 example: "(reg: 5, dir: 3, link: 2, dev: 1, special: 1)" lists the totals
3244 for regular files, directories, symlinks, devices, and special files. If
3245 any of value is 0, it is completely omitted from the list.
3246 - `Number of created files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3247 sense) were created (as opposed to updated). The total count will be
3248 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3249 - `Number of deleted files` is the count of how many "files" (generic
3250 sense) were deleted. The total count will be
3251 followed by a list of counts by filetype (if the total is non-zero).
3252 Note that this line is only output if deletions are in effect, and only
3253 if protocol 31 is being used (the default for rsync 3.1.x).
3254 - `Number of regular files transferred` is the count of normal files that
3255 were updated via rsync's delta-transfer algorithm, which does not include
3256 dirs, symlinks, etc. Note that rsync 3.1.0 added the word "regular" into
3258 - `Total file size` is the total sum of all file sizes in the transfer.
3259 This does not count any size for directories or special files, but does
3260 include the size of symlinks.
3261 - `Total transferred file size` is the total sum of all files sizes for
3262 just the transferred files.
3263 - `Literal data` is how much unmatched file-update data we had to send to
3264 the receiver for it to recreate the updated files.
3265 - `Matched data` is how much data the receiver got locally when recreating
3267 - `File list size` is how big the file-list data was when the sender sent
3268 it to the receiver. This is smaller than the in-memory size for the file
3269 list due to some compressing of duplicated data when rsync sends the
3271 - `File list generation time` is the number of seconds that the sender
3272 spent creating the file list. This requires a modern rsync on the
3273 sending side for this to be present.
3274 - `File list transfer time` is the number of seconds that the sender spent
3275 sending the file list to the receiver.
3276 - `Total bytes sent` is the count of all the bytes that rsync sent from the
3277 client side to the server side.
3278 - `Total bytes received` is the count of all non-message bytes that rsync
3279 received by the client side from the server side. "Non-message" bytes
3280 means that we don't count the bytes for a verbose message that the server
3281 sent to us, which makes the stats more consistent.
3283 0. `--8-bit-output`, `-8`
3285 This tells rsync to leave all high-bit characters unescaped in the output
3286 instead of trying to test them to see if they're valid in the current
3287 locale and escaping the invalid ones. All control characters (but never
3288 tabs) are always escaped, regardless of this option's setting.
3290 The escape idiom that started in 2.6.7 is to output a literal backslash
3291 (`\`) and a hash (`#`), followed by exactly 3 octal digits. For example, a
3292 newline would output as "`\#012`". A literal backslash that is in a
3293 filename is not escaped unless it is followed by a hash and 3 digits (0-9).
3295 0. `--human-readable`, `-h`
3297 Output numbers in a more human-readable format. There are 3 possible levels:
3299 1. output numbers with a separator between each set of 3 digits (either a
3300 comma or a period, depending on if the decimal point is represented by a
3302 2. output numbers in units of 1000 (with a character suffix for larger
3303 units -- see below).
3304 3. output numbers in units of 1024.
3306 The default is human-readable level 1. Each `-h` option increases the
3307 level by one. You can take the level down to 0 (to output numbers as pure
3308 digits) by specifying the `--no-human-readable` (`--no-h`) option.
3310 The unit letters that are appended in levels 2 and 3 are: `K` (kilo), `M`
3311 (mega), `G` (giga), `T` (tera), or `P` (peta). For example, a 1234567-byte
3312 file would output as 1.23M in level-2 (assuming that a period is your local
3315 Backward compatibility note: versions of rsync prior to 3.1.0 do not
3316 support human-readable level 1, and they default to level 0. Thus,
3317 specifying one or two `-h` options will behave in a comparable manner in
3318 old and new versions as long as you didn't specify a `--no-h` option prior
3319 to one or more `-h` options. See the [`--list-only`](#opt) option for one
3324 By default, rsync will delete any partially transferred file if the
3325 transfer is interrupted. In some circumstances it is more desirable to
3326 keep partially transferred files. Using the `--partial` option tells rsync
3327 to keep the partial file which should make a subsequent transfer of the
3328 rest of the file much faster.
3330 0. `--partial-dir=DIR`
3332 This option modifies the behavior of the [`--partial`](#opt) option while
3333 also implying that it be enabled. This enhanced partial-file method puts
3334 any partially transferred files into the specified _DIR_ instead of writing
3335 the partial file out to the destination file. On the next transfer, rsync
3336 will use a file found in this dir as data to speed up the resumption of the
3337 transfer and then delete it after it has served its purpose.
3339 Note that if [`--whole-file`](#opt) is specified (or implied), any
3340 partial-dir files that are found for a file that is being updated will
3341 simply be removed (since rsync is sending files without using rsync's
3342 delta-transfer algorithm).
3344 Rsync will create the _DIR_ if it is missing, but just the last dir -- not
3345 the whole path. This makes it easy to use a relative path (such as
3346 "`--partial-dir=.rsync-partial`") to have rsync create the
3347 partial-directory in the destination file's directory when it is needed,
3348 and then remove it again when the partial file is deleted. Note that this
3349 directory removal is only done for a relative pathname, as it is expected
3350 that an absolute path is to a directory that is reserved for partial-dir
3353 If the partial-dir value is not an absolute path, rsync will add an exclude
3354 rule at the end of all your existing excludes. This will prevent the
3355 sending of any partial-dir files that may exist on the sending side, and
3356 will also prevent the untimely deletion of partial-dir items on the
3357 receiving side. An example: the above `--partial-dir` option would add the
3358 equivalent of this "perishable" exclude at the end of any other filter
3359 rules: `-f '-p .rsync-partial/'`
3361 If you are supplying your own exclude rules, you may need to add your own
3362 exclude/hide/protect rule for the partial-dir because:
3364 1. the auto-added rule may be ineffective at the end of your other rules, or
3365 2. you may wish to override rsync's exclude choice.
3367 For instance, if you want to make rsync clean-up any left-over partial-dirs
3368 that may be lying around, you should specify [`--delete-after`](#opt) and
3369 add a "risk" filter rule, e.g. `-f 'R .rsync-partial/'`. Avoid using
3370 [`--delete-before`](#opt) or [`--delete-during`](#opt) unless you don't
3371 need rsync to use any of the left-over partial-dir data during the current
3374 IMPORTANT: the `--partial-dir` should not be writable by other users or it
3375 is a security risk! E.g. AVOID "/tmp"!
3377 You can also set the partial-dir value the [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`](#)
3378 environment variable. Setting this in the environment does not force
3379 [`--partial`](#opt) to be enabled, but rather it affects where partial
3380 files go when [`--partial`](#opt) is specified. For instance, instead of
3381 using `--partial-dir=.rsync-tmp` along with [`--progress`](#opt), you could
3382 set [`RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR=.rsync-tmp`](#) in your environment and then use
3383 the [`-P`](#opt) option to turn on the use of the .rsync-tmp dir for
3384 partial transfers. The only times that the [`--partial`](#opt) option does
3385 not look for this environment value are:
3387 1. when [`--inplace`](#opt) was specified (since [`--inplace`](#opt)
3388 conflicts with `--partial-dir`), and
3389 2. when [`--delay-updates`](#opt) was specified (see below).
3391 When a modern rsync resumes the transfer of a file in the partial-dir, that
3392 partial file is now updated in-place instead of creating yet another
3393 tmp-file copy (so it maxes out at dest + tmp instead of dest + partial +
3394 tmp). This requires both ends of the transfer to be at least version
3397 For the purposes of the daemon-config's "`refuse options`" setting,
3398 `--partial-dir` does _not_ imply [`--partial`](#opt). This is so that a
3399 refusal of the [`--partial`](#opt) option can be used to disallow the
3400 overwriting of destination files with a partial transfer, while still
3401 allowing the safer idiom provided by `--partial-dir`.
3403 0. `--delay-updates`
3405 This option puts the temporary file from each updated file into a holding
3406 directory until the end of the transfer, at which time all the files are
3407 renamed into place in rapid succession. This attempts to make the updating
3408 of the files a little more atomic. By default the files are placed into a
3409 directory named `.~tmp~` in each file's destination directory, but if
3410 you've specified the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option, that directory will be
3411 used instead. See the comments in the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) section for
3412 a discussion of how this `.~tmp~` dir will be excluded from the transfer,
3413 and what you can do if you want rsync to cleanup old `.~tmp~` dirs that
3414 might be lying around. Conflicts with [`--inplace`](#opt) and
3417 This option implies [`--no-inc-recursive`](#opt) since it needs the full
3418 file list in memory in order to be able to iterate over it at the end.
3420 This option uses more memory on the receiving side (one bit per file
3421 transferred) and also requires enough free disk space on the receiving side
3422 to hold an additional copy of all the updated files. Note also that you
3423 should not use an absolute path to [`--partial-dir`](#opt) unless:
3425 1. there is no chance of any of the files in the transfer having the same
3426 name (since all the updated files will be put into a single directory if
3427 the path is absolute), and
3428 2. there are no mount points in the hierarchy (since the delayed updates
3429 will fail if they can't be renamed into place).
3431 See also the "atomic-rsync" python script in the "support" subdir for an
3432 update algorithm that is even more atomic (it uses [`--link-dest`](#opt)
3433 and a parallel hierarchy of files).
3435 0. `--prune-empty-dirs`, `-m`
3437 This option tells the receiving rsync to get rid of empty directories from
3438 the file-list, including nested directories that have no non-directory
3439 children. This is useful for avoiding the creation of a bunch of useless
3440 directories when the sending rsync is recursively scanning a hierarchy of
3441 files using include/exclude/filter rules.
3443 This option can still leave empty directories on the receiving side if you
3444 make use of [TRANSFER_RULES](#).
3446 Because the file-list is actually being pruned, this option also affects
3447 what directories get deleted when a delete is active. However, keep in
3448 mind that excluded files and directories can prevent existing items from
3449 being deleted due to an exclude both hiding source files and protecting
3450 destination files. See the perishable filter-rule option for how to avoid
3453 You can prevent the pruning of certain empty directories from the file-list
3454 by using a global "protect" filter. For instance, this option would ensure
3455 that the directory "emptydir" was kept in the file-list:
3457 > --filter 'protect emptydir/'
3459 Here's an example that copies all .pdf files in a hierarchy, only creating
3460 the necessary destination directories to hold the .pdf files, and ensures
3461 that any superfluous files and directories in the destination are removed
3462 (note the hide filter of non-directories being used instead of an exclude):
3464 > rsync -avm --del --include='*.pdf' -f 'hide,! */' src/ dest
3466 If you didn't want to remove superfluous destination files, the more
3467 time-honored options of `--include='*/' --exclude='*'` would work
3468 fine in place of the hide-filter (if that is more natural to you).
3472 This option tells rsync to print information showing the progress of the
3473 transfer. This gives a bored user something to watch. With a modern rsync
3474 this is the same as specifying [`--info=flist2,name,progress`](#opt), but
3475 any user-supplied settings for those info flags takes precedence (e.g.
3476 [`--info=flist0 --progress`](#opt)).
3478 While rsync is transferring a regular file, it updates a progress line that
3481 > 782448 63% 110.64kB/s 0:00:04
3483 In this example, the receiver has reconstructed 782448 bytes or 63% of the
3484 sender's file, which is being reconstructed at a rate of 110.64 kilobytes
3485 per second, and the transfer will finish in 4 seconds if the current rate
3486 is maintained until the end.
3488 These statistics can be misleading if rsync's delta-transfer algorithm is
3489 in use. For example, if the sender's file consists of the basis file
3490 followed by additional data, the reported rate will probably drop
3491 dramatically when the receiver gets to the literal data, and the transfer
3492 will probably take much longer to finish than the receiver estimated as it
3493 was finishing the matched part of the file.
3495 When the file transfer finishes, rsync replaces the progress line with a
3496 summary line that looks like this:
3498 > 1,238,099 100% 146.38kB/s 0:00:08 (xfr#5, to-chk=169/396)
3500 In this example, the file was 1,238,099 bytes long in total, the average
3501 rate of transfer for the whole file was 146.38 kilobytes per second over
3502 the 8 seconds that it took to complete, it was the 5th transfer of a
3503 regular file during the current rsync session, and there are 169 more files
3504 for the receiver to check (to see if they are up-to-date or not) remaining
3505 out of the 396 total files in the file-list.
3507 In an incremental recursion scan, rsync won't know the total number of
3508 files in the file-list until it reaches the ends of the scan, but since it
3509 starts to transfer files during the scan, it will display a line with the
3510 text "ir-chk" (for incremental recursion check) instead of "to-chk" until
3511 the point that it knows the full size of the list, at which point it will
3512 switch to using "to-chk". Thus, seeing "ir-chk" lets you know that the
3513 total count of files in the file list is still going to increase (and each
3514 time it does, the count of files left to check will increase by the number
3515 of the files added to the list).
3519 The `-P` option is equivalent to "[`--partial`](#opt)
3520 [`--progress`](#opt)". Its purpose is to make it much easier to specify
3521 these two options for a long transfer that may be interrupted.
3523 There is also a [`--info=progress2`](#opt) option that outputs statistics
3524 based on the whole transfer, rather than individual files. Use this flag
3525 without outputting a filename (e.g. avoid `-v` or specify
3526 [`--info=name0`](#opt)) if you want to see how the transfer is doing
3527 without scrolling the screen with a lot of names. (You don't need to
3528 specify the [`--progress`](#opt) option in order to use
3529 [`--info=progress2`](#opt).)
3531 Finally, you can get an instant progress report by sending rsync a signal
3532 of either SIGINFO or SIGVTALRM. On BSD systems, a SIGINFO is generated by
3533 typing a Ctrl+T (Linux doesn't currently support a SIGINFO signal). When
3534 the client-side process receives one of those signals, it sets a flag to
3535 output a single progress report which is output when the current file
3536 transfer finishes (so it may take a little time if a big file is being
3537 handled when the signal arrives). A filename is output (if needed)
3538 followed by the [`--info=progress2`](#opt) format of progress info. If you
3539 don't know which of the 3 rsync processes is the client process, it's OK to
3540 signal all of them (since the non-client processes ignore the signal).
3542 CAUTION: sending SIGVTALRM to an older rsync (pre-3.2.0) will kill it.
3544 0. `--password-file=FILE`
3546 This option allows you to provide a password for accessing an rsync daemon
3547 via a file or via standard input if **FILE** is `-`. The file should
3548 contain just the password on the first line (all other lines are ignored).
3549 Rsync will exit with an error if **FILE** is world readable or if a
3550 root-run rsync command finds a non-root-owned file.
3552 This option does not supply a password to a remote shell transport such as
3553 ssh; to learn how to do that, consult the remote shell's documentation.
3554 When accessing an rsync daemon using a remote shell as the transport, this
3555 option only comes into effect after the remote shell finishes its
3556 authentication (i.e. if you have also specified a password in the daemon's
3559 0. `--early-input=FILE`
3561 This option allows rsync to send up to 5K of data to the "early exec"
3562 script on its stdin. One possible use of this data is to give the script a
3563 secret that can be used to mount an encrypted filesystem (which you should
3564 unmount in the the "post-xfer exec" script).
3566 The daemon must be at least version 3.2.1.
3570 This option will cause the source files to be listed instead of
3571 transferred. This option is inferred if there is a single source arg and
3572 no destination specified, so its main uses are:
3574 1. to turn a copy command that includes a destination arg into a
3575 file-listing command, or
3576 2. to be able to specify more than one source arg. Note: be sure to
3577 include the destination.
3579 CAUTION: keep in mind that a source arg with a wild-card is expanded by the
3580 shell into multiple args, so it is never safe to try to specify a single
3581 wild-card arg to try to infer this option. A safe example is:
3583 > rsync -av --list-only foo* dest/
3585 This option always uses an output format that looks similar to this:
3587 > drwxrwxr-x 4,096 2022/09/30 12:53:11 support
3588 > -rw-rw-r-- 80 2005/01/11 10:37:37 support/Makefile
3590 The only option that affects this output style is (as of 3.1.0) the
3591 [`--human-readable`](#opt) (`-h`) option. The default is to output sizes
3592 as byte counts with digit separators (in a 14-character-width column).
3593 Specifying at least one `-h` option makes the sizes output with unit
3594 suffixes. If you want old-style bytecount sizes without digit separators
3595 (and an 11-character-width column) use `--no-h`.
3597 Compatibility note: when requesting a remote listing of files from an rsync
3598 that is version 2.6.3 or older, you may encounter an error if you ask for a
3599 non-recursive listing. This is because a file listing implies the
3600 [`--dirs`](#opt) option w/o [`--recursive`](#opt), and older rsyncs don't
3601 have that option. To avoid this problem, either specify the `--no-dirs`
3602 option (if you don't need to expand a directory's content), or turn on
3603 recursion and exclude the content of subdirectories: `-r --exclude='/*/*'`.
3607 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3608 sent over the socket, specified in units per second. The RATE value can be
3609 suffixed with a string to indicate a size multiplier, and may be a
3610 fractional value (e.g. `--bwlimit=1.5m`). If no suffix is specified, the
3611 value will be assumed to be in units of 1024 bytes (as if "K" or "KiB" had
3612 been appended). See the [`--max-size`](#opt) option for a description of
3613 all the available suffixes. A value of 0 specifies no limit.
3615 For backward-compatibility reasons, the rate limit will be rounded to the
3616 nearest KiB unit, so no rate smaller than 1024 bytes per second is
3619 Rsync writes data over the socket in blocks, and this option both limits
3620 the size of the blocks that rsync writes, and tries to keep the average
3621 transfer rate at the requested limit. Some burstiness may be seen where
3622 rsync writes out a block of data and then sleeps to bring the average rate
3625 Due to the internal buffering of data, the [`--progress`](#opt) option may
3626 not be an accurate reflection on how fast the data is being sent. This is
3627 because some files can show up as being rapidly sent when the data is
3628 quickly buffered, while other can show up as very slow when the flushing of
3629 the output buffer occurs. This may be fixed in a future version.
3631 See also [the daemon version of the `--bwlimit` option](#dopt--bwlimit).
3633 0. `--stop-after=MINS`, (`--time-limit=MINS`)
3635 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified number of
3636 minutes has elapsed.
3638 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3639 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3640 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3641 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3642 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise.
3644 The `--time-limit` version of this option is deprecated.
3646 0. `--stop-at=y-m-dTh:m`
3648 This option tells rsync to stop copying when the specified point in time
3649 has been reached. The date & time can be fully specified in a numeric
3650 format of year-month-dayThour:minute (e.g. 2000-12-31T23:59) in the local
3651 timezone. You may choose to separate the date numbers using slashes
3654 The value can also be abbreviated in a variety of ways, such as specifying
3655 a 2-digit year and/or leaving off various values. In all cases, the value
3656 will be taken to be the next possible point in time where the supplied
3657 information matches. If the value specifies the current time or a past
3658 time, rsync exits with an error.
3660 For example, "1-30" specifies the next January 30th (at midnight local
3661 time), "14:00" specifies the next 2 P.M., "1" specifies the next 1st of the
3662 month at midnight, "31" specifies the next month where we can stop on its
3663 31st day, and ":59" specifies the next 59th minute after the hour.
3665 For maximal flexibility, rsync does not communicate this option to the
3666 remote rsync since it is usually enough that one side of the connection
3667 quits as specified. This allows the option's use even when only one side
3668 of the connection supports it. You can tell the remote side about the time
3669 limit using [`--remote-option`](#opt) (`-M`), should the need arise. Do
3670 keep in mind that the remote host may have a different default timezone
3671 than your local host.
3675 Cause the receiving side to fsync each finished file. This may slow down
3676 the transfer, but can help to provide peace of mind when updating critical
3679 0. `--write-batch=FILE`
3681 Record a file that can later be applied to another identical destination
3682 with [`--read-batch`](#opt). See the "BATCH MODE" section for details, and
3683 also the [`--only-write-batch`](#opt) option.
3685 This option overrides the negotiated checksum & compress lists and always
3686 negotiates a choice based on old-school md5/md4/zlib choices. If you want
3687 a more modern choice, use the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) (`--cc`) and/or
3688 [`--compress-choice`](#opt) (`--zc`) options.
3690 0. `--only-write-batch=FILE`
3692 Works like [`--write-batch`](#opt), except that no updates are made on the
3693 destination system when creating the batch. This lets you transport the
3694 changes to the destination system via some other means and then apply the
3695 changes via [`--read-batch`](#opt).
3697 Note that you can feel free to write the batch directly to some portable
3698 media: if this media fills to capacity before the end of the transfer, you
3699 can just apply that partial transfer to the destination and repeat the
3700 whole process to get the rest of the changes (as long as you don't mind a
3701 partially updated destination system while the multi-update cycle is
3704 Also note that you only save bandwidth when pushing changes to a remote
3705 system because this allows the batched data to be diverted from the sender
3706 into the batch file without having to flow over the wire to the receiver
3707 (when pulling, the sender is remote, and thus can't write the batch).
3709 0. `--read-batch=FILE`
3711 Apply all of the changes stored in FILE, a file previously generated by
3712 [`--write-batch`](#opt). If _FILE_ is `-`, the batch data will be read
3713 from standard input. See the "BATCH MODE" section for details.
3717 Force an older protocol version to be used. This is useful for creating a
3718 batch file that is compatible with an older version of rsync. For
3719 instance, if rsync 2.6.4 is being used with the [`--write-batch`](#opt)
3720 option, but rsync 2.6.3 is what will be used to run the
3721 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, you should use "--protocol=28" when creating
3722 the batch file to force the older protocol version to be used in the batch
3723 file (assuming you can't upgrade the rsync on the reading system).
3725 0. `--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC`
3727 Rsync can convert filenames between character sets using this option.
3728 Using a CONVERT_SPEC of "." tells rsync to look up the default
3729 character-set via the locale setting. Alternately, you can fully specify
3730 what conversion to do by giving a local and a remote charset separated by a
3731 comma in the order `--iconv=LOCAL,REMOTE`, e.g. `--iconv=utf8,iso88591`.
3732 This order ensures that the option will stay the same whether you're
3733 pushing or pulling files. Finally, you can specify either `--no-iconv` or
3734 a CONVERT_SPEC of "-" to turn off any conversion. The default setting of
3735 this option is site-specific, and can also be affected via the
3736 [`RSYNC_ICONV`](#) environment variable.
3738 For a list of what charset names your local iconv library supports, you can
3739 run "`iconv --list`".
3741 If you specify the [`--secluded-args`](#opt) (`-s`) option, rsync will
3742 translate the filenames you specify on the command-line that are being sent
3743 to the remote host. See also the [`--files-from`](#opt) option.
3745 Note that rsync does not do any conversion of names in filter files
3746 (including include/exclude files). It is up to you to ensure that you're
3747 specifying matching rules that can match on both sides of the transfer.
3748 For instance, you can specify extra include/exclude rules if there are
3749 filename differences on the two sides that need to be accounted for.
3751 When you pass an `--iconv` option to an rsync daemon that allows it, the
3752 daemon uses the charset specified in its "charset" configuration parameter
3753 regardless of the remote charset you actually pass. Thus, you may feel
3754 free to specify just the local charset for a daemon transfer (e.g.
3757 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3759 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating sockets or running ssh. This
3760 affects sockets that rsync has direct control over, such as the outgoing
3761 socket when directly contacting an rsync daemon, as well as the forwarding
3762 of the `-4` or `-6` option to ssh when rsync can deduce that ssh is being
3763 used as the remote shell. For other remote shells you'll need to specify
3764 the "`--rsh SHELL -4`" option directly (or whatever IPv4/IPv6 hint options
3767 See also [the daemon version of these options](#dopt--ipv4).
3769 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3770 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3773 0. `--checksum-seed=NUM`
3775 Set the checksum seed to the integer NUM. This 4 byte checksum seed is
3776 included in each block and MD4 file checksum calculation (the more modern
3777 MD5 file checksums don't use a seed). By default the checksum seed is
3778 generated by the server and defaults to the current **time**(). This
3779 option is used to set a specific checksum seed, which is useful for
3780 applications that want repeatable block checksums, or in the case where the
3781 user wants a more random checksum seed. Setting NUM to 0 causes rsync to
3782 use the default of **time**() for checksum seed.
3786 The options allowed when starting an rsync daemon are as follows:
3790 This tells rsync that it is to run as a daemon. The daemon you start
3791 running may be accessed using an rsync client using the `host::module` or
3792 `rsync://host/module/` syntax.
3794 If standard input is a socket then rsync will assume that it is being run
3795 via inetd, otherwise it will detach from the current terminal and become a
3796 background daemon. The daemon will read the config file (rsyncd.conf) on
3797 each connect made by a client and respond to requests accordingly.
3799 See the [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5) manpage for more details.
3801 0. `--address=ADDRESS`
3803 By default rsync will bind to the wildcard address when run as a daemon
3804 with the `--daemon` option. The `--address` option allows you to specify a
3805 specific IP address (or hostname) to bind to. This makes virtual hosting
3806 possible in conjunction with the `--config` option.
3808 See also the [address](rsyncd.conf.5#address) global option in the
3809 rsyncd.conf manpage and the [client version of the `--address`
3810 option](#opt--address).
3814 This option allows you to specify the maximum transfer rate for the data
3815 the daemon sends over the socket. The client can still specify a smaller
3816 `--bwlimit` value, but no larger value will be allowed.
3818 See the [client version of the `--bwlimit` option](#opt--bwlimit) for some
3823 This specifies an alternate config file than the default. This is only
3824 relevant when [`--daemon`](#dopt) is specified. The default is
3825 /etc/rsyncd.conf unless the daemon is running over a remote shell program
3826 and the remote user is not the super-user; in that case the default is
3827 rsyncd.conf in the current directory (typically $HOME).
3829 0. `--dparam=OVERRIDE`, `-M`
3831 This option can be used to set a daemon-config parameter when starting up
3832 rsync in daemon mode. It is equivalent to adding the parameter at the end
3833 of the global settings prior to the first module's definition. The
3834 parameter names can be specified without spaces, if you so desire. For
3837 > rsync --daemon -M pidfile=/path/rsync.pid
3841 When running as a daemon, this option instructs rsync to not detach itself
3842 and become a background process. This option is required when running as a
3843 service on Cygwin, and may also be useful when rsync is supervised by a
3844 program such as `daemontools` or AIX's `System Resource Controller`.
3845 `--no-detach` is also recommended when rsync is run under a debugger. This
3846 option has no effect if rsync is run from inetd or sshd.
3850 This specifies an alternate TCP port number for the daemon to listen on
3851 rather than the default of 873.
3853 See also [the client version of the `--port` option](#opt--port) and the
3854 [port](rsyncd.conf.5#port) global setting in the rsyncd.conf manpage.
3856 0. `--log-file=FILE`
3858 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given log-file name instead
3859 of using the "`log file`" setting in the config file.
3861 See also [the client version of the `--log-file` option](#opt--log-file).
3863 0. `--log-file-format=FORMAT`
3865 This option tells the rsync daemon to use the given FORMAT string instead
3866 of using the "`log format`" setting in the config file. It also enables
3867 "`transfer logging`" unless the string is empty, in which case transfer
3868 logging is turned off.
3870 See also [the client version of the `--log-file-format`
3871 option](#opt--log-file-format).
3875 This overrides the [`socket options`](rsyncd.conf.5#socket_options)
3876 setting in the rsyncd.conf file and has the same syntax.
3878 See also [the client version of the `--sockopts` option](#opt--sockopts).
3880 0. `--verbose`, `-v`
3882 This option increases the amount of information the daemon logs during its
3883 startup phase. After the client connects, the daemon's verbosity level
3884 will be controlled by the options that the client used and the
3885 "`max verbosity`" setting in the module's config section.
3887 See also [the client version of the `--verbose` option](#opt--verbose).
3889 0. `--ipv4`, `-4` or `--ipv6`, `-6`
3891 Tells rsync to prefer IPv4/IPv6 when creating the incoming sockets that the
3892 rsync daemon will use to listen for connections. One of these options may
3893 be required in older versions of Linux to work around an IPv6 bug in the
3894 kernel (if you see an "address already in use" error when nothing else is
3895 using the port, try specifying `--ipv6` or `--ipv4` when starting the
3898 See also [the client version of these options](#opt--ipv4).
3900 If rsync was compiled without support for IPv6, the `--ipv6` option will
3901 have no effect. The `rsync --version` output will contain "`no IPv6`" if
3906 When specified after `--daemon`, print a short help page describing the
3907 options available for starting an rsync daemon.
3911 The filter rules allow for custom control of several aspects of how files are
3914 - Control which files the sending side puts into the file list that describes
3915 the transfer hierarchy
3916 - Control which files the receiving side protects from deletion when the file
3917 is not in the sender's file list
3918 - Control which extended attribute names are skipped when copying xattrs
3920 The rules are either directly specified via option arguments or they can be
3921 read in from one or more files. The filter-rule files can even be a part of
3922 the hierarchy of files being copied, affecting different parts of the tree in
3925 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE RULES
3927 We will first cover the basics of how include & exclude rules affect what files
3928 are transferred, ignoring any deletion side-effects. Filter rules mainly
3929 affect the contents of directories that rsync is "recursing" into, but they can
3930 also affect a top-level item in the transfer that was specified as a argument.
3932 The default for any unmatched file/dir is for it to be included in the
3933 transfer, which puts the file/dir into the sender's file list. The use of an
3934 exclude rule causes one or more matching files/dirs to be left out of the
3935 sender's file list. An include rule can be used to limit the effect of an
3936 exclude rule that is matching too many files.
3938 The order of the rules is important because the first rule that matches is the
3939 one that takes effect. Thus, if an early rule excludes a file, no include rule
3940 that comes after it can have any effect. This means that you must place any
3941 include overrides somewhere prior to the exclude that it is intended to limit.
3943 When a directory is excluded, all its contents and sub-contents are also
3944 excluded. The sender doesn't scan through any of it at all, which can save a
3945 lot of time when skipping large unneeded sub-trees.
3947 It is also important to understand that the include/exclude rules are applied
3948 to every file and directory that the sender is recursing into. Thus, if you
3949 want a particular deep file to be included, you have to make sure that none of
3950 the directories that must be traversed on the way down to that file are
3951 excluded or else the file will never be discovered to be included. As an
3952 example, if the directory "`a/path`" was given as a transfer argument and you
3953 want to ensure that the file "`a/path/down/deep/wanted.txt`" is a part of the
3954 transfer, then the sender must not exclude the directories "`a/path`",
3955 "`a/path/down`", or "`a/path/down/deep`" as it makes it way scanning through
3958 When you are working on the rules, it can be helpful to ask rsync to tell you
3959 what is being excluded/included and why. Specifying `--debug=FILTER` or (when
3960 pulling files) `-M--debug=FILTER` turns on level 1 of the FILTER debug
3961 information that will output a message any time that a file or directory is
3962 included or excluded and which rule it matched. Beginning in 3.2.4 it will
3963 also warn if a filter rule has trailing whitespace, since an exclude of "foo "
3964 (with a trailing space) will not exclude a file named "foo".
3966 Exclude and include rules can specify wildcard [PATTERN MATCHING RULES](#)
3967 (similar to shell wildcards) that allow you to match things like a file suffix
3968 or a portion of a filename.
3970 A rule can be limited to only affecting a directory by putting a trailing slash
3973 ### SIMPLE INCLUDE/EXCLUDE EXAMPLE
3975 With the following file tree created on the sending side:
3980 > touch x/y/file.txt
3983 > touch x/z/file.txt
3985 Then the following rsync command will transfer the file "`x/y/file.txt`" and
3986 the directories needed to hold it, resulting in the path "`/tmp/x/y/file.txt`"
3987 existing on the remote host:
3989 > rsync -ai -f'+ x/' -f'+ x/y/' -f'+ x/y/file.txt' -f'- *' x host:/tmp/
3991 Aside: this copy could also have been accomplished using the [`-R`](#opt)
3992 option (though the 2 commands behave differently if deletions are enabled):
3994 > rsync -aiR x/y/file.txt host:/tmp/
3996 The following command does not need an include of the "x" directory because it
3997 is not a part of the transfer (note the traililng slash). Running this command
3998 would copy just "`/tmp/x/file.txt`" because the "y" and "z" dirs get excluded:
4000 > rsync -ai -f'+ file.txt' -f'- *' x/ host:/tmp/x/
4002 This command would omit the zzz.txt file while copying "x" and everything else
4005 > rsync -ai -f'- zzz.txt' x host:/tmp/
4007 ### FILTER RULES WHEN DELETING
4009 By default the include & exclude filter rules affect both the sender
4010 (as it creates its file list)
4011 and the receiver (as it creates its file lists for calculating deletions). If
4012 no delete option is in effect, the receiver skips creating the delete-related
4013 file lists. This two-sided default can be manually overridden so that you are
4014 only specifying sender rules or receiver rules, as described in the [FILTER
4015 RULES IN DEPTH](#) section.
4017 When deleting, an exclude protects a file from being removed on the receiving
4018 side while an include overrides that protection (putting the file at risk of
4019 deletion). The default is for a file to be at risk -- its safety depends on it
4020 matching a corresponding file from the sender.
4022 An example of the two-sided exclude effect can be illustrated by the copying of
4023 a C development directory between 2 systems. When doing a touch-up copy, you
4024 might want to skip copying the built executable and the `.o` files (sender
4025 hide) so that the receiving side can build their own and not lose any object
4026 files that are already correct (receiver protect). For instance:
4028 > rsync -ai --del -f'- *.o' -f'- cmd' src host:/dest/
4030 Note that using `-f'-p *.o'` is even better than `-f'- *.o'` if there is a
4031 chance that the directory structure may have changed. The "p" modifier is
4032 discussed in [FILTER RULE MODIFIERS](#).
4034 One final note, if your shell doesn't mind unexpanded wildcards, you could
4035 simplify the typing of the filter options by using an underscore in place of
4036 the space and leaving off the quotes. For instance, `-f -_*.o -f -_cmd` (and
4037 similar) could be used instead of the filter options above.
4039 ### FILTER RULES IN DEPTH
4041 Rsync supports old-style include/exclude rules and new-style filter rules. The
4042 older rules are specified using [`--include`](#opt) and [`--exclude`](#opt) as
4043 well as the [`--include-from`](#opt) and [`--exclude-from`](#opt). These are
4044 limited in behavior but they don't require a "-" or "+" prefix. An old-style
4045 exclude rule is turned into a "`- name`" filter rule (with no modifiers) and an
4046 old-style include rule is turned into a "`+ name`" filter rule (with no
4049 Rsync builds an ordered list of filter rules as specified on the command-line
4050 and/or read-in from files. New style filter rules have the following syntax:
4052 > RULE [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
4053 > RULE,MODIFIERS [PATTERN_OR_FILENAME]
4055 You have your choice of using either short or long RULE names, as described
4056 below. If you use a short-named rule, the ',' separating the RULE from the
4057 MODIFIERS is optional. The PATTERN or FILENAME that follows (when present)
4058 must come after either a single space or an underscore (\_). Any additional
4059 spaces and/or underscores are considered to be a part of the pattern name.
4060 Here are the available rule prefixes:
4062 0. `exclude, '-'` specifies an exclude pattern that (by default) is both a
4063 `hide` and a `protect`.
4064 0. `include, '+'` specifies an include pattern that (by default) is both a
4065 `show` and a `risk`.
4066 0. `merge, '.'` specifies a merge-file on the client side to read for more
4068 0. `dir-merge, ':'` specifies a per-directory merge-file. Using this kind of
4069 filter rule requires that you trust the sending side's filter checking, so
4070 it has the side-effect mentioned under the [`--trust-sender`](#opt) option.
4071 0. `hide, 'H'` specifies a pattern for hiding files from the transfer.
4072 Equivalent to a sender-only exclude, so `-f'H foo'` could also be specified
4074 0. `show, 'S'` files that match the pattern are not hidden. Equivalent to a
4075 sender-only include, so `-f'S foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+s
4077 0. `protect, 'P'` specifies a pattern for protecting files from deletion.
4078 Equivalent to a receiver-only exclude, so `-f'P foo'` could also be
4079 specified as `-f'-r foo'`.
4080 0. `risk, 'R'` files that match the pattern are not protected. Equivalent to a
4081 receiver-only include, so `-f'R foo'` could also be specified as `-f'+r
4083 0. `clear, '!'` clears the current include/exclude list (takes no arg)
4085 When rules are being read from a file (using merge or dir-merge), empty lines
4086 are ignored, as are whole-line comments that start with a '`#`' (filename rules
4087 that contain a hash character are unaffected).
4089 Note also that the [`--filter`](#opt), [`--include`](#opt), and
4090 [`--exclude`](#opt) options take one rule/pattern each. To add multiple ones,
4091 you can repeat the options on the command-line, use the merge-file syntax of
4092 the [`--filter`](#opt) option, or the [`--include-from`](#opt) /
4093 [`--exclude-from`](#opt) options.
4095 ### PATTERN MATCHING RULES
4097 Most of the rules mentioned above take an argument that specifies what the rule
4098 should match. If rsync is recursing through a directory hierarchy, keep in
4099 mind that each pattern is matched against the name of every directory in the
4100 descent path as rsync finds the filenames to send.
4102 The matching rules for the pattern argument take several forms:
4104 - If a pattern contains a `/` (not counting a trailing slash) or a "`**`"
4105 (which can match a slash), then the pattern is matched against the full
4106 pathname, including any leading directories within the transfer. If the
4107 pattern doesn't contain a (non-trailing) `/` or a "`**`", then it is matched
4108 only against the final component of the filename or pathname. For example,
4109 `foo` means that the final path component must be "foo" while `foo/bar` would
4110 match the last 2 elements of the path (as long as both elements are within
4112 - A pattern that ends with a `/` only matches a directory, not a regular file,
4114 - A pattern that starts with a `/` is anchored to the start of the transfer
4115 path instead of the end. For example, `/foo/**` or `/foo/bar/**` match only
4116 leading elements in the path. If the rule is read from a per-directory
4117 filter file, the transfer path being matched will begin at the level of the
4118 filter file instead of the top of the transfer. See the section on
4119 [ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS](#) for a full discussion of how to
4120 specify a pattern that matches at the root of the transfer.
4122 Rsync chooses between doing a simple string match and wildcard matching by
4123 checking if the pattern contains one of these three wildcard characters: '`*`',
4126 - a '`?`' matches any single character except a slash (`/`).
4127 - a '`*`' matches zero or more non-slash characters.
4128 - a '`**`' matches zero or more characters, including slashes.
4129 - a '`[`' introduces a character class, such as `[a-z]` or `[[:alpha:]]`, that
4130 must match one character.
4131 - a trailing `***` in the pattern is a shorthand that allows you to match a
4132 directory and all its contents using a single rule. For example, specifying
4133 "`dir_name/***`" will match both the "dir_name" directory (as if "`dir_name/`"
4134 had been specified) and everything in the directory (as if "`dir_name/**`"
4135 had been specified).
4136 - a backslash can be used to escape a wildcard character, but it is only
4137 interpreted as an escape character if at least one wildcard character is
4138 present in the match pattern. For instance, the pattern "`foo\bar`" matches
4139 that single backslash literally, while the pattern "`foo\bar*`" would need to
4140 be changed to "`foo\\bar*`" to avoid the "`\b`" becoming just "b".
4142 Here are some examples of exclude/include matching:
4144 - Option `-f'- *.o'` would exclude all filenames ending with `.o`
4145 - Option `-f'- /foo'` would exclude a file (or directory) named foo in the
4146 transfer-root directory
4147 - Option `-f'- foo/'` would exclude any directory named foo
4148 - Option `-f'- foo/*/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar which is at two
4149 levels below a directory named foo (if foo is in the transfer)
4150 - Option `-f'- /foo/**/bar'` would exclude any file/dir named bar that was two
4151 or more levels below a top-level directory named foo (note that /foo/bar is
4152 **not** excluded by this)
4153 - Options `-f'+ */' -f'+ *.c' -f'- *'` would include all directories and .c
4154 source files but nothing else
4155 - Options `-f'+ foo/' -f'+ foo/bar.c' -f'- *'` would include only the foo
4156 directory and foo/bar.c (the foo directory must be explicitly included or it
4157 would be excluded by the "`- *`")
4159 ### FILTER RULE MODIFIERS
4161 The following modifiers are accepted after an include (+) or exclude (-) rule:
4163 - A `/` specifies that the include/exclude rule should be matched against the
4164 absolute pathname of the current item. For example, `-f'-/ /etc/passwd'`
4165 would exclude the passwd file any time the transfer was sending files from
4166 the "/etc" directory, and "-/ subdir/foo" would always exclude "foo" when it
4167 is in a dir named "subdir", even if "foo" is at the root of the current
4169 - A `!` specifies that the include/exclude should take effect if the pattern
4170 fails to match. For instance, `-f'-! */'` would exclude all non-directories.
4171 - A `C` is used to indicate that all the global CVS-exclude rules should be
4172 inserted as excludes in place of the "-C". No arg should follow.
4173 - An `s` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the sending side. When a
4174 rule affects the sending side, it affects what files are put into the
4175 sender's file list. The default is for a rule to affect both sides unless
4176 [`--delete-excluded`](#opt) was specified, in which case default rules become
4177 sender-side only. See also the hide (H) and show (S) rules, which are an
4178 alternate way to specify sending-side includes/excludes.
4179 - An `r` is used to indicate that the rule applies to the receiving side. When
4180 a rule affects the receiving side, it prevents files from being deleted. See
4181 the `s` modifier for more info. See also the protect (P) and risk (R) rules,
4182 which are an alternate way to specify receiver-side includes/excludes.
4183 - A `p` indicates that a rule is perishable, meaning that it is ignored in
4184 directories that are being deleted. For instance, the
4185 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's default rules that exclude things
4186 like "CVS" and "`*.o`" are marked as perishable, and will not prevent a
4187 directory that was removed on the source from being deleted on the
4189 - An `x` indicates that a rule affects xattr names in xattr copy/delete
4190 operations (and is thus ignored when matching file/dir names). If no
4191 xattr-matching rules are specified, a default xattr filtering rule is used
4192 (see the [`--xattrs`](#opt) option).
4194 ### MERGE-FILE FILTER RULES
4196 You can merge whole files into your filter rules by specifying either a merge
4197 (.) or a dir-merge (:) filter rule (as introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#)
4200 There are two kinds of merged files -- single-instance ('.') and per-directory
4201 (':'). A single-instance merge file is read one time, and its rules are
4202 incorporated into the filter list in the place of the "." rule. For
4203 per-directory merge files, rsync will scan every directory that it traverses
4204 for the named file, merging its contents when the file exists into the current
4205 list of inherited rules. These per-directory rule files must be created on the
4206 sending side because it is the sending side that is being scanned for the
4207 available files to transfer. These rule files may also need to be transferred
4208 to the receiving side if you want them to affect what files don't get deleted
4209 (see [PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE](#) below).
4213 > merge /etc/rsync/default.rules
4214 > . /etc/rsync/default.rules
4215 > dir-merge .per-dir-filter
4216 > dir-merge,n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4217 > :n- .non-inherited-per-dir-excludes
4219 The following modifiers are accepted after a merge or dir-merge rule:
4221 - A `-` specifies that the file should consist of only exclude patterns, with
4222 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4223 - A `+` specifies that the file should consist of only include patterns, with
4224 no other rule-parsing except for in-file comments.
4225 - A `C` is a way to specify that the file should be read in a CVS-compatible
4226 manner. This turns on 'n', 'w', and '-', but also allows the list-clearing
4227 token (!) to be specified. If no filename is provided, ".cvsignore" is
4229 - A `e` will exclude the merge-file name from the transfer; e.g. "dir-merge,e
4230 .rules" is like "dir-merge .rules" and "- .rules".
4231 - An `n` specifies that the rules are not inherited by subdirectories.
4232 - A `w` specifies that the rules are word-split on whitespace instead of the
4233 normal line-splitting. This also turns off comments. Note: the space that
4234 separates the prefix from the rule is treated specially, so "- foo + bar" is
4235 parsed as two rules (assuming that prefix-parsing wasn't also disabled).
4236 - You may also specify any of the modifiers for the "+" or "-" rules (above) in
4237 order to have the rules that are read in from the file default to having that
4238 modifier set (except for the `!` modifier, which would not be useful). For
4239 instance, "merge,-/ .excl" would treat the contents of .excl as absolute-path
4240 excludes, while "dir-merge,s .filt" and ":sC" would each make all their
4241 per-directory rules apply only on the sending side. If the merge rule
4242 specifies sides to affect (via the `s` or `r` modifier or both), then the
4243 rules in the file must not specify sides (via a modifier or a rule prefix
4246 Per-directory rules are inherited in all subdirectories of the directory where
4247 the merge-file was found unless the 'n' modifier was used. Each subdirectory's
4248 rules are prefixed to the inherited per-directory rules from its parents, which
4249 gives the newest rules a higher priority than the inherited rules. The entire
4250 set of dir-merge rules are grouped together in the spot where the merge-file
4251 was specified, so it is possible to override dir-merge rules via a rule that
4252 got specified earlier in the list of global rules. When the list-clearing rule
4253 ("!") is read from a per-directory file, it only clears the inherited rules for
4254 the current merge file.
4256 Another way to prevent a single rule from a dir-merge file from being inherited
4257 is to anchor it with a leading slash. Anchored rules in a per-directory
4258 merge-file are relative to the merge-file's directory, so a pattern "/foo"
4259 would only match the file "foo" in the directory where the dir-merge filter
4262 Here's an example filter file which you'd specify via `--filter=". file":`
4264 > merge /home/user/.global-filter
4271 This will merge the contents of the /home/user/.global-filter file at the start
4272 of the list and also turns the ".rules" filename into a per-directory filter
4273 file. All rules read in prior to the start of the directory scan follow the
4274 global anchoring rules (i.e. a leading slash matches at the root of the
4277 If a per-directory merge-file is specified with a path that is a parent
4278 directory of the first transfer directory, rsync will scan all the parent dirs
4279 from that starting point to the transfer directory for the indicated
4280 per-directory file. For instance, here is a common filter (see [`-F`](#opt)):
4282 > --filter=': /.rsync-filter'
4284 That rule tells rsync to scan for the file .rsync-filter in all directories
4285 from the root down through the parent directory of the transfer prior to the
4286 start of the normal directory scan of the file in the directories that are sent
4287 as a part of the transfer. (Note: for an rsync daemon, the root is always the
4288 same as the module's "path".)
4290 Some examples of this pre-scanning for per-directory files:
4292 > rsync -avF /src/path/ /dest/dir
4293 > rsync -av --filter=': ../../.rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4294 > rsync -av --filter=': .rsync-filter' /src/path/ /dest/dir
4296 The first two commands above will look for ".rsync-filter" in "/" and "/src"
4297 before the normal scan begins looking for the file in "/src/path" and its
4298 subdirectories. The last command avoids the parent-dir scan and only looks for
4299 the ".rsync-filter" files in each directory that is a part of the transfer.
4301 If you want to include the contents of a ".cvsignore" in your patterns, you
4302 should use the rule ":C", which creates a dir-merge of the .cvsignore file, but
4303 parsed in a CVS-compatible manner. You can use this to affect where the
4304 [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) (`-C`) option's inclusion of the per-directory
4305 .cvsignore file gets placed into your rules by putting the ":C" wherever you
4306 like in your filter rules. Without this, rsync would add the dir-merge rule
4307 for the .cvsignore file at the end of all your other rules (giving it a lower
4308 priority than your command-line rules). For example:
4311 > cat <<EOT | rsync -avC --filter='. -' a/ b
4316 > rsync -avC --include=foo.o -f :C --exclude='*.old' a/ b
4319 Both of the above rsync commands are identical. Each one will merge all the
4320 per-directory .cvsignore rules in the middle of the list rather than at the
4321 end. This allows their dir-specific rules to supersede the rules that follow
4322 the :C instead of being subservient to all your rules. To affect the other CVS
4323 exclude rules (i.e. the default list of exclusions, the contents of
4324 $HOME/.cvsignore, and the value of $CVSIGNORE) you should omit the `-C`
4325 command-line option and instead insert a "-C" rule into your filter rules; e.g.
4328 ### LIST-CLEARING FILTER RULE
4330 You can clear the current include/exclude list by using the "!" filter rule (as
4331 introduced in the [FILTER RULES](#) section above). The "current" list is either
4332 the global list of rules (if the rule is encountered while parsing the filter
4333 options) or a set of per-directory rules (which are inherited in their own
4334 sub-list, so a subdirectory can use this to clear out the parent's rules).
4336 ### ANCHORING INCLUDE/EXCLUDE PATTERNS
4338 As mentioned earlier, global include/exclude patterns are anchored at the "root
4339 of the transfer" (as opposed to per-directory patterns, which are anchored at
4340 the merge-file's directory). If you think of the transfer as a subtree of
4341 names that are being sent from sender to receiver, the transfer-root is where
4342 the tree starts to be duplicated in the destination directory. This root
4343 governs where patterns that start with a / match.
4345 Because the matching is relative to the transfer-root, changing the trailing
4346 slash on a source path or changing your use of the [`--relative`](#opt) option
4347 affects the path you need to use in your matching (in addition to changing how
4348 much of the file tree is duplicated on the destination host). The following
4349 examples demonstrate this.
4351 Let's say that we want to match two source files, one with an absolute
4352 path of "/home/me/foo/bar", and one with a path of "/home/you/bar/baz".
4353 Here is how the various command choices differ for a 2-source transfer:
4356 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me /home/you /dest
4357 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar
4358 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz
4359 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4360 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4364 > Example cmd: rsync -a /home/me/ /home/you/ /dest
4365 > +/- pattern: /foo/bar (note missing "me")
4366 > +/- pattern: /bar/baz (note missing "you")
4367 > Target file: /dest/foo/bar
4368 > Target file: /dest/bar/baz
4372 > Example cmd: rsync -a --relative /home/me/ /home/you /dest
4373 > +/- pattern: /home/me/foo/bar (note full path)
4374 > +/- pattern: /home/you/bar/baz (ditto)
4375 > Target file: /dest/home/me/foo/bar
4376 > Target file: /dest/home/you/bar/baz
4380 > Example cmd: cd /home; rsync -a --relative me/foo you/ /dest
4381 > +/- pattern: /me/foo/bar (starts at specified path)
4382 > +/- pattern: /you/bar/baz (ditto)
4383 > Target file: /dest/me/foo/bar
4384 > Target file: /dest/you/bar/baz
4387 The easiest way to see what name you should filter is to just look at the
4388 output when using [`--verbose`](#opt) and put a / in front of the name (use the
4389 `--dry-run` option if you're not yet ready to copy any files).
4391 ### PER-DIRECTORY RULES AND DELETE
4393 Without a delete option, per-directory rules are only relevant on the sending
4394 side, so you can feel free to exclude the merge files themselves without
4395 affecting the transfer. To make this easy, the 'e' modifier adds this exclude
4396 for you, as seen in these two equivalent commands:
4398 > rsync -av --filter=': .excl' --exclude=.excl host:src/dir /dest
4399 > rsync -av --filter=':e .excl' host:src/dir /dest
4401 However, if you want to do a delete on the receiving side AND you want some
4402 files to be excluded from being deleted, you'll need to be sure that the
4403 receiving side knows what files to exclude. The easiest way is to include the
4404 per-directory merge files in the transfer and use [`--delete-after`](#opt),
4405 because this ensures that the receiving side gets all the same exclude rules as
4406 the sending side before it tries to delete anything:
4408 > rsync -avF --delete-after host:src/dir /dest
4410 However, if the merge files are not a part of the transfer, you'll need to
4411 either specify some global exclude rules (i.e. specified on the command line),
4412 or you'll need to maintain your own per-directory merge files on the receiving
4413 side. An example of the first is this (assume that the remote .rules files
4414 exclude themselves):
4416 > rsync -av --filter=': .rules' --filter='. /my/extra.rules'
4417 > --delete host:src/dir /dest
4419 In the above example the extra.rules file can affect both sides of the
4420 transfer, but (on the sending side) the rules are subservient to the rules
4421 merged from the .rules files because they were specified after the
4422 per-directory merge rule.
4424 In one final example, the remote side is excluding the .rsync-filter files from
4425 the transfer, but we want to use our own .rsync-filter files to control what
4426 gets deleted on the receiving side. To do this we must specifically exclude
4427 the per-directory merge files (so that they don't get deleted) and then put
4428 rules into the local files to control what else should not get deleted. Like
4429 one of these commands:
4432 > rsync -av --filter=':e /.rsync-filter' --delete \
4433 > host:src/dir /dest
4434 > rsync -avFF --delete host:src/dir /dest
4439 In addition to the [FILTER RULES](#) that affect the recursive file scans that
4440 generate the file list on the sending and (when deleting) receiving sides,
4441 there are transfer rules. These rules affect which files the generator decides
4442 need to be transferred without the side effects of an exclude filter rule.
4443 Transfer rules affect only files and never directories.
4445 Because a transfer rule does not affect what goes into the sender's (and
4446 receiver's) file list, it cannot have any effect on which files get deleted on
4447 the receiving side. For example, if the file "foo" is present in the sender's
4448 list but its size is such that it is omitted due to a transfer rule, the
4449 receiving side does not request the file. However, its presence in the file
4450 list means that a delete pass will not remove a matching file named "foo" on
4451 the receiving side. On the other hand, a server-side exclude (hide) of the
4452 file "foo" leaves the file out of the server's file list, and absent a
4453 receiver-side exclude (protect) the receiver will remove a matching file named
4454 "foo" if deletions are requested.
4456 Given that the files are still in the sender's file list, the
4457 [`--prune-empty-dirs`](#opt) option will not judge a directory as being empty
4458 even if it contains only files that the transfer rules omitted.
4460 Similarly, a transfer rule does not have any extra effect on which files are
4461 deleted on the receiving side, so setting a maximum file size for the transfer
4462 does not prevent big files from being deleted.
4464 Examples of transfer rules include the default "quick check" algorithm (which
4465 compares size & modify time), the [`--update`](#opt) option, the
4466 [`--max-size`](#opt) option, the [`--ignore-non-existing`](#opt) option, and a
4471 Batch mode can be used to apply the same set of updates to many identical
4472 systems. Suppose one has a tree which is replicated on a number of hosts. Now
4473 suppose some changes have been made to this source tree and those changes need
4474 to be propagated to the other hosts. In order to do this using batch mode,
4475 rsync is run with the write-batch option to apply the changes made to the
4476 source tree to one of the destination trees. The write-batch option causes the
4477 rsync client to store in a "batch file" all the information needed to repeat
4478 this operation against other, identical destination trees.
4480 Generating the batch file once saves having to perform the file status,
4481 checksum, and data block generation more than once when updating multiple
4482 destination trees. Multicast transport protocols can be used to transfer the
4483 batch update files in parallel to many hosts at once, instead of sending the
4484 same data to every host individually.
4486 To apply the recorded changes to another destination tree, run rsync with the
4487 read-batch option, specifying the name of the same batch file, and the
4488 destination tree. Rsync updates the destination tree using the information
4489 stored in the batch file.
4491 For your convenience, a script file is also created when the write-batch option
4492 is used: it will be named the same as the batch file with ".sh" appended. This
4493 script file contains a command-line suitable for updating a destination tree
4494 using the associated batch file. It can be executed using a Bourne (or
4495 Bourne-like) shell, optionally passing in an alternate destination tree
4496 pathname which is then used instead of the original destination path. This is
4497 useful when the destination tree path on the current host differs from the one
4498 used to create the batch file.
4502 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a host:/source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4503 > $ scp foo* remote:
4504 > $ ssh remote ./foo.sh /bdest/dir/
4506 > $ rsync --write-batch=foo -a /source/dir/ /adest/dir/
4507 > $ ssh remote rsync --read-batch=- -a /bdest/dir/ <foo
4509 In these examples, rsync is used to update /adest/dir/ from /source/dir/ and
4510 the information to repeat this operation is stored in "foo" and "foo.sh". The
4511 host "remote" is then updated with the batched data going into the directory
4512 /bdest/dir. The differences between the two examples reveals some of the
4513 flexibility you have in how you deal with batches:
4515 - The first example shows that the initial copy doesn't have to be local -- you
4516 can push or pull data to/from a remote host using either the remote-shell
4517 syntax or rsync daemon syntax, as desired.
4518 - The first example uses the created "foo.sh" file to get the right rsync
4519 options when running the read-batch command on the remote host.
4520 - The second example reads the batch data via standard input so that the batch
4521 file doesn't need to be copied to the remote machine first. This example
4522 avoids the foo.sh script because it needed to use a modified
4523 [`--read-batch`](#opt) option, but you could edit the script file if you
4524 wished to make use of it (just be sure that no other option is trying to use
4525 standard input, such as the [`--exclude-from=-`](#opt) option).
4529 The read-batch option expects the destination tree that it is updating to be
4530 identical to the destination tree that was used to create the batch update
4531 fileset. When a difference between the destination trees is encountered the
4532 update might be discarded with a warning (if the file appears to be up-to-date
4533 already) or the file-update may be attempted and then, if the file fails to
4534 verify, the update discarded with an error. This means that it should be safe
4535 to re-run a read-batch operation if the command got interrupted. If you wish
4536 to force the batched-update to always be attempted regardless of the file's
4537 size and date, use the [`-I`](#opt) option (when reading the batch). If an
4538 error occurs, the destination tree will probably be in a partially updated
4539 state. In that case, rsync can be used in its regular (non-batch) mode of
4540 operation to fix up the destination tree.
4542 The rsync version used on all destinations must be at least as new as the one
4543 used to generate the batch file. Rsync will die with an error if the protocol
4544 version in the batch file is too new for the batch-reading rsync to handle.
4545 See also the [`--protocol`](#opt) option for a way to have the creating rsync
4546 generate a batch file that an older rsync can understand. (Note that batch
4547 files changed format in version 2.6.3, so mixing versions older than that with
4548 newer versions will not work.)
4550 When reading a batch file, rsync will force the value of certain options to
4551 match the data in the batch file if you didn't set them to the same as the
4552 batch-writing command. Other options can (and should) be changed. For
4553 instance [`--write-batch`](#opt) changes to [`--read-batch`](#opt),
4554 [`--files-from`](#opt) is dropped, and the [`--filter`](#opt) /
4555 [`--include`](#opt) / [`--exclude`](#opt) options are not needed unless one of
4556 the [`--delete`](#opt) options is specified.
4558 The code that creates the BATCH.sh file transforms any filter/include/exclude
4559 options into a single list that is appended as a "here" document to the shell
4560 script file. An advanced user can use this to modify the exclude list if a
4561 change in what gets deleted by [`--delete`](#opt) is desired. A normal user
4562 can ignore this detail and just use the shell script as an easy way to run the
4563 appropriate [`--read-batch`](#opt) command for the batched data.
4565 The original batch mode in rsync was based on "rsync+", but the latest
4566 version uses a new implementation.
4570 Three basic behaviors are possible when rsync encounters a symbolic
4571 link in the source directory.
4573 By default, symbolic links are not transferred at all. A message "skipping
4574 non-regular" file is emitted for any symlinks that exist.
4576 If [`--links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are added to the transfer
4577 (instead of being noisily ignored), and the default handling is to recreate
4578 them with the same target on the destination. Note that [`--archive`](#opt)
4579 implies [`--links`](#opt).
4581 If [`--copy-links`](#opt) is specified, then symlinks are "collapsed" by
4582 copying their referent, rather than the symlink.
4584 Rsync can also distinguish "safe" and "unsafe" symbolic links. An example
4585 where this might be used is a web site mirror that wishes to ensure that the
4586 rsync module that is copied does not include symbolic links to `/etc/passwd` in
4587 the public section of the site. Using [`--copy-unsafe-links`](#opt) will cause
4588 any links to be copied as the file they point to on the destination. Using
4589 [`--safe-links`](#opt) will cause unsafe links to be omitted by the receiver.
4590 (Note that you must specify or imply [`--links`](#opt) for
4591 [`--safe-links`](#opt) to have any effect.)
4593 Symbolic links are considered unsafe if they are absolute symlinks (start with
4594 `/`), empty, or if they contain enough ".." components to ascend from the top
4597 Here's a summary of how the symlink options are interpreted. The list is in
4598 order of precedence, so if your combination of options isn't mentioned, use the
4599 first line that is a complete subset of your options:
4601 0. `--copy-links` Turn all symlinks into normal files and directories
4602 (leaving no symlinks in the transfer for any other options to affect).
4603 0. `--copy-dirlinks` Turn just symlinks to directories into real
4604 directories, leaving all other symlinks to be handled as described below.
4605 0. `--links --copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks
4606 into files and create all safe symlinks.
4607 0. `--copy-unsafe-links` Turn all unsafe symlinks into files, noisily
4608 skip all safe symlinks.
4609 0. `--links --safe-links` The receiver skips creating
4610 unsafe symlinks found in the transfer and creates the safe ones.
4611 0. `--links` Create all symlinks.
4613 For the effect of [`--munge-links`](#opt), see the discussion in that option's
4616 Note that the [`--keep-dirlinks`](#opt) option does not effect symlinks in the
4617 transfer but instead affects how rsync treats a symlink to a directory that
4618 already exists on the receiving side. See that option's section for a warning.
4622 Rsync occasionally produces error messages that may seem a little cryptic. The
4623 one that seems to cause the most confusion is "protocol version mismatch -- is
4626 This message is usually caused by your startup scripts or remote shell facility
4627 producing unwanted garbage on the stream that rsync is using for its transport.
4628 The way to diagnose this problem is to run your remote shell like this:
4630 > ssh remotehost /bin/true > out.dat
4632 then look at out.dat. If everything is working correctly then out.dat should
4633 be a zero length file. If you are getting the above error from rsync then you
4634 will probably find that out.dat contains some text or data. Look at the
4635 contents and try to work out what is producing it. The most common cause is
4636 incorrectly configured shell startup scripts (such as .cshrc or .profile) that
4637 contain output statements for non-interactive logins.
4639 If you are having trouble debugging filter patterns, then try specifying the
4640 `-vv` option. At this level of verbosity rsync will show why each individual
4641 file is included or excluded.
4646 - **1** - Syntax or usage error
4647 - **2** - Protocol incompatibility
4648 - **3** - Errors selecting input/output files, dirs
4649 - **4** - Requested action not supported. Either:
4650 - an attempt was made to manipulate 64-bit files on a platform that cannot support them
4651 - an option was specified that is supported by the client and not by the server
4652 - **5** - Error starting client-server protocol
4653 - **6** - Daemon unable to append to log-file
4654 - **10** - Error in socket I/O
4655 - **11** - Error in file I/O
4656 - **12** - Error in rsync protocol data stream
4657 - **13** - Errors with program diagnostics
4658 - **14** - Error in IPC code
4659 - **20** - Received SIGUSR1 or SIGINT
4660 - **21** - Some error returned by **waitpid()**
4661 - **22** - Error allocating core memory buffers
4662 - **23** - Partial transfer due to error
4663 - **24** - Partial transfer due to vanished source files
4664 - **25** - The --max-delete limit stopped deletions
4665 - **30** - Timeout in data send/receive
4666 - **35** - Timeout waiting for daemon connection
4668 ## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
4672 The CVSIGNORE environment variable supplements any ignore patterns in
4673 .cvsignore files. See the [`--cvs-exclude`](#opt) option for more details.
4677 Specify a default [`--iconv`](#opt) setting using this environment
4678 variable. First supported in 3.0.0.
4682 Specify a "1" if you want the [`--old-args`](#opt) option to be enabled by
4683 default, a "2" (or more) if you want it to be enabled in the
4684 repeated-option state, or a "0" to make sure that it is disabled by
4685 default. When this environment variable is set to a non-zero value, it
4686 supersedes the [`RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`](#) variable.
4688 This variable is ignored if [`--old-args`](#opt), `--no-old-args`, or
4689 [`--secluded-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4691 First supported in 3.2.4.
4693 0. `RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS`
4695 Specify a non-zero numeric value if you want the [`--secluded-args`](#opt)
4696 option to be enabled by default, or a zero value to make sure that it is
4697 disabled by default.
4699 This variable is ignored if [`--secluded-args`](#opt), `--no-secluded-args`,
4700 or [`--old-args`](#opt) is specified on the command line.
4702 First supported in 3.1.0. Starting in 3.2.4, this variable is ignored if
4703 [`RSYNC_OLD_ARGS`](#) is set to a non-zero value.
4707 This environment variable allows you to override the default shell used as
4708 the transport for rsync. Command line options are permitted after the
4709 command name, just as in the [`--rsh`](#opt) (`-e`) option.
4713 This environment variable allows you to redirect your rsync
4714 client to use a web proxy when connecting to an rsync daemon. You should
4715 set `RSYNC_PROXY` to a hostname:port pair.
4719 This environment variable allows you to set the password for an rsync
4720 **daemon** connection, which avoids the password prompt. Note that this
4721 does **not** supply a password to a remote shell transport such as ssh
4722 (consult its documentation for how to do that).
4724 0. `USER` or `LOGNAME`
4726 The USER or LOGNAME environment variables are used to determine the default
4727 username sent to an rsync daemon. If neither is set, the username defaults
4728 to "nobody". If both are set, `USER` takes precedence.
4730 0. `RSYNC_PARTIAL_DIR`
4732 This environment variable specifies the directory to use for a
4733 [`--partial`](#opt) transfer without implying that partial transfers be
4734 enabled. See the [`--partial-dir`](#opt) option for full details.
4736 0. `RSYNC_COMPRESS_LIST`
4738 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4739 compression algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4740 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available compression
4741 names. See the [`--compress`](#opt) option for full details.
4743 0. `RSYNC_CHECKSUM_LIST`
4745 This environment variable allows you to customize the negotiation of the
4746 checksum algorithm by specifying an alternate order or a reduced list of
4747 names. Use the command `rsync --version` to see the available checksum
4748 names. See the [`--checksum-choice`](#opt) option for full details.
4750 0. `RSYNC_MAX_ALLOC`
4752 This environment variable sets an allocation maximum as if you had used the
4753 [`--max-alloc`](#opt) option.
4757 This environment variable is not read by rsync, but is instead set in
4758 its sub-environment when rsync is running the remote shell in combination
4759 with a daemon connection. This allows a script such as
4760 [`rsync-ssl`](rsync-ssl.1) to be able to know the port number that the user
4761 specified on the command line.
4765 This environment variable is used to find the user's default .cvsignore
4768 0. `RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`
4770 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4771 to use when making a daemon connection. See [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC
4772 DAEMON](#) for full details.
4776 This environment variable is mainly used in debug setups to set the program
4777 to use to run the program specified by [`RSYNC_CONNECT_PROG`](#). See
4778 [CONNECTING TO AN RSYNC DAEMON](#) for full details.
4782 /etc/rsyncd.conf or rsyncd.conf
4786 [**rsync-ssl**(1)](rsync-ssl.1), [**rsyncd.conf**(5)](rsyncd.conf.5), [**rrsync**(1)](rrsync.1)
4790 - Times are transferred as \*nix time_t values.
4791 - When transferring to FAT filesystems rsync may re-sync unmodified files. See
4792 the comments on the [`--modify-window`](#opt) option.
4793 - File permissions, devices, etc. are transferred as native numerical values.
4794 - See also the comments on the [`--delete`](#opt) option.
4796 Please report bugs! See the web site at <https://rsync.samba.org/>.
4800 This manpage is current for version @VERSION@ of rsync.
4804 The options `--server` and `--sender` are used internally by rsync, and should
4805 never be typed by a user under normal circumstances. Some awareness of these
4806 options may be needed in certain scenarios, such as when setting up a login
4807 that can only run an rsync command. For instance, the support directory of the
4808 rsync distribution has an example script named rrsync (for restricted rsync)
4809 that can be used with a restricted ssh login.
4813 Rsync is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file
4814 [COPYING](COPYING) for details.
4816 An rsync web site is available at <https://rsync.samba.org/>. The site
4817 includes an FAQ-O-Matic which may cover questions unanswered by this manual
4820 The rsync github project is <https://github.com/WayneD/rsync>.
4822 We would be delighted to hear from you if you like this program. Please
4823 contact the mailing-list at <rsync@lists.samba.org>.
4825 This program uses the excellent zlib compression library written by Jean-loup
4826 Gailly and Mark Adler.
4830 Special thanks go out to: John Van Essen, Matt McCutchen, Wesley W. Terpstra,
4831 David Dykstra, Jos Backus, Sebastian Krahmer, Martin Pool, and our
4832 gone-but-not-forgotten compadre, J.W. Schultz.
4834 Thanks also to Richard Brent, Brendan Mackay, Bill Waite, Stephen Rothwell and
4835 David Bell. I've probably missed some people, my apologies if I have.
4839 Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many
4840 people have later contributed to it. It is currently maintained by Wayne
4843 Mailing lists for support and development are available at
4844 <https://lists.samba.org/>.